"The first time I saw Joe Hirsch, it was as though he'd come to find
me." So thinks young Michael Jordan when a refugee student from
Nazi-occupied Europe arrives at St. George's School in England, 1942.
Michael and Joe share little in common. Michael is from a middle-class
English family, while Joe has known only fear and isolation in Europe.
Eventually, their shared Jewish heritage creates a bond between them.
Their paths cross repeatedly over the years; they are "friendly enemies,"
yet their rivalry takes on dangerous tones when the love of one woman
becomes the prize. One man is now willing to risk everything to win her
for himself; the other will stop at nothing to prevent it.
Fourteen-year-old Alan Silverman, a skinny, rebellious kid who'd
rather play stickball than become a good Samaritan, tries to hide his
friendship with Naomi, a young refugee traumatized by the Nazis.
Set on Israeli kibbutz in 1973, this film depicts the relationship
between a 40-year-old war widow and an 18-year-old man who has been
rejected from the Israeli army for health reasons. Hebrew with English
subtitles.
Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Louis Malle's
experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II. French
with English subtitles.
The story of young actors pursuing different paths, battling for survival and struggling for success. Every day is the performance of a lifetime in the world of auditions, a place where hopes run high and dreams are shattered.
Presents Gila Almagor's autobiographical film about a Holocaust survivor who immigrates with her daughter to the newly founded Israeli state. Aviya is a spunky 10 old year girl who, like her mother, is a survivor in the face of persecution.
A prince of Judea leads his nation against the wrath of the conquering
Romans. His self-imposed destiny brings tragedy to himself and his people,
as he learns to fight, to love, to hate and, finally, to forgive.
This moving drama of the birth of Israel focuses on two women: Else
Lasker-Schuler, a German poet, and Tania Shohat, a Russian revolutionary.
They meet first in Berlin, where utopian ideals and fear of the Nazis
force their escape to Palestine. Reunited in Jerusalem, they confront a
harsh reality in the city idealized in their dreams. In German, Hebrew,
Arabic, and other languages with English subtitles.
This totally original dreamlike film "notebook" features Annie Lennox
of The Eurythmics in an imaginative exploration of the Golem myth. The
myth of the statue made of clay that comes to life becomes a platform for
a parable about the art of filmmaking and the creative process.
Rachel, a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazi's during World War II in The Netherlands, sees her hiding place blown up. She escapes with her rescuer, a young sailor, but the boat sails into a trap set by the Germans. She escapes and joins the resistance, and under the false name Ellis de Vries she meets SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Muntze on a train smuggling weapons and soon they fall in love.
Students are on summer break between their final exams and their
induction into the Israeli army. When the first of their friends to be
inducted is killed, the students turn their graduation play into an
anti-war statement. Hebrew with English subtitles.
Set in the Polish Ukraine and New York City, the film traces the
break-up of a family due to stress, poverty, the chaos of war and the
difficulties of immigrant life. One of the last Yiddish films to be
produced in Warsaw, this moving story focuses on one Jewish mother's
efforts to keep her family together.
When a doctor investigates the sudden, unexplained paralysis of a
Brooklyn Jewish housewife, he discovers the connections between her
illness and her sexless marriage to a self-loathing Jew and violent
anti-Semitic riots in Nazi Germany. A Masterpiece Theatre episode.
An Israeli mother wrestles with her own grief and that of her four
children while working two jobs to keep their family together, after the
death of her husband. Winner of 9 Israeli Film Academy awards.
Presents an adaptation of a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer,
which deals with a young Jewish refugee, Esther, who frequents a cafeteria
on the upper Broadway section of New York City in the early 1960s. At the
cafeteria, she meets a famous Yiddish writer (a thinly disguised version
of Singer himself) and they become involved. The relationship starts out
on a romantic note, but as the writer learns more about Esther, he
realizes that although she may have survived the Holocaust physically, she
is already spiritually dead.
A 42 year-old widowed mother of two teenage daughters wants to join
the founding group of a new settlement in the West bank. This is about
their struggles with the acceptance committee and their living as an
outcast in the settlement.
"Part fact, part fiction, Cast a Giant Shadow powerfully
dramatizes Israel's heroic 1947-48 struggle for independence. A realistic
war story and a passionate romance, the film centers on the legendary
David "Mickey" Marcus, whose motto was 'life isn't a spectator sport;
you've just got to get involved.' Kirk Douglas gives a strong,
compassionate performance as Marcus, an American Jew and World War II hero
who 'got involved' by becoming a volunteer military advisor to the new
state of Israel and the country's first general in 2,000 years."
