My Coffee with Jewish Friends

Film editor turned director Manfred Kirchheimer acknowledges a debt up front to Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre in his reductionist documentary built around a simple sit-down with Jewish colleagues from the arts (and other disciplines) along with some students to discuss their Judaism (although one interviewee is the son of a Jewish-Christian upbringing). Religion is an early topic, with Kirchheimer himself a onetime convert to Orthodoxy who became an atheist in response to God's silence over the Holocaust. "We don't do God in this house" is a quote from some regarding their upbringing, but prolific cinematographer Tom Hurwitz went from being an ardent non-believer to an observant Jew who regrets his previous cynicism. Others reject faith but embrace Israel as the wellspring of Jewish identity and self-protection. Some Zionists here come across as inhumane (an irony of which they seem well aware) in their blanket condemnation of Arabs and support of West Bank settlers. Musician Walter Hess says he does not want their conversation to devolve into "Orthodox bashing," but his wife Hannah prefers to consider the criticism fanaticism-bashing. In the end, Kirchheimer admits that no firm conclusions are reached, while many opinions seem intractable—which, he says, is very Jewish. Although somewhat scattershot, this snapshot portrait of contemporary opinions on issues related to Judaism should be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)