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Top 10 List

Vote for your film favorites in Jewish Culture contest.

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NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

W

hat's the best way to celebrate 350 years of
Jewish life in America?
If you're the National Foundation for
Jewish Culture (Detroiter Jim August chairs the NFJC),
you fete perhaps the top cultural achievement of
American Jews — the movie business — with that
favorite all-American pastime, the Top 10 list.
Participants have until Sept. 10 to vote for their
favorite Jewish features at www.jewishcalture.org; visi-
tors can choose from approximately 100 movies listed
by decade — from 1922's The Jazz Singer to 2002's The
Pianist — or type in their own suggestions.
The results will be announced at the foundation's
Jewish Image Awards ceremony Oct. 11.
"They'll remind people of the great heritage Jews
have as filmmakers in this country," the foundation's
David Tausik said.
Not that choosing 100 "semifinalists" for the Web
site was easy.
"We argued a lot," Tausik, a 43-year-old writer-direc-
tor, said of the selection committee. "It's tough to
define what makes a great film, let alone what defines a
film as Jewish."
While movies such as Schindler's List proved to be no-
brainers, debate raged over flicks such as 1933's Duck

Soup.
Italian actress Anna Magnani visits Danny Kaye, left, during the
Sure, the Marx Brothers were members of the tribe,
filming of "The Court Jester."
but their films weren't Jewish-themed, some committee
members said. Others countered that Groucho's "mix-
ture of pride and self deprecation" felt Jewish. The result:
Duck Soup was in.
OK, so one could argue that the Marx Brothers have a
Jewish sensibility. But the Jesus saga Ben Hur? Or Danny
Kaye's The Court Jester? Why are theY on the list?
Tausik, for his part, replied that the character of Judah
Ben Hur was Jewish (unusual for films of the 1950s) and
that the Jewish Kaye was "like the Hank Greenberg of
actors" in his day.
When pressed, he admitted these films could be con-
strued as a stretch, but then again, Top 10 lists themselves
are iffy.
"They're silly because they're arbitrary," he said. "But
our goal isn't to create a definitive list. It's to draw atten-
tion to Jewish films people may not have seen, to help
foster pride in our accomplishments and to teach non-
Jews a bit more about us.
"After all, a great deal of American Jewish experience
resides in these films. They say something about who we
are."

❑

Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup"

To vote, go to vvww.jewishculture.org
To find out more about events celebrating the
350th anniversary of Jewish life in America, visit
vvvvvv.celebrate350.org

664306