--Container.
The French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon was inhabited by rough
farmers of Huguenot descent. They knew a lot about religious persecution
from their history. During World War II when Hitler imposed his heinous
laws and set out to arrest all Jews, this village would not stand for it.
Under the courageous leadership of a Christian pastor, this village risked
extermination by the Nazis to provide safety and refuge for 5,000 Jewish
children. French with English subtitles.
Charlie v hetzi (Charlie and a Half). Not rated. 2001.
Hebrew DVD C
An uncommon comedy about a small time extortionist, his half-pint
assistant, and a slick scammer who charm their way through a continuing
series of clever cons.
Two teenagers at the time of the Normandy invasion in 1944 are friends
but they are divided by the same thing that unites them--their faith.
Though both are devout Jews, there's a subtle difference. Danny is an
Hasidic Jew, brought up to accept faith blindly by his father--an
ultra-orthodox rabbi who rejects the 20th century for the special joys of
centuries-old tradition. Reuven, on the other hand, has been brought up by
his father who is a secular scholar, to question everything around him.
A Palestinian businessman brings a struggling Eastern European circus
to a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The action revolves around a
lost lion, which becomes the focal point of everyone's desires, and
perhaps a symbol in itself of a treasure so valuable that its seekers risk
destroying it. In Hebrew, Russian, English, and Arabic with English
subtitles.
A witty romantic thriller about a policewoman who, while on the job as
an underworld decoy, discovers the infuriating truth about her married
boss/lover.
A young boy who is constantly fighting with his father finds a stack of secret letters. The writer of the letters is his sister that has been missing since their mother's death. This starts him off on the journey of a lifetime. He is reuinted with his sister and he meets Abraham, a man who calls himself the last true Communist.
A Jewish Hungarian is forced to hand over his wealth to the Nazis for the safe passage of his family out of occupied Europe, only to find his two remaining servants are left trapped in a web of deceit and danger, and he is their only hope for survival.
As a social worker, Irena had access to the Warsaw Ghetto, making it possible for her to rescue the daughter of a Jewish friend and safely hide the young girl with a Catholic family. Realizing that thousands of children were still in danger, Irena recruited sympathetic friends and co-workers to smuggle children out and place them in safe homes, farms and convents. At great personal risk, she devised extraordinary schemes to sneak the children by Nazi guards, bringing them out in ambulances, suitcases and even wheelbarrows.
The Israelis have just invaded Lebanon and the World Cup soccer
tournament is taking place in Barcelona. Israeli reserve soldier Cohen, a
rabid soccer fan, has tickets to the finals but is taken hostage en route
to Beirut.
Jonah, a young musician and father to a newborn son, learns at the
last minute that, according to an obscure Jewish custom, he must rush to
bury the foreskin of his just-circumcised son.
In a Mediterranean village that time forgot, the only movie theater
has been shut down for 25 years. Now a glimmer of hope arrives in the form
of a dream, the late theater owner appears and orders its reopening.
Sixteen-year-old Hanna Stern was a typical American teenager who
ignored her family's heritage until a mystical Passover Seder takes her
back in time to German-occupied Poland on an emotional journey of life,
death, and survival.
The Diary of Anne Frank. Not rated. 1959.
DVD D Drama
Teenaged Anne Frank, a Dutch Jew, perished along with most of her
family in a concentration camp, but her hopes, dreams, and optimistic
outlook has endured through the publication of her diary in 1952. Her
diary conveys the precariousness of the Frank family and that of their
fellow exiles, the Van Daan family and fussy dentist Mr. Dussel. They
spent their time hiding from the Gestapo in a tiny Amsterdam attic.
During World War II and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, a
couple, Josef and Marie, decide to hide a young Jewish neighbor in their
small apartment. They keep getting a visit from their neighbor, Horst, who
is a German sympathizer and has his eye on Marie. When she rejects his
advances, he seeks revenge by trying to move a Nazi clerk into their home,
forcing the couple to tell a lie that will change their lives forever.
Czech and German with English subtitles.
Eastern Wind: One Land, Two Traditions. See Hamsin.
