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Woman of Valor — The Story of Hannah Senesh
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK • 9 PM JERUSALEM
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There are few figures in world history like Hannah Senesh. Possessed at a young age by the mission to save the Jewish people, she was an ardent Zionist who moved to Palestine to help establish a Jewish homeland. Then, in the midst of the Nazi genocide in Europe she volunteered to parachute into Yugoslavia en route to Hungary in an effort to warn and rescue Hungary’s Jews. Today she is remembered and revered in Israel — the land she helped build. Her poem “Eli, Eli” was set to music, and is widely known. This program will include a screening of Roberta Grossman‘s Blessed is the Match about Hannah’s life and action. Then meet the filmmaker who will be in dialogue with historians Dr. Michael Berenbaum and Dr. Mordecai Paldiel. Also joining the program will be the Israeli pop singer Avaya to speak about what Hannah Senesh means to her. A story everyone should know! (more…)
In My Mother’s Footsteps
Caught within the ever-approaching steel jaws of Nazi exterminators, 19-year-old Leah Steppel from Dusseldorf successfully escapes Europe via Portugal — thanks to a precious visa from Aristides de Sousa Mendes. More than seven decades later, her daughter Rebecca Barber retraces Leah’s footsteps to freedom. (more…)
Resistance of the Heart – A Valentine’s Day Program
The Rosenstrasse Protest is the nearly-forgotten story of a group of women in Berlin who faced down the Third Reich — and won! In February of 1943, several hundred non-Jewish wives of Jewish men faced down Hitler’s genocidal policy and the SS to secure the release of their captured husbands. Nathan Stoltzfus is the world’s expert on this history, and he will be in dialogue with historian Mordecai Paldiel as well as Ruth Wiseman, whose family lived this story. (more…)
Soros
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Billionaire activist George Soros is one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Famous for betting against the Bank of England in 1992 and making a billion dollars in one day, he is maligned by ideologues on both the left and the right for daring to tackle the world’s problems and putting his money behind his fight – from free elections and freedom of the press to civil rights for minorities. With unprecedented access to the man and his inner circle, filmmaker Jesse Dylan, the son of music icon Bob Dylan, follows Soros across the globe and pulls back the curtain on his personal history, private wealth, and public activism. The resulting filmed portrait reveals a complicated genius whose experience as a Jew during the Holocaust gave rise to a lifelong crusade against authoritarianism and hate. (more…)
Nobody Wants Us
In 1940, a ship called the S.S. Quanza left the port of Lisbon carrying several hundred Jewish refugees to freedom. Most of them held life-saving visas issued by the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes. But events went terribly wrong, and the passengers became trapped on the ship when no country would accept them. Nobody Wants Us tells the gripping true story of how Eleanor Roosevelt stepped in to save the passengers on board. Other heroes of the Quanza were the lawyers Jacob and Sallie Morewitz and members of the National Council of Jewish Women. This is an episode in American history that everyone should know!
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Bulgarian Miracle
In 1943, during the darkest times of human history, a handful of people in tiny Bulgaria stood up against Hitler… and succeeded. This is a true story about the remarkable rescue of 49,172 people — the entire Jewish population of Bulgaria. Plamen Petkov‘s documentary film 49,172 tells the story.
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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Rescue at Entebbe
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
9 PM JERUSALEM
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“I flew to the Entebbe operation as an Israeli, and returned to Israel as a Jew.” – Rami Sherman
This year marks the 45th anniversary of history’s most daring and influential rescue: the 1976 Operation Thunderbolt, during which Israeli commandos liberated more than 100 hostages held by German and Palestinian terrorists in Entebbe, Uganda. Meet one of the mission’s leaders, Rami Sherman, who served as an officer in Israel’s top commando unit, and Boaz Dvir, an award-winning nonfiction storyteller who spent the past decade researching this operation, to hear a new take on an operation that continues to impact America’s counterterrorism strategy.
Lessons in Moral Courage — Irshad Manji in conversation with Abraham H. Foxman
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Irshad Manji is the winner of Oprah Winfrey’s first annual Chutzpah Award for boldness. As founder of the Moral Courage Project, Irshad equips people to do the right thing in the face of fear. She discovered her mission through a deeply personal journey. In 2003, Irshad released The Trouble with Islam Today, an open letter to her fellow Muslims about why anti-Semitism and other prejudices must end in the name of Allah. In 2007, Irshad turned the book into an Emmy-nominated PBS film, Faith Without Fear. And in 2011, she published Allah, Liberty & Love, which shows how Islam can be reinterpreted for the 21st century. Along the way, Irshad became a professor of moral courage — first teaching at New York University and now lecturing with Oxford University’s Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights. Irshad’s latest book is Don’t Label Me. In our deeply polarized time, she says, standing for what’s right is not enough to make progress. We must also learn to engage the “Other.” Labeling is easy. But listening is a form of moral courage. (more…)