What is anti-Semitism today, two generations after the Holocaust? Yoav Shamir travels the world to find the newest manifestations of the oldest hatred, and he bumps into surprising answers. He gets an insight into the US-based Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) work, and follows the League’s head, Abe Foxman during his international journeys in which he warns about the growing threats of anti-Semitism. He accompanies an Israeli high-school class to Poland: the youngsters’ shock at the sight of the Majdanek concentration camp is touching. His spirited narration and straightforward interviewing style keeps the film going forward. He speaks with the same directness to black people in Brooklyn or a rabbi in Moscow, to American professors or Israeli high school students. People let loose in front of him and speak freely. Occasionally, they say embarrassing things and the director uses these to make ironic, sometimes even mocking scenes. The result, nevertheless, is a serious work: only by understanding their response to anti-Semitism can we appreciate how Jews, and especially modern Israelis, respond to the world around them.
2009 | Israel | 91 min | Yoav Shamir | www

[<<]

[<]

[>]