When a small-town, extremely disgruntled guy, Davey Stone, faces
another holiday season in his New England hometown, he does what he always
has - he messes up big time and lands in jail. But after a few surprises -
including the mysterious reason for Davey's bad attitude and the
reappearance of his childhood sweetheart - Davey might just decide he has
a reason or two to change his ways.
Herman Broder, a man beset by problems, not the least of which is
being simultaneously married to three women. Tamara, his first wife was
believed killed in a concentration camp, only to resurface in America to
find Herman remarried to the couple’s ex-servant. To complicate things
further, Herman has taken on a mistress whom he also marries when she
becomes pregnant.
In this beautiful transposition of the biblical story, Amos Gitai
updates the passionate tale about the ruler of a great and sprawling
kingdom who chooses as his queen a beautiful peasant girl named Esther.
But when Esther hides her Jewish identity from her husband, a vicious
cycle of revenge begins.
A coming of age story based on the autiobiographical memoir by Gila
Almagor. It tells the story of a group of teenagers living in a youth
village for orphans who survived the Nazi concentration camps. When life
becomes unbearable, the teens find refuge under the beautiful Domim Tree.
The true story of a Jewish teenager who survived World War II by
living as a Nazi. Based on the autobiography of Solly Perel. German and
Russian with English subtitles.
Every Time We Say Goodbye. PG-13. 1986.
DVD E Drama
A Royal Air Force officer is caught between the ravages of World War
II and unrequited love. Flight Lieutenant David Bradford meets and falls
in love with a beautiful Jewish girl, Sarah while recuperating from a leg
wound in Jerusalem. Her family rejects him, however, and wages war on the
couple by trying to keep them apart.
The story of the postwar Jewish struggle for independence and their
fight to establish a homeland in Israel, beginning with the exodus from a
Cypriot detention camp of a shipload of courageous European Jews headed
toward Israel aboard a weathered freighter.
Musical in which Tevye, the milkman of a pre-revolutionary Russian
village, converses with God, lives for tradition, and has five daughters
to marry off. Based on the books of Sholem Aleichem.
In Tel Aviv, a Jewish professor, an Arab garbage collector, and a nun
embark on an adventure in pursuit of their uncommon interests. The film
celebrates the differences that distinguish us, and the enduring
friendships that emerge when we accept them.
Salma Hayek portrays artist Frida Kahlo. Her life is shown from her
humble upbringing to her worldwide fame and controversy that surrounded
both her and her husband, Diego Rivera.
An aristocratic Jewish family is forced to acknowledge the world
beyond its fenced garden when Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts begin to
isolate the Jews from their communities. Italian with English subtitles.
Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the
pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the
beautiful waitress Ilona, who inspires András to his only composition.
Michèle is a 20-year-old model who has just broken up with her
boyfriend. Although her life appears to be full, she becomes convinced
something is missing and sets out on a mission to inject a bit of
spirituality into her life. At first she dons a bindi and dabbles with
Buddha. Along the way, she meets François, a veterinarian and
non-practicing Jew. Festooning François' front door with a mezuzah, and
asking to meet his parents, Michèle's passing interest in Judaism soon
resembles a somewhat disturbing obsession.
In medieval Prague, a Rabbi gives life to the Golem who falls in love
with his daughter and brings fear to the emperor's court. Based on the
legend of the Golem, a popular figure in Jewish tradition. Silent with
musical score and English intertitles. Originally produced as motion
picture in Germany in 1920.
This wry and humorous film follows Daniel, an art dealer, who travels
to Siberia to claim his inheritance of an art collection, which includes a
giant statue of a Golem. The long journey across Russia becomes an ironic
encounter with the lost ideals of the Soviet Union after its collapse.
The famous story of a patriarch whose sons are murdered, and whose
widow forges an enduring friendship with her daughter-in-law Ruth, is
transposed to Paris. Here, in a world of immigrants, the two women are
exiled from France and wander the seas.
The story of Raoul Wallenberg, who with the help of the Swedish
Embassy, moved to Budapest to help protect Jews from Eichmann's
Sonderkommando. Swedish, German, and Hungarian with English subtitles.
Stars Charlie Chaplin in his first "talkie" playing two totally
opposite roles. One is a Jewish barber facing the constant threat of storm
troopers and religious persecution. The other is the dictator, Adenoid
Hynkel, Chaplin's brilliant lampoon of Adolph Hitler.
