Center for Judaic Studies – Jewish Experience Videos
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Driven, determined, scheming, and manipulative, Duddy Kravitz breathes life into many of the negative Jewish stereotypes. Yet somehow, we root for the rascally Duddy, played with humor and vigor by a young Richard Dreyfuss. Duddy’s program for prosperity begins with a job at a Jewish resort, where he has a romance with a French Canadian chambermaid. With her help, he embarks on a plan to buy land, so that he can build a lakeside community and give his zeyde, his grandfather, the farm he longs for. In order to pay for the land, Duddy pursues several schemes lending comedy and tragedy to the story.
The Apprenticeship of Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler is best known for his brilliant depiction of Jewish immigrant life in Montreal in his award-winning novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, made into a movie starring Richard Dreyfuss. One of Canada’s most celebrated writers, Richler was born into an observant religious family with a rich immigrant tradition. At nineteen he went to live in Paris, in the footsteps of Hemingway, and he stayed in Europe for twenty years, producing five novels, before returning to Canada. The character of Duddy Kravitz – a difficult, funny, nervous and ambitious Jewish boy – made Richler world-famous, while his biting portrait of Jewish life also drew intense criticism. This documentary examines Richler’s Jewish identity, its themes in his novels, and his own often difficult relationship to the Jewish community.
Avalon
Writer/director Barry Levinson drew upon his immigrant heritage to create this chronicle of Jewish family life in Baltimore. As seen through the Krichinsky family, this affectionate film deals with traditional Jewish themes of assimilation, ambition, and generational conflict. Avalon opens with Russian immigrant Sam Krichinsky’s arrival in Baltimore on the Fourth of July, 1914. Along with his three brothers, Sam sets out to make his fortune in America and raise a family. Through his son Jules, the film follows the rise and decline of Krichinsky family life as second-generation members drift away from traditions and assimilate into modern America.
The Chosen
“The Chosen offers a deep, sympathetic insight into the variety and profundity of Jewish heritage and tradition.” So said the Minneapolis Tribune about the Chaim Potok’s novel, and the same is true of the film. Through the eyes of two teenage boys – one a Hasidic Jew, the other secular – The Chosen dramatically debates the value of ambition, obligation, and Zionism. The Chosen is set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1944. Robby Benson stars as Danny Saunders, a Hasid who befriends intellectual Reuven Malter, played by Barry Miller. As World War II rages, the question of a Jewish state arises between the boys. At first, Danny toes the line of his Rabbi father – reject the 20th century for orthodoxy. Reuven, on the other hand, is a Zionist, like his professor father. In time, each comes to appreciate what the others way of life can offer.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Director Woody Allen debates ethics and morals of modern life in his dark drama, Crimes and Misdemeanors. As seen through the eyes of a respected doctor who has lapsed into amorality, Allen questions whether God pays attention to our behavior – and if so, does He distinguish between right and wrong? Why do the wicked sometimes prosper while the good suffer? Martin Landau stars as Judah Rosenthal, an admired doctor who is fooling around with a lonely young woman (Anjelica Huston). When she insists on telling his wife about their affair, Judah becomes desperate and hires his gangster brother to kill her. All goes according to plan, except for one thing – Judah’s conscience won’t stop tormenting him. In classic Allenesque fashion, several engaging and humorous stories intertwine, bringing full life to the directors unique point of view.
Crossfire
Crossfire was the first major American film to deal with anti-Semitism. It appeared shortly after World War II, when many people believed sympathy for the Jewish people, after the Holocaust, had rendered the subject irrelevant. Crossfire stars Robert Young, Robert Ryan, and Robert Mitchum. It begins with the murder of a Jew, who is brutally beaten in a hotel room. The finger of suspicion points to a troubled young soldier and to another soldier who openly admits his bigotry. It’s up to a detective with a strong moral conscience to solve the mystery. Utilizing flashbacks, cryptic dialogue, and menacing shadows, Crossfire’s dark tone deals with a serious social issue in a compelling way.
