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The Albanian Code
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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The Albanian Code from award-winning Israeli filmmaker Yael Katzir tells the little-known story of how thousands of Jewish refugees in Albania were rescued in World War II. Annie Altaraz, who was saved there having escaped from Yugoslavia, decides to return to say thank you. This voyage is full of surprises, discovering how a nation bound by its moral code saved refugees and recognizing Albania’s unique wartime role in rescuing the persecuted. (more…)
Albie Sachs and the New South Africa
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 8 PM CAPE TOWN
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Albert “Albie” Louis Sachs is a South African attorney and activist who worked closely with Nelson Mandela in the struggle for democracy and human rights. After twice being detained for his anti-apartheid activities he was blown up by a bomb planted in his car by South African security services. He survived the assassination attempt but lost his right arm and vision in one eye. He played a key role in writing South Africa’s Constitution in the 1990s and served for fifteen years on its Supreme Court. Meet this Jewish hero of South African democracy who will be with us in person! (more…)
Safer in Silence
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 8 PM PARIS
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Safer in Silence is a personal journey made over thirty years and across five continents. Corinne Niox Chateau searches for the truth of her family’s Polish past in order to understand her mother’s distance. Uncovering her family’s hidden Jewish roots, Corinne is pulled into a complex story revealing startling truths that force her to face the patterns of hiding and secrecy that have profoundly affected her life. Corinne’s grandfather, the Polish diplomat Clement Skalski, was a close friend and colleague of Aristides and Cesar de Sousa Mendes, and it was Aristides’ visa that saved the Skalski family and enabled them to escape to America. Meet the filmmaker, who will be in dialogue with the celebrated film historian Annette Insdorf. (more…)
The Catcher Was a Spy — The Moe Berg Story
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Morris “Moe” Berg was a Jewish American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, Berg spoke numerous languages and read ten newspapers a day. His reputation as an intellectual was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information Please. Berg was sent by the US government to determine whether the German physicist Werner Heisenberg was developing an atomic bomb for Nazi Germany, and Berg was authorized to shoot Heisenberg if he had definitive proof in the affirmative. Meet Nicholas Dawidoff, author of the best-selling book on which the motion picture was based. He will be in conversation with the well-known journalist and podcaster Jacob Goldstein. (more…)
Jesse Owens and the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Jesse Owens, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, was the Olympic champion who defeated Nazi ideology in Hitler’s stadium. He later served on the Board of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Meet his grandson, Stuart Owen Rankin, who will be in dialogue with Lori Weintrob, historian and Director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center. Representing the International Olympics Committee on the panel is Anita L. DeFrantz, a US Olympic medalist and Vice-President of the IOC. (more…)
My Herzl
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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An intimate and unexpected documentary about the private life of Theodor Herzl. To Eli Tal-El, a Jerusalem documentary filmmaker, Herzl is a washed-out icon. In the eyes of his Canadian brother-in-law David Matlow, one of the world’s most avid collectors of Herzl memorabilia, Herzl is an inspiring superstar. An unconventional documentary, this film is a personal look at the man who launched a nation. Joining the panel will be Herzl’s biographer Derek Penslar and sociologist Shulamit Reinharz. (more…)
The Legacy of Aristides
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
7 PM LISBON • 8 PM PARIS
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The documentary film The Legacy of Aristides asks the question: What is the legacy of Aristides de Sousa Mendes today? We are presenting a bilingual dialogue with the filmmaker, Patrick Séraudie. He will be in conversation with two of the subjects of the film: Gerald Mendes, grandson of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, and Cookie Fischer, whose mother was a Sousa Mendes visa recipient. (more…)
Our Hebrews: The Tuscan Mountain Village that Rescued its Jewish Population
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 8 PM TUSCANY • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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Little Jerusalem: that is how the locals refer to the town of Pitigliano in southern Tuscany, because of its striking resemblance to Israel’s ancient city. Through the medieval stone walls, the fascinating story of centuries of harmonious co-existence between Jews and Christians is told for the first time, including the heroic acts performed by the locals during the Holocaust. (more…)
“Mrs. Judy” – The Canadian Woman Who Secretly Rescued the Jews of Syria
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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On this Chanukah program we honor Judy Feld Carr, a woman of exceptional courage and valor who chose to make a difference. Over a 28-year period, she secretly brought to freedom 3228 Jews prohibited from emigrating from Syria. Working with smugglers and bribing government officials, she removed most of that community from veritable bondage. In addition, she clandestinely smuggled out of that country priceless ancient articles of Jewish worship. Until Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Israeli Intelligence Organizations publicly acclaimed her activities, the world, including the Jewish world, had no inkling of this Canadian Jewish woman’s covert life. She is the subject of historian Dr. Harold Troper’s The Rescuer, now in its second edition. The rescue was the best-kept secret in the Jewish world. (more…)
Shared Legacies: The African-American and Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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This program is about African-Americans and Jewish-Americans who have been involved in each other’s historic struggles. Meet Susannah Heschel, daughter of the Jewish civil rights hero Abraham Joshua Heschel. And meet Alexis Scott, daughter of the African-American liberator and Holocaust educator William Alexander Scott III. The discussion will be moderated by the filmmaker Shari Rogers, whose documentary Shared Legacies will be shown.
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