Based on real-life events, a chronicle of a unit of Auschwitz's
Sonderkommandos, a special squad of Jewish prisoners, who staged the only
armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz.
Victor, a poor worker with seven kids, and Michel, an upscale gay
hairdresser, are identical twins who haven't seen each other for 20 years.
Now reunited, they pull off a scam of switched identites that has everyone
fooled...or not.
Presents Gila Almagor's autobiographical film, based on her book,
about a Holocaust survivor who immigrates with her daughter to the newly
founded Israeli state. Aviya is a spunky 10 year old girl who, like her
mother, is a survivor in the face of persecution.
Real-life Hungarian Jew Hannah Senesh, became a martyr to the cause of
freedom during World War II. Though safely ensconced in Palestine at the
outbreak of the war, Hannah volunteers to venture behind enemy lines in
Europe on a life-or-death mission. Unfortunately, she is captured,
undergoing unspeakable tortures before the Germans are finished with her.
A young Jewish woman comes to America in the 1890s, only to discover
that her husband, Jake, has given up the ways of the old country, and
taken up with a new girlfriend, and a new life.
Two extraordinary love stories unfold 500 years apart. As modern
lovers struggle against those who seek to separate them, a Christian
soldier pursues a perilous romance with a young Jewish girl in the shadows
of the Spanish Inquisition.
Traces the life of Corrie Ten Boom, from the quiet years before World War II, to her work with the "underground" in helping to save the lives of countless Jewish families and her eventual arrest and imprisonment in one of Nazi Germany's most dreaded concentration camps.
A wild comedy about three reservists in the Israeli army committed to
serving but unable to stay out of trouble.
The House on Chelouche Street. PG. 1973.
VHS H World
The story of a 15-year-old boy growing up in Tel Aviv, under British
rule as the populace struggles to gain independence. Hebrew with English
subtitles.
The warmth and concern of the kibbutz community is contrasted with the
lack of privacy in this drama about the breakdown of a marriage on a
kibbutz. Hebrew with English subtitles.
To combat the overwhelming depression and suicide that pervades a
ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, Jakob, a poor Jewish
cafe owner, invents fictitious news bulletins about Allied advances
against the Nazis.
A melodramatic story of a Jewish cantor's son (Al Jolson) who aspires
to be a jazz singer despite his father's objection and religious
tradition. This was the first feature film to utilize synchronous sound in
motion picture history. Jolson's songs include "Toot, Toot, Tootsie,"
"Blue Skies," and "Mammy."
A fifth generation cantor is torn between his predestined life in a
Lower East Side synagogue and his talent as a popular songwriter. Neil
Diamond stars.
A peaceful, isolated community is engulfed by the hatred and violence
of the outside world in this taut drama set in pre-war Germany. Levi, the
Jewish cattle dealer, makes his annual trip to a remote farming village
but things have changed since his last visit. Nazi propaganda has infected
the town and Levi realizes that he has become a target. German with
English subtitles.
A lively and colorful journey through ancient Egypt, Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat follows the rags-to-riches story of
Joseph, his eleven brothers and the coat of many colors. Starring Donny
Osmond, Maria Friedman, Richard Attenborough, Joan Collins.
Joy Levine, oversized but with an enormous heart, is chosen to throw a surprise party for her parents for the television show, "Gotta Be Happy." The theme of the show, to be aired right after Yom Kippur, is forgiveness. Joy has to get all of her parents' estranged friends to the party to achieve a reconciliation, but the price she must pay is sharing a dark secret that has hung over the Levines for 22 years.
Judgment at Nuremberg. Not rated. 1961.
DVD J Drama
Fictional account of the war crime trial of four high-level Nazis.
Born to great wealth, the firecely independent Julia devotes her life
to political causes, fighting facism in the 1930's. While traveling in
Europe, a friend of Julia's is swept into a dangerous world, smuggling
money across hostile borders.
The story of two Hasidic sisters in the Mea Shearim area of
Jerusalem. Rivka and her husband are deeply in love, but he obeys his
rabbi father and divorces her after 10 childless years of marriage.
Rivka's sister Malka loves a man who has left Hasidism after joining the
army, but accepts the marriage her parents have arranged to the rabbi's
assistant.
During the final days of the Warsaw uprising, a group of Polish
citizens and patriots attempt to flee the Nazis through the sewer system.
Polish with English subtitles.
