Between Two Worlds

When the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival screened the documentary Rachel—a film about American activist Rachel Corrie's controversial death during a Jerusalem peace protest—the ensuing rage among local Jews shocked festival founders and documentarians Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman. Hotheads and Zionist-conservatives called for boycotts and possible termination of the event (the oldest of its kind in the nation) altogether. Inspired by this contretemps (which turned out to largely be a matter of e-mail flaming and talk-radio blowhards), the filmmakers, shown in both Israel and the United States, ruminate about deep divisions in modern Judaism. While the overall culture has long been liberal-minded, right-wingers demand unquestioning support of Israel, and young female rabbinical students are ordered to bear children to increase the racial demographic. The important subject of the political clout of radical ultra-orthodox Jews in and out of Israel is completely ignored here, in favor of the more personal stories of the Snitow/Kaufman households—assimilated American Jews whose past pursuits of a just and tolerant world led to flirtations with Soviet communism and even conversion to Islam. The documentarians fear their families would be regarded as anti-Semites by contemporary individuals whose unquestioning loyalty to Israel suggests a combination of fanaticism and paranoia. A mostly compelling docu-essay—although incomplete in scope—this is recommended for larger Judaism collections, and a strong optional purchase elsewhere. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)