“One of the 12 best ways to
salute the holiday season!”

-The Detroit News

TOO HOT TO HANDEL

THE JAZZ-GOSPEL MESSIAH!

A hand-clapping, soul-stirring holiday celebration!

ONE SHOW ONLY!

Saturday, December 16, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.
At the Detroit Opera House

Alfreda Burke

Rodrick Dixon

Tickets start at just $20

$

99

Photo: Dan Demetriad

Presented by Rackham Choir
and the Detroit Opera House

FAMILY
K*
4-PAC

Karen Marie
Richardson

FOR TICKETS:
313.237.7464 or MichiganOpera.org

Alvin Waddles

For Group Sales, call 313.237.3425

*Limited quantities

:\P[PUN*HZ\HS,]LUPUN

He has struggled with anger, resent-
ment and substance abuse, and is
now working to stay clean and make
up for lost time. “I was robbed of my
life,” he says in the film.
Luzer Twersky has his own painful
story. After an abusive childhood, he
married at 19, fathered two children,
and then walked away from his life.
“Depression is something I’ll prob-
ably deal with for the rest of my life,”
said Twersky, now 32. “There are
issues that I deal with that have a
lot more to do with how I was raised
than religion.”
Describing himself as “genetically
and psychologically Jewish,” Twersky
said that now, “I’m not religious at
all — I’m not even culturally Jewish.”
He is in contact with his parents and
some of his 11 siblings, but not with
his ex-wife or children.
Though Twersky misses the food,
the music and the sense of com-
munity, “I don’t miss the rules or the
dogma or any of that, not for a sec-
ond,” he said.
He drives for Uber to pay the
bills, but his acting career is pick-
ing up. He often plays Jewish char-
acters, as he did in three episodes
of Transparent in 2015. Twersky
recently shot an episode of HBO’s
High Maintenance, and is rehearsing
for a stage production of Awake and

Sing, among other projects.
Hershkowitz is currently study-
ing for his GED. Etty is planning to
appeal the court’s custody decision.
“A woman in Etty’s situation won
on appeal,” Grady said, “so there’s
a precedent now, a glimmer of hope.”
Grady and Ewing have stayed in
touch with their subjects, especially
as the film just began streaming in
mid-October. “Our main concern is
preparing them for what’s coming at
them,” Ewing said — including both
national exposure and the Chasidic
community’s potentially negative
reaction.
One of Us has played at a hand-
ful of film festivals, before mostly
New York secular Jewish audiences,
who Ewing said were “outraged and
offended by some of the things they
saw.”
The filmmakers are currently
developing several projects, includ-
ing one about “fundamentalists, not
necessarily religious” ones, Grady
said.
As for One of Us, the directors say
the film is less about religion than
the universal theme of individual-
ity. “I feel that it’s better to shine a
light on a community that has been
unchecked for so long,” Ewing said,
“and have a productive conversation
among Jews about these issues.” •

4HKLPU5L^@VYR:PaLZ¶

7UHDW\RXUVHOIRUVRPHRQHHOVH
WKLVKROLGD\VHDVRQZLWKD
1LQD0F/HPRUHJLIWFHUWLðFDWH

RIIDOOJLIWFHUWLƂFDWHV
WRGD\WKUX'HFHPEHUWK

1LQD0F/HPRUH%RXWLTXH
:6SK>VVK^HYK
)PYTPUNOHT

ULHY[OL)PYTPUNOHT;OLH[YL
4VU¶-YP¶:H[¶
(SZVI`HWWVPU[TLU[


5L^@VYR(ZWLU([SHU[H*OL]`*OHZL4+
/V\Z[VU7HST+LZLY[:HU-YHUJPZJV
:JV[[ZKHSL:LH[[SL=HPS*SL]LSHUK
*OLZ[LY[V^U4+

^^^UPUHTJSLTVYLJVT

jn

December 7 • 2017

65