A group of European Jewish refugees arrive in Palestine in the
critical year of 1948. Carried on deck of the freighter, Kedma, they come
ashore to find not the Promised Land, but a war torn desert in the bloody
throes of transformation into the state of Israel. Rescued from a British
Army ambush at beachside by Palmach Jewish guerillas, the refugees are
remade into soldiers expected to offer their lives to defend a nation that
does not yet exist in a land they have never known.
Film takes place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in which Egypt and
Syria launched attacks in Sinai and the Golan Heights. We are led on a day
that begins with quiet city streets , but ends with death, destruction and
devastation of both body and mind.
A madcap musical that follows twins Kuni and Muni Lemel as they set
off to bring a Torah from Israel to a Jewish community in Cairo in
exchange for valuable antique coins.
Grandpa Kuni offers five million dollars to the first of his twin
grandsons to marry a nice Jewish woman and move to Israel. Hebrew with
English subtitles.
A French actor refuses to cooperate with the Nazis when he learns the
horrifying truth about Terezin, a concentration camp filled with artists
and children to prove to the world how well the Nazis treat the imprisoned
Jews.
In Nazi-occupied Paris, Jewish director Lucas Steiner is forced to
hide in the basement of his theatre while his wife stars in its latest
production. Romantic tensions mount as she and her leading man begin to
fall in love. At the same time, a pro-Nazi theatre critic ensconces
himself in the theatre causing stress to the entire cast. French with
English subtitles.
Unmarried at 31, Zaza's family tries to set him up with potential
brides but discovers that his lack of interest is because of his secret
relationship with a divorcee.
A young Jewish philosophy student, with little knowledge of the many
strict rules of the Hasidic way of life, becomes the nanny for a family
that she learns to respect. Her parents are both concentration camp
survivors and her father is obsessed with finding the two pieces of
luggage he buried in Antwerp at the start of World War II.
Leon, the Pig Farmer. Not rated. 1992.
VHS L Comedy
Leon, a nice Jewish boy, is living in London, has quit his job, and
has serious girl problems. He accidentally learns that he is the product
of artificial insemination and that his biological father is a Yorkshire
pig farmer. What follows is Leon's flight toward self-realization in this
comedy about Jewish guilt, identity crises, and role reversals.
The director's warmly funny, semi-autobiographical tale told with an
uncompromising eye for period detail. The year is 1954, a season of
dramatic social flux explored through the eyes of a Jewish family.
A racist, anti-Semitic French businessman on his way to his daughter's
wedding unwittingly stumbles on a group of Arab terrorists. He is forced
to disguise himself as a Hasidic Jewish rabbi, which leads to one crazy
slapstick situation after another.
Molly Picon is Khavtshi, the youngest daughter of a widower, who is
left with the responsibility of tending house for a helpless and
indifferent family of seven. As such, she becomes their little mother.
Filled with that special brand of humor and song that made Molly Picon the
undisputed queen of Yiddish musicals.
Shylock has grown wealthy through money-lending, the only profession
open to Jewish businessmen of the time, but faces indignity and danger
when he ventures beyond the Jewish quarter. In the same city, though in a
different world, lives Antonio, a Christian merchant beset by worry over
the fate of his trading vessels and his increasing isolation from his best
friend Bassanio. The younger man has fallen in love with the beautiful
Portia, and seeks to go abroad to win her hand. When Antonio takes a loan
from Shylock, a bond is sealed, the risk of which is one pound of
Antonio's flesh. So when Antonio goes into debt to Shylock, the
angst-ridden moneylender demands a pound of his flesh.
When word of the Nazi plot to arrest Denmark's Jews leaks out, Christian families such as the Kosters band together to thwart the impending raid by aiding their Jewish neighbors in hiding.
A young woman's attempt to enter a national essay contest on the
subject of "My Hometown During the Third Reich" results in her obsessive
quest for the truth. German with English subtitles.
Leaving the devastation of World War II behind them, a little girl and
her brother travel from Europe to Israel in search of family, hope, and
future. Placed in a refugee camp on their arrival they are confronted by a
world of colorful characters whose intrigues both terrify and tantalize
them and are forced to face the difficult realities of a new land.
An Israeli man in the midst of a mid-life crisis leaves his family in
Jerusalem, travels secretly to Tel Aviv, enters a fictitious marriage, and
is mistaken for an Arab laborer.