Crossing Delancey
In this charming comedy, an unrelenting matchmaker a Jewish grandmother, a self-aggrandizing author, and a self-effacing pickle merchant star in the romantic adventures of a dazzling but confused thirty-something Jewish woman. Izzy Grossman, played by Amy Irving, faces two romantic choices, reflecting two sometimes conflicting aspects of her life: the “uptown” world where she lives, working in an upscale literary bookstore and mingling with famous writers, and the traditional world of the grandmother she adores on the Lower East Side. Through her grandmother’s exploits with the local matchmaker, Izzy is introduced to Sam the pickle man. The two older women can’t resist mixing in to promote what Izzy sees as an unlikely match, while she remains infatuated with a handsome gentile writer. But Izzy comes to see things in a way that takes her by surprise.
Daniel
Jewish activists in the Old Left became ready targets for the witch hunts of the McCarthy era, and many of those accused as communists (rightly or wrongly) were Jews. Among the most famous casualties of the time were the Rosenberg’s, executed as spies in a judgment that has long been the subject of controversy. Daniel fictionalizes the story of the Rosenberg’s, intertwining it with the story of their grown children, who are haunted by the legacy of their parents. The daughter (Amanda Plummer) has taken the social activism of her parents to heart in a series of failed causes, while the son (Timothy Hutton) is driven to learn the truth behind his parents death. A complex and challenging film, Daniel examines the importance of confronting the past, shows the political environment of both the Old and New Left, and quietly indicts American anti-Semitism.
Dirty Dancing
Since the early part of the century, New York’s Catskill Mountains have been home to summer resorts catering to a Jewish clientele. Dirty Dancing takes place at a fictional resort where conflicts in class and privilege are played out through the romantic relationship between a naive Jewish girl and a streetwise gentile dance instructor. Dirty Dancing stars Jennifer Grey as “Baby”, an idealistic seventeen-year-old vacationing with her family in the Catskills in the summer of 1963. Late one evening she walks in on a private dance party and becomes spellbound by the resort’s instructor, Johnny (Patrick Swayze). Resenting her at first for her affluence, Johnny slowly learns to appreciate her values, and she, in turn, learns about life and love.
Driving Miss Daisy
Racial prejudice, tolerance, and friendship are the interwoven themes of Driving Miss Daisy. This heartwarming film, winner of the 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture, provides an unusual view of bigotry in the deep south through the working relationship of a wealthy Jewish widow and her black chauffeur. In her Oscar- winning role, Jessica Tandy plays Miss Daisy, an aging Jewish woman in Atlanta who can no longer drive her own car safely. When her son hires Hoke (Morgan Freeman) to be her driver, she can barely contain her prejudice. But Hoke is a wise and patient man, and as she ages, Miss Daisy comes to appreciate his capabilities, and understand his quiet suffering as a black man in the deep south. Over the course of 25 years, their relationship deepens as the Civil Rights movement comes to affect them both.
The Forward: From Immigrants to Americans
Between 1880 and 1925, two and a half million Yiddish speaking Jews immigrated to America, leading to a flourishing Yiddish publishing industry. The Forward, founded in 1897 by Abraham Cahan, was the most famous and influential of the Yiddish newspapers. It served as a guide to transition, helping Yiddish speakers assimilate into the American mainstream by covering a vast range of topics, from citizenship to canning fruit. The Forward strongly supported labor unions, socialist candidates, and FDR. It published translations of classics such as Madame Bovary and the works of the giants of Yiddish literature, including Isaac Bashevis Singer. The film follows the paper up to 1987, when it became a weekly.
Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists
Anarchism, which rejected government in all its forms, was the largest radical movement among Jewish immigrants in the 1880s and 1890s and continued to attract fervent supporters in the early decades of this century. In 1977, as the Jewish anarchist newspaper Freie Arbeiter Stimme was about to close down after 87 years of publication, the filmmakers interviewed elderly anarchists about their experiences in the movement. They talked about the conditions that led them to join, their fight to build trade unions, differences with the Communists, attitudes toward violence, Yiddish culture, and loyalty to one another. Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists introduces us to the authentic voices of an era gone by.
