Film, Identity, and Poetry

This is off-topic, but I just have to say - you CANNOT match Israeli hummus in California. Good hummus is now plentiful in the Bay Area. But you have to come here to get truly great hummus. There's just no comparison. Now that that is settled, back to the BASIS Summer Forum -

Friday began at Bet Daniel, a progressive synagogue in Tel Aviv, with each school group processing the enriching experiences they had the previous day, and those from each of the 3 tracks sharing their findings with those from the other tracks.


Educators (South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in foreground),
sharing and processing learnings from Thursday.

Then the whole group came together for an amazing encounter with Katie Green of the Ma'aleh School of Television, Film & the Arts. The session was - Looking at Jewish Identity through the Camera Lens. Ma'aleh is the only film school geared for Orthodox Jewish filmakers. Students learn the crafts associated with film and television and Ma'aleh helps young filmakers make and distribute their films.


Katie Green of Ma'aleh Film School

Filmakers cover a broad array of subjects - no subject is taboo. The only restrictions relate to showing sex or nudity on the screen and language.

We saw 2 short films - 'Willingly' ('Haray At' in Hebrew) - about a young Orthodox couple going through a divorce; and 'Evacuation Order' - a hilarious comedy about soldiers who must evacuate an illegal settlement.


Scene from "Willingly" ("Haray At") - Michal and Yoni,
a young couple seeking a "get."

Both films were excellent and provoked interesting questions and conversations about Jewish identity in Israel.

Then, prominent Israeli educator Leah Shakdiel led a discussion analyzing the Israeli Declaration of Independence as a key text to understand the Jewish and democratic natures of Israel today.


Wrestling with the Declaration of Independence in Hevruta

The afternoon included an optional walking tour of Jaffa and Neve Tzedek. Neve Tzedek, the oldest Jewish neighborhood of Tel Aviv, predates Tel Aviv -having been settled by Jews in the 1880s. It eventually became a center for writers and artists, fell into disrepair and has been redeveloped and renovated and is again a center for arts and culture.

At sunset, we gathered on the Namal (Tel Aviv Port) for a kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) service. It was an incredible scene, and emblematic of the changes occurring in Israeli Jewish identity, to see 300 people gathering at seaside for a public Shabbat service in Tel Aviv - the center of secular Israel. The service, accompanied by acoustic instruments, was led by the leaders of Bet Tifela Yisraeli, a non-denominational congregation in Tel Aviv, supported in part by the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation. As the sun set over the Mediterranean, surrounded by Israelis, Americans Argentinians, and other Jews from foreign lands (many here for the Maccabia Games), it was a lovely way to greet the Shabbat.

At dinner, prominent educator Barry Chazan poetically called for educators to put the poetry back into Israel education. Barry quoted Yehuda Amichai, Chaim Nahman Bialik, Leah Goldberg, Naomi Shemer and others, asserting that Israel studies must be less prosaic, more poetic.