During 1963, a German journalist attempts to track down some SS war
criminals that have formed a secret organization called ODESSA. Based on
Frederick Forsyth's novel.
On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139, enroute from Tel Aviv to
Paris, was hijacked by Arab and German terrorists and commandeered to
Entebbe, Uganda. The Israeli government negotiates while secretly planning
one of the most daring rescues ever attempted.
Or has a part-time job at a restaurant, but her full-time job is
taking care of her mother, whose survival skills have deteriorated after
years of prostitution. Now Or must decide if she wants to keep caring for
her mother or have a life of her own.
Ya'ara, an independent, confident, and intelligent blind woman, has just begun her Ph. D in Mathematics at Princeton University. When she learns of her best friend and cousin's suicide she returns to Israel in shocked disbelief to do a very private investigation.
Comedy set in 1962 and narrated from the perspective of a 10-year-old
boy whose parents cannot agree whether to move to Canada or remain in
Israel. Hebrew with English subtitles.
In a Paris suburb nicknamed Little Jerusalem, a family of Sephardic
Orthodox immigrants shares a low-income apartment. Beautiful, teenaged
Laura distances herself from her family's religion and her own burgeoning
desire by devoting every waking moment to intellectual discipline and
secular philosophy. Mathilde, Laura's married older sister, worries that
strict observance of the Torah's marital codes has driven her husband
Ariel into the bed of another. When Laura falls under the spell of Djamel,
a handsome Muslim journalist, and Mathilde discovers that her worst fears
are true, the two very different sisters find themselves in very similar
crises.
A movie based upon the memoirs of brilliant pianist Wladyslaw
Szpilman, a Polish Jew. He watched as his family was shipped off to Nazi
labor camps. He managed to escape and lived for years in the ruins of
Warsaw, hiding from the Nazis.
A romantic comedy about an ordinary couple who move from their native
town of Afula to Tel Aviv in an attempt to fulfill the man's dream of
becoming a magician.
Released after serving 3 years in prison, a convict settles in a
secluded house by the sea, hoping to rekindle the relationship he was
forced to abandon.
Fania Fenelon is a Jewish cabaret singer in Paris during the Nazi invasion. Fania and thousands of other Jewish and political prisoners are sent to the Auschwitz death camp. She and a group of other classical musicians are spared from death in exchange for performing music for their captors. They are also ordered to play for the thousands being herded to the gas chambers, a 'humane' means of easing the condemned into the next world.
Officer Azulai has a kind nature to him, unable to let me advance. He lets thieves and petty criminal go free. When his career is threatened he must prove his usefulness.
A romantic comedy about a drifer, who wanders from shtetl to shtetl.
He finds brief happiness when he falls in love with a shoemaker's daughter
in a small Galician town in this likable fantasy about a love triangle and
man's quest for the unobtainable.
The story of a novelist who is sued by a doctor for libel because the
author's best-seller accuses the doctor of being a Nazi collaborator who
conducted experiments on Jews in a concentration camp during World War II.
Based on the novel by Leon Uris.
Two holocaust survivors meet accidentally in Montreal in 1948. One has
become religious; the other has turned his back on God. The two spend the
day reconciling their differences and renewing their faith and friendship.
A gentle and nostalgic tribute to the glory days of radio and
coming-of-age during World War II. Joe, a teenage Jewish boy, grows up
with a house full of relatives living chaotic lives in Brooklyn.
Interspersed with these family relations are vignettes of radio lore.
In June 1976 an Air France plane was hijacked by terrorists who forced the captain to alter course and eventually land at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. With the tacit approval of president Idi Amin, the passengers were held hostage and threatened with death if the Israeli government didn't comply with their captor's demand to release 53 Palestinian so-called freedom fighters held in Israeli prisons.
The story of a young doctor who accompanies his boss and his wife to
India to rescue their dying daughter. The magic of India, the unusual
relationship between the boss and his wife, and the wife's persistant
advances are too powerful to resist.
After the death of her father, Hannah becomes concerned with the
strange behavior of her mother. As her mother's troubled childhood is
revealed, Hannah realizes how little she ever knew.
A teenage Russian immigrant has clairvoyant powers, which create
mayhem in her high school and disrupt the whole town as she predicts
winning lottery numbers and an earthquake. Her powers may not last,
however. She'll lose them the first time she falls in love. Hebrew with
English subtitles.