Funny Girl
Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice was the quintessential urban Jewish performer – comically resilient with a blunt charm that could win over audiences. Who better to play Brice in the film biography of her life than Barbra Streisand? In this musical film, Streisand fills up the screen with Jewish bravado. Funny Girl traces Brice’s rise out of the Lower East Side into stardom. When Brice meets gambler Nicky Arnstein (Omar Shariff), their torrid love affair and subsequent marriage is the stuff of headlines. From the beginning, theirs is a stormy relationship. Still, Brice never loses sight of her Jewish roots and pride. Singing such outstanding songs as “People,” Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and “My Man,” Streisand’s performance garnered her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Gentleman’s Agreement
Jewish executives from MGM and Warner Brothers urged non-Jewish producer Daryl Zanuck not to make Gentleman’s Agreement. They felt the films taboo subject, anti-Semitism, would expose them all to backlash, and become a black mark on Zanuck’s career. But Zanucks daring proved them wrong, as Gentleman’s Agreement won three Academy Awards in 1947, including Best Picture. Gregory Peck stars as Phil Green, a gentile who writes a magazine story about anti-Semitism in America. To feel first-hand the discrimination suffered by Jewish Americans, Green poses as a Jew. As he researches his story, he becomes increasingly angered by the insidious snubs he receives in his everyday life. In the process he comes into conflict with his fiance and her social set, as they adhere to the “gentleman’s agreement” – the exclusion of Jews.
Goodbye, Columbus
Based on a novella by Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus is a biting look at upwardly mobile Jewish life in the suburbs. At the time of its release, some Jewish groups were offended by the film’s blunt portrait of materialism. Many insisted Roth had exposed an unseemly, and unspoken, side of American Jewish life. Richard Benjamin stars as Bronx librarian Neil Kiugman, a discontented soul of the 1960s who falls in love with Westchester princess Brenda Patimkin, played by Ali McGraw. After meeting Brenda at her country club, Neil ingratiates himself with her family. But the crass materialism he encounters at the Patimkins repulses him. At the same time, his snobby dismissal of his own modest background leaves him ambivalent about where he fits in.
Great Jewish Achievers
Documentary of Jewish achievers in the fields of “Music, Art & Literature,” “Stage Screen & Television,” “Business, Politics & Law,” “Great Jewish Athletes,” and “Inventions, Science & Medicine.” Includes a study booklet.
A Grocery Store on Every Corner
Sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society, A Grocery Store on Every Corner documents and chronicles a century of Jewish grocers in Colorado, from 1859 to 1959.
Hester Street
Hester Street portrays the life of a Jewish community in transition, where immigrants must reexamine their identities as Jews in light of American opportunities and values. Jake, formerly Yankel, is a Jewish immigrant living in New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the century. Since arriving from Russia, he has shaved off his beard, found a job in a sweatshop and learned English, and he is enjoying his reputation as a ladies’ man. Then a letter from home prompts Jake to send for his wife, Giti, and son, Yossele. Their arrival reminds Jake of everything he has discarded and triggers a confrontation between Old and New World values. Giti, too, faced with a changed husband and a foreign world, must decide what she is willing to give up in order to become an American.
His People
Between 1880 and 1924 more than two million Jews from Eastern Europe arrived in America, many of them settling in poor, congested areas of big cities. “Scattered for centuries,” reads the films opening title, “these people have come from the four corners of Europe, each bringing a dream of prosperity and happiness”. Newcomers often found these two dreams mutually exclusive; His People seeks to unify them in a peculiarly American manner. This superb 1925 silent film tells the tale of an immigrant family whose tradition and values are all but shattered by the encounter with the New World. The Cominsky family – the learned, religious father who struggles to survive in America; the big-hearted, forgiving mother; and the sons, one a lawyer clambering the social ladder, the other a prizefighter, unlettered but generous – embodies all the hopes, conflicts, misunderstandings and regrets of the era.
Homicide
How far can assimilation go? Can one leave behind all sense of Jewish identity? Even the most assimilated Jews can encounter circumstances which force them to confront their Jewish self. When the encounter involves overt anti-Semitism, the response can vary from puzzled to explosive. In Homicide, police hostage negotiator Robert Gold (Joe Montegna) confronts his long-buried Jewish identity as he searches for a criminal wanted by the FBI for the murder of an elderly Jewish shopkeeper. Assigned to the case because he’s a Jew, Gold grapples with his unformed Jewish side while he learns about the murdered woman and her circle of acquaintances. His encounters with others underscore the tensions between his police work and his sense of Jewish identification. The pressure to ‘prove himself’ leads Gold down paths of corruption, manipulation, and violence.
