Arts & Entertainment

We're Still Here

As the High Holidays near, PBS documentary
considers the miracle of Jewish survival as a people.

Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel because the
Tibetan Buddhist leader wanted to find
out how the Jews managed to hold on to
he overriding impression the new their identities.
PBS documentary The Jewish
As Wiesel recalls, the Dalai Lama said to
People: A Story of Survival is like- him: "Your people suffered a lot and went
ly to leave with viewers is that the film is
into exile 2,000 years ago, but you are still
misnamed. This isn't a story; it's a miracle. here. My people just left our homeland; we
Telescoping four millennia into just 90
are in exile. Teach us how to survive'
minutes makes all too clear how much
That's not to say this documentary is an
we Jews have suffered. Every few minutes
hour and a half of "suffering." Amidst the
there is another disaster: slavery in Egypt
gloom, there is much that is positive and
and Babylonia, the loss of the Temples,
reminds viewers why and how — despite
forced exile, the Inquisition, pogroms, the
enemies, despite the diaspora — we are
Holocaust. And because this is PBS, there
still here.
isn't a break for commercials. The anti-
True, there is nothing much new for
Semitic litany seems never ending.
those who paid attention to history les-
How did the Jews make it when so
sons in religious school classes. Much of
many other communities vanished? This
the information offered — about life in
documentary, premiering Sept. 16 on
the shtetls, for example — is regular fod-
Detroit Public Television-Channel 56, aims der in the Jewish-oriented documentaries
to answer that question focusing not on
PBS typically airs during its fundraising
Jewish religion or culture but as "the first
drives. Still there is something appealing
Jewish film organized around the central
about this show — particularly for those
themes of survival and the achievement of less than attentive in Hebrew school.
a people' It is produced and directed by
The film effectively summarizes 4,000
Andrew Goldberg, whose most recent PBS or so years of history, fills in many gaps
film, Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century:
and constantly reminds us of just how rich
The Resurgence, aired in January 2007.
our culture truly is. Judaism is the first
Even so august a figure as the Dalai
major monotheistic religion. Moreover,
Lama is impressed by the fact that the
it is also the first in which every aspect
Jewish Woman From Tangiers ("Femme Juive de Tanger") by Charles-Emile Vernet-
Jews are still around. A few years ago, he
of human behavior — criminal, social,
Lecomte, Paris, 1886
set up a meeting with Nobel Laureate and
moral — is covered by religious dictates.
"Not an area of life is outside God's inter-
est," notes narrator Martha Teichner,
is that people who don't learn from history
(current-day Persia) who deny the Holocaust
a senior correspondent for CBS News
are doomed to repeat it. The "if' usually is
and call for the destruction of Israel.
Sunday Morning.
interpreted to mean negative
Similarly, one of the greatest periods of
The documentary tells the
things. But there are positive
Jewish intellectual thought came under
story of how Judaism evolved
lessons that can be learned
Arab rule in Andalusia (current-day Spain)
from a biblical religion — one in
from history as well — if
between the 10th and 13th centuries. During
which God spoke to the people
only world leaders would pay
what many consider a golden age, Jews and
through prophets — to a rab-
attention.
Muslims lived peacefully together, with Jews
binic faith, where studying and
After the First Temple was
regularly offered considerable authority and
questioning became central. Jews
destroyed, the Jews were taken responsibility within the society. Scholars
became less concerned with
to Babylonia as slaves. It was
such as Maimonides flourished during this
monuments — which regularly
the Persian leader Cyrus the
period, and he also served as personal physi-
were destroyed by our enemies
Great who freed the Jews from cian to Caliph Saladin.
— than with the Torah and the Traverse City native
slavery and allowed them to
If only this sort of history repeated
various interpretations of it.
return
to Jerusalem to rebuild itself. Li
Martha Teichner nar-
"That's why Jews survived;'
rates the documentary. the Temple. Ironically, it is the
says author and social commen-
descendants of Cyrus in Iran
tator Fran Lebowitz, one of sev-
eral people — mostly scholars
and rabbis — to offer their expertiselews
The Jewish People: A Story of Survival premieres 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept.16,
are the people of the book."
on Detroit Public Television-Channel 56 program as part of the 2008 pledge
There is another important element of
drive. It is scheduled to repeat at 10 p.m. the same day and also at 1:30 a.m.
The Kritz family at the turn of
The
Jewish
People.
The
prevailing
wisdom
Thursday,
Sept.18. Check your local listings.
the 20th century

T

September 11 • 2008

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