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Dear Fredy
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
6 PM LONDON • 7 PM PARIS • 8 PM JERUSALEM
(Please note: Daylight Savings Time in the United States)
“We Jews don’t have saints, but we do have tzaddikim, righteous people, people of tzedek, of justice. Perhaps the word could also be translated as ‘decency.’”
– Zuzana Růžičková, Holocaust survivor, speaking about Fredy Hirsch
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Hava Nagila — Anthem of Jewish Rejoicing
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
Join us for a celebration!
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Hava Nagila (The Movie) is a documentary romp through the history, mystery and meaning of the great Jewish standard. Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Regina Spektor and more, the film follows the ubiquitous party song on its fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America. High on fun and entertainment, Hava Nagila (The Movie) is also surprisingly profound, tapping into universal themes about the importance of joy, the power of music and the resilient spirit of a people.
“When you find a song that says ‘Let us rejoice,’ there’s no better song to leave an evening with. Hava Nagila tells us who we should be and what we, in a fundamental sense, aspire to be – peoples of love and joy and peace.” – Harry Belafonte
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Captain Barros Basto, the Portuguese Dreyfus
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
7 PM LISBON • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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Artur Carlos de Barros Basto was a captain in the Portuguese military who was discharged as a Jew despite having been raised as a Catholic. Descended from a family forcibly converted during The Inquisition, he rediscovered his Judaism and underwent a formal conversion. Then he built the largest synagogue in the Iberian peninsula in order to attract other “conversos” to reclaim the religion of their ancestors. A remarkable story! (more…)
Faye Schulman, Partisan and Photographer
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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This Mother’s Day program remembers the brave partisan Faye Schulman, whose photographs are the only visual record of the resistance action of the Polish partisans. The program is co-presented with the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF) and will be moderated by Mitch Braff.
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Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
7 PM LONDON
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Felix Mendelssohn was a child prodigy pianist and composer who was famous from a young age. Born into an illustrious Berlin Jewish family (his grandfather was the theologian Moses Mendelssohn who began the assimilation of Jews into German society), Felix was baptised Lutheran, along with his siblings, at the age of seven, in part because at that time Jews in Germany did not have full civil rights. For the rest of his short life (he died at age 38), Mendelssohn strove to unite the two religions in his music, continuing what his grandfather had begun. He became one of Germany’s most beloved composers, and millions of brides have walked down the aisle to his Wedding March. One hundred years later the Nazis came to power, banned Mendelssohn’s music in Germany and re-classified his (mainly Lutheran) descendants as Jews, threatening their lives. One of these descendants, the filmmaker Sheila Hayman, decided to tell her family’s story on screen. Her wide-ranging and fascinating film is about the madness of labels and the unifying power of music.
Sousa Mendes Remembered
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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On this Memorial Day program we honor the memory of the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes with a panel featuring former Congressman Tony Coelho, who was instrumental in bringing justice for this hero in his home country of Portugal, and two granddaughters of Sousa Mendes: Sheila Abranches-Pierce and Angelina Mendes Muetzel. The program will be moderated by Robert Jacobvitz, a pioneer in the effort to have Sousa Mendes recognized for his action to save Jews and other refugees from the Holocaust. (more…)
Ben Ferencz, World War II Veteran and the Last Surviving Prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, Interviewed by Dr. Yael Danieli
Special D-Day program! Benjamin Ferencz was the Chief Prosecutor for the United States in the Einsatzgruppen Case, which the Associated Press called “the biggest murder trial in history.” Twenty-two defendants were charged with murdering over a million people. He was only twenty-seven years old, and it was his first case. (more…)
The Rescuers
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
7 PM LONDON • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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What is the mystery of goodness? This question is at the core of the film The Rescuers by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Michael King who examines the stories of a dozen diplomat rescuers during the Holocaust. The film follows Stephanie Nyombayire, a young Rwandan anti-genocide activist, and Sir Martin Gilbert, the renowned Holocaust historian, as they travel across 15 countries and three continents interviewing survivors and descendants of the diplomats. A powerful and important film!
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Weapons of the Spirit
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Pierre Sauvage‘s acclaimed film Weapons of the Spirit tells the dramatic true story of the area of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, where as many as 5,000 Jews may have been sheltered by some 5,000 Christians during World War II. This is a story Sauvage was born to tell: born in Le Chambon as a hidden child in 1944, he returned to the village as an adult to probe and recount this unique “conspiracy of goodness.” (more…)
Let my people go! The Rescue of Soviet Jewry
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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The rescue of Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and 80s was a vast project involving grassroots initiatives working in partnership with the organized Jewish community and government officials. Meet Jerry Goodman, the founder and Executive Director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, and other activists who struggled on behalf of refuseniks trapped behind the Iron Curtain. (more…)