The Imported Bridegroom
Asriel Stroon is an immigrant who’s made good in America. At the turn of the century, he has a successful business, a large home, and a beautiful daughter. But the cost of such affluence is his spiritual life. By marrying off his precious Flora to an imported yeshiva bocher, he hopes to compensate (on some heavenly scorecard) for his own failings. But Flora has other plans. She wants to marry an uptown doctor and lead a sophisticated life. Flora tries to manipulate her father as well as Shaya, the Old Country bridegroom. But nothing proceeds as any of the characters plans – and Asriel, Flora, and Shaya are surprised by developments that seem out of their control. Based on a story by Abraham Cahan, this sad, funny, and wise film provides a memorable view of the immigrant experience.
Isaac in America
In his interviews and public appearances, Isaac Bashevis Singer presented a humorous and ironic image of himself. While the best-known Yiddish author in the United States, he positioned himself as a renegade standing apart from the ‘sentimental’ tradition of Yiddish literature. Instead, his writings dwelt on folklore, the supernatural, and the lives of refugees cast upon the shores of America. Isaac in America looks at Singer’s life and art, from his early days in Warsaw to his acceptance of the Nobel Prize. Singer serves as the guide to his own life, showing us a boarded-up house in Brooklyn where he first lived in America and the former offices of The Forward, which published many of his stories in serial form. We also see excerpts from some of his speaking engagements, and his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer was the first feature film to contain sound sequences. Its premiere spelled the end for silent movies. This break with the past for the glamour of the present is the theme of the film itself, in which the traditions of Old World Judaism run headlong into modern culture. Al Jolson plays Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who adores jazz – “the sacred music” of a new America. But Jakie’s intense desire to sing jazz conflicts with his fathers wish that his son follow in his footsteps as a cantor. With audiences clamoring for his talent, Jakie must choose between honoring his parents and the American dream. Jolson’s songs, including ‘Toot, Toot, Tootsie,” and ‘Dirty Hands, Dirty Face,” attest to his enormous talent and appeal.
Marjorie Morningstar
The daughter of upwardly mobile Jewish parents in the 1930s, Marjorie Morningstar is bright and beautiful, and has ambitions for success. With her college friend Marsha Zelenko, she gets a job at a summer camp. When sneaking into the nearby South Wind hotel, Marjorie meets – and falls in love with – Noel Airman, the handsome director of the resorts summer theatre. The attraction is mutual and highly charged Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly are a striking pair in this once-in-a-lifetime romance. When she resists his advances, he denounces her conventional mores, and their clash illuminates the mood of the era. Ultimately, their romance leads her to question her values and lifestyle, and her ideas about love and success.
The Miracle of Intervale Avenue
Synonymous today with crime and urban abandonment, New York’s South Bronx once teemed with Jewish life. Jewish shops thrived and worshipers spilled onto the sidewalks from hundreds of synagogues. Feeling increasingly threatened by the rise in crime, the Jews moved away. By 1983 only a handful remained. Most are elderly and idiosyncratic, refusing or unable to leave apartments where they raised families and collected memories. Some see no reason to stop providing services as baker, tailor, or sign painter to those of their black and Puerto Rican neighbors trying to eke out a decent life. One or two are African American Jews. Together this remnant struggles to keep open the last synagogue in the neighborhood, helped by a Jewish cop, black youth, Puerto Rican clergy. The Miracle of Intervale Avenue tells their remarkable story.
Next Stop, Greenwich Village
The year is 1953. Larry Lapinsky is packing his suitcase to move out of his parent’s Brooklyn home and into his own Greenwich Village apartment. His mother, brilliantly played by Shelley Winters, is hysterical that her son is deserting her. Next Stop, Greenwich Village, a bittersweet comedy about post-immigrant Jewish life, portrays Lapinsky’s coming-of-age. Struggling to make his way as an actor, Larry collects an assortment of bohemian friends and contends with his long-time girlfriend. But his conflicts with her pale in the face of constant run-ins with his overbearing mother – who appears at his home with gifts of food and underwear. Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village (and then to Hollywood), the film is about much more than geographical transition – its about the dynamics of leaving home, and trying to leave home behind.
Number Our Days
Anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff, whose scholarly work focused on the study of indigenous peoples, decides to research a community where she feels an emotional connection, that of elderly American Jews. In this Academy-Award winning portrait, Myerhoff conducts field work at the Israel Levin Jewish Community Center in Venice, California, which is a magnet for a group of men and women in their eighties and nineties, many of them originally from Eastern Europe. Proceeding from the idea that one day their fate will be her own, Myerhoff takes much more than an academic interest in the ways her subjects deal with poverty, illness, loneliness, and old age. She shows how they find important solace in the company and activities of the center. With unusual warmth and compassion, she explores their histories and records the texture of their lives, where nothing is taken for granted.