A psychological study of Jakub Gold, a Polish Jew imprisoned for
killing a schoolmate. He is released from prison at the outbreak of World
War II, only to be confined to the Warsaw ghetto. Escaping the ghetto, he
is confined by the fear of being Jewish in a world hostile to Jews. Polish
with English subtitles.
Good girl Mary and her best friend Hilary Faye are at the top of the
high school food chain at American Eagle Christian. But after Mary becomes
pregnant, Hilary Faye and her devoted "disciples" turn on Mary and label
her an outcast. Now Mary's only hope for salvation and friendship is
through a group of rebellious misfits. Together, can they navigate the
treacherous halls of high school life and make it to graduation ... or
will Hilary Faye make all their lives a living hell?
The true story of Oskar Schindler, Nazi party member, womanizer, and
war profiteer who saved more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. Based
on the novel by Thomas Keneally.
A young boy who has a vivid imagination dreams up a brother for himself and a better past for his family. On his 15th birthday he finds his dreams shattered when he uncovers a shocking secret that ties his family to the Holocaust.
A strong Jewish woman enters into a marriage with a man she dislikes
believing it will save her from deporation to a Nazi labor camp in
Czechoslovakia in 1942.
A man who takes a job as an "Aryan comptroller" for a Jewish-owned
button shop befriends the owner and decides to shield her from the Nazis.
Best Foreign Language Film, 1965. Czech with English subtitles.
Roland, the 12-year-old son of a Russian Jew and a Swedish Socialist,
is the victim of ceaseless bullying and prejudice. When he's not busy
being persecuted, the determined Roland is a budding inventor. Creating a
powerful slingshot, the young survival artist ultimately seizes on an
ingenious way to turn the tables on his oppressors, bringing him fame,
fortune, and big trouble with the police.
Set in Wales in 1911, this is an ill-fated love story about a young
woman, the daughter of a strict chapel-going Welch family, and a young
Jewish man. In English, Welsh, and Yiddish with subtitles.
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Pete is an 8-year-old Catholic boy where, as classes let out for the
summer, he's admonished by a nun to follow the path of Lord, and not that
of the Devil. Pete decides to help someone get into heaven and decides to
convert a Jew to Catholicism. Pete begins visiting a nearby synagogue,
where he gets to know Rabbi Jacobson and makes friends with the Rabbi's
son, Danny. When he learns that Danny is seriously ill, he decides Danny
would be an excellent choice for conversion.
A film noir "thriller" that presents the true case of Nathan Leopold
and Richard Loeb, brilliant young men from good Jewish families, who were
convicted for murdering a 13-year-old boy.
Follow the important moments in the lives of three outspoken and
humorous young ladies. One is on the hunt for Mr. Right, one takes
hostages in a desperate attempt to find her estranged husband and another
puts Tel Aviv on edge trying to save a kitten.
Lavish Biblical epic that tells the life story of Moses, who turned
his back on a privileged life to lead his people to freedom outside Egypt.
The Ten Commandments: The Musical. Not rated. 2004.
DVD 792.642 TEN
The gripping tale of two brothers, Moses and Ramses, that are united in love and divided by destiny as they each lead a nation in an epic struggle for freedom and respect.
Depicts the stakes behind an Israeli settlement. Menachem is a highly
respected soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, who is also a devout
student of a controversial settlement leader. Despite doubt and suspicion,
Menachem is given permission to lead an Army unit that includes his friend
and fellow students. As the Rabbi of Menachem's settlement's agenda, the
Army's control, and his friends desperation build to a boil, Menachem's
secret passion for the Rabbi's daughter threatens destruction. A violent
scheme to blow up Temple Mount puts all allegiances to the test.
The year is 1941, and a tiny Jewish community in France is faced with
some shocking news: the Nazis are coming. But Shlomo, the not-so-foolish
village idiot, has a plan--before the Germans can dispatch them to camps,
the townspeople will "deport" themselves to freedom. French with English
subtitles.
In 1970 Israel, during the height of the War of Attrition, a group of
Israeli soldiers with singing talent are formed into an entertainment
troupe and sent to the front to raise morale.
A poor desert village, home to people from both Morocco and India, have their poverty in common and little else. When two girls realize that the sexual revolution is going on outside the village, they make plans to see what the fuss is all about.
