Arts Entertainment

A PBS special

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

E

nglish anthropologist Tudor
Parfitt went on a long jour-
ney to answer an ancient
Jewish quthion with the
help of modern science and is about to
guide television viewers along his route.
Starting out in Soweto, just outside
Johannesburg, he moved northward
across Zimbabwe, through war-torn
Mozambique, up along the African coast
to Southern Yemen on the Arabian
peninsula and onto the lunar-like desert
canyons of the Wadi Hadhramaut, in
search of the semi-mythical town of
Senna, from which the Lemba people
trace their origins.

explores the

African tribe

whose genetic

markers suggest

Jewish roots.

Parfitt's quest was to determine whether the
Lemba, the people living in this remote area, could
trace their roots to one of the so-called lost tribes of
Israel. Traditional interviews with the Lemba and
observations of their long-held rituals would not sat-
isfy him. He went further by collecting saliva sam-
ples from males to test their genetic makeup.
Parfitt was looking for a recently discovered
genetic marker that appears in approximately 10
percent of today's Jewish population and in insignifi-
cant proportions in the general population. His
approach, which ultimately led to the discovery of a
distinct hereditary link, will be explored by the sci-
ence program Nova, now in its 26th season on pub-
lic television.
When the show, Lost Tribes of Israel, airs 9 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 22, on Detroit Public Television-
Channel 56, two members of the Jewish community
will be credited for their behind-the-scenes work.
David Espar, a former Detroiter, produced the
episode and wrote the narration. Paula Apsell was
executive producer.
"The film was originally shot by a producer and
crew from England and was more of a travel-adven-
ture story," Espar explains. "We reworked it for
Nova by putting in more science and keeping only
some of the travel parts.
"I went to London and re-interviewed some peo-

fora

s, A

Man.,

ork has brought Nova executive
W producer Paula Apsell to
Michigan for many projects, includ-
ing the continuing series So You Want
to Be a Doctor, which has followed
former Harvard medical students
over many years and takes her to a
Lansing emergency room headed up
by one of those students,
Apse...11's executive position gives her
tough decision-making responsibilities
regarding what programs will be pro-
duced.
"We get hundreds of ideas submit-
ted to us, hundreds ofprograms in var-
ious stages of completion and we only
make 20 new programs a year," says
sell, who began her broadcasting
career in 1969 after graduating with
honors in psychology from Brandeis
University. "I choose based on whether

TIT

2/18

2000

78

m

s
.

ti med "Nova" series.

the science is quality science as well as
[considering] practical, aesthetic and
editorial issues.
"I loved working on the Lemba pro-
gram because it brings together two
areas that I am personally interested in
genetics and Jewish history," says
Apsell, who thought her first broadcast-
ing job would tide her over until she
found something in social work.
After joining . WGBH Boston as a
scheduling assistant, she went on to
create the award-winning children's
radio drama The Spider's Wib and then
became a radio news producer.
She joined NOVA in 1975 and pro-
duced eight films that first year, includ-
ing one on genes and another on
Alaska. In 1980, she left WGBH to
join Dr. Timothy Johnson, who
adyanced from local to national pro-

gramrning on ABC.
Fellowship studies in the
public understanding of sci-
ence at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology pre-
ceded her return to Nova, this time
with diversification into other media,
including large-format film, books,
educational kits and the Internet.
During her tenure, Nova has won
Many awards, such as the Emmy,
Peabody and the National Science
Foundation Public Service Award.
We want to present programs
about science for a general audience in
a way that will engage people who have
no particular scientific background or
interest," says Apsell, who is married to
a physicist and has two daughters, one
in pre-med studies and another in high
school.

"Nova"Executive
Producer Paula Apsel:
"We want to present
programs about science
or a general audience."

Apsell enjoys her work
because she can learn
something new every
day. "I think that hav-
ing your fingers on
what's going on in science can really
ou connect [ideas] and affects
help you`
the way you see the world and your
attitude toward everything," she says.
Apsell is active in her synagogue and
on the boards of the Earthwatch
Institute, Smithsonian's National
Museum of Natural History and the
Hebrew College in Brookline.
"Nova has put me in touch with
many bright and wonderful people, sci-
entists and others," says Apse'. "It's
given me a perspective on how much
interesting work is going on in this
country and abroad. It affects my life
in a global way"

❑