The Purple Heart
This World War II film is one of the first to depict an American character only incidentally Jewish. Lieutenant Greenbaum, identified as a graduate of City College, is distinguished by his articulateness, but is otherwise a typical young man. Made in 1944, The Purple Heart reflects American attitudes toward the war, as well as the nation’s own self-image and values. It not only documents Jewish integration into society but also declares social inclusiveness to be an American virtue. After their plane is crippled in a raid, eight Americans of diverse backgrounds are captured by the Japanese and subjected to a brutal trial in violation of international law, as well as to physical and mental torture. Unless they reveal critical information, they will be found guilty and executed. The men are sustained by their sense of justice, loyalty and patriotism.
School Ties
School Ties takes place in the 1950s, when anti-Semitism was accepted as a part of the American fabric. Like the landmark movie Gentleman’s Agreement, School Ties explores the open hostility directed toward Jews by members of a privileged social set – in this case, the boys of an exclusive prep school. David Green is a football star at a rundown high school in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He is also Jewish. After being recruited to play his senior year at St. Matthews Preparatory School in Massachusetts, David leads the team to glory. But when his religious affiliation is discovered, David learns firsthand about the deeply imbedded anti-Semitism among his peers. In a series of tense confrontations, the boys of St. Matthews search their souls for their true feelings toward their trusted friend.
A Stranger Among Us
A Stranger Among Us explores the mysteries of Hasidic Judaism through the eyes of an outsider – a gentile police detective – who enters this reclusive society to investigate a murder. Melanie Griffith stars as Emily Eden, a tough New York City Police detective assigned to solve the murder of a Hasidic diamond merchant from Brooklyn. While working undercover as a member of the community, Detective Eden is coached by a rabbis son in the ways of his people to help her maintain her cover. Soon, however, the attraction between these two opposites sends sparks flying. As the pressure to solve the case intensifies, so does their illicit relationship.
Street Scene
Based on Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prizewinning play, Street Scene is a bold exploration of Jewish immigrant life in America early in this century. It examines the themes of assimilation, socialism, anti-Semitism, and identity Abraham Kaplan lives with his family in a row house populated by a kaleidoscope of characters looking to break out of poverty Kaplan’s revolutionary, socialist views grate against some of his neighbors, who are mystified by the gibberish” he reads in his Yiddish newspaper and occasionally advise him to “go back where you came from.” Even his son, educated in America, wants little to do with his father’s politics or heritage. The tension on the street, in the building, and within Kaplan’s family build throughout the movie, playing themselves out in the best tradition of Rice’s work.
Sweet Lorraine
New York States Catskill Mountains used to be known as the Jewish Alps. Dotting the mountains were family hotels like the Lorraine – resorts offering Jewish food, Jewish humor, and a smart, lovable Jewish mother running the place. Sweet Lorraine captures the end of an era. Now run-down, the Lorraine faces its last summer. Molly Garber, the owner’s granddaughter, surprises her grandmother by showing up to work, and she falls in love again with the hotel of her childhood. From the escapades of the staff to the jokes of the hotel comedian to romance for granddaughter and grandmother, this funny and touching film explores whether we can hold onto the past – and go home again.
They Came for Good – Present at the Creation (1654-1820) and
They Came for Good – Taking Root (1820-1880)
They Came for Good is the first comprehensive series to tell the little known story of 250 years of Jewish immigration in America From the first Brazilian Jews who landed on Manhattan Island in 1654 through the end of the 19th Century, over 250,000 Jews came to our shores. They Came for Good looks at where they settled, how they adapted, survived and helped shape our country.
Sweet Lorraine
New York States Catskill Mountains used to be known as the Jewish Alps. Dotting the mountains were family hotels like the Lorraine – resorts offering Jewish food, Jewish humor, and a smart, lovable Jewish mother running the place. Sweet Lorraine captures the end of an era. Now run-down, the Lorraine faces its last summer. Molly Garber, the owner’s granddaughter, surprises her grandmother by showing up to work, and she falls in love again with the hotel of her childhood. From the escapades of the staff to the jokes of the hotel comedian to romance for granddaughter and grandmother, this funny and touching film explores whether we can hold onto the past – and go home again.