Meet the Goldbergs, a lively Jewish family living in New York City! There are the dutiful children, Rosie and Sammy; Jake, the hot-tempered husband; old-world Uncle David; and, of course, the ever-cheerful and gracious matriarch Molly. With lots of extended family and neighbors, the Goldberg home is always overflowing with joy, laughter, and love.
Television programs originally broadcast as individual episodes between Aug. 29, 1949 and the end of the 1956 season. Radio programs previously broadcast as individual programs between Sept. 21, 1939 and May 1945.
A heartwarming and light hearted look at the daily lives of
ultra-Orthodox Jews learning, livinig and loving in modern-day Israel. The
story of a family facing hardships who must rely on their faith for
miracles to happen during the holiday season.
The hijacking was executed flawlessly. Minutes after departing Athens
on June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was commandeered by militant
German and Palestinian terrorists. On board were 256 passengers and crew,
106 of them Jewish. Their new destination: Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
Their only hope: a desperate rescue by Israeli commandos.
We Are Going to America. Not rated. 1992.
VHS W World
The tale of one family's journey out of the shtetl and into a world of
the unknown. Seen through the eyes of 11-year-old Motl, he creates a sense
of wonder and chaotic adventure as his family makes their way toward
America.
West Bank story is a musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands in the West Bank. David, an Israeli soldier, falls in love with the beautiful Palestinian cashier, Fatima, despite the animosity between their families' dueling restaurants. Can the couple's love withstand a 2000 year old conflict and their families' desire to control the future of the chic pea in the Middle East?
The elder of a Palestinian village under Israeli military rule, wants
permission to hold a traditional wedding for his son that will go past the
imposed curfew. The Army commander agrees on the condition that he and his
officers be invited as guests of honor at the cermony.
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.R. 2004.
DVD M Drama
Shylock has grown wealthy through money-lending, the only profession
open to Jewish businessmen of the time, but faces indignity and danger
when he ventures beyond the Jewish quarter. In the same city, though in a
different world, lives Antonio, a Christian merchant beset by worry over
the fate of his trading vessels and his increasing isolation from his best
friend Bassanio. The younger man has fallen in love with the beautiful
Portia, and seeks to go abroad to win her hand. When Antonio takes a loan
from Shylock, a bond is sealed, the risk of which is one pound of
Antonio's flesh. So when Antonio goes into debt to Shylock, the
angst-ridden moneylender demands a pound of his flesh.
Golda Meir grew up on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She harbored an incredible dream: she wanted to help the Jewish people build a new home. Her arduous journey led to a dusty kibbutz in Palestine and the struggle to establish the nation of Israel. Through hardship, war, and countless sacrifices, Golda survived it all and became Israel's first female prime minister. A stunning reminder that one life can truly make a difference.
Set in the Sephardic Jewish Community in the Old City of Jerusalem at
the end of the 19th century, a woman who still finds herself childless
after 15 years of marriage urges her husband to take a second wife who can
bear him a child.
Eleven-year-old David Wiseman lives with the singular dream of being a cricket star, but much to the dismay and ridicule of his classmates, he is all passion and no skill. The son of a traditional Jewish family living in the racial and cultural turbulence of 1960s South London, David and his world are shaken by the unexpected arrival of the Samuels, a lively and big-hearted Jamaican family.
A compilation of three stories from Sholom Aleichem: A Tale of Chelm - a bookseller tries to buy a goat in a town of fools; Bontche Schweig - a tale of a poor man whose heavenly arrival coaxes tears from the angels; and The High School - about a couple's attempts to send their son to a nonreligious school.
Set in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War, this is a light comedy about
romance and culture shock. Yana and her new husband arrive in Israel from
Russia, only to have her spouse split town with the immigration money.
Naïve, vulnerable, and three months pregnant, Yana is forced to fend for
herself. Fortunately, she finds company with an eccentric fledgling
filmmaker, Eli, who videotapes everything. With the fear of Iraqi scuds an
ever-present threat, the two inch slowly toward a relationship.
Barbra Streisand portrays a young woman who disguises herself as a man
in order to gain entrance to an orthodox Jewish school. Based on Yentl
the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
A young girl, dressed as a boy, goes off with her father and a band of
traveling musicians into the Polish countryside. A classic Yiddish
language musical-comedy.
A sociological study of two men in the Israeli army who are lovers.
The others in the unit react to their situation, suspecting, but not
always understanding. One will leave the military soon, a few months away,
as a snowy and desolate outpost is guarded from attack.
