Brad Lichtenstein and Morgan Elise Johnson’s documentary looks at a number of small Jewish communities around the country that are in danger of disappearing as the result of declining membership. One is in Latrobe, PA, where octogenarian congregation leader Mickey Radman--who describes himself as one of the group’s younger members and relies on a family that has moved away but drives regularly to services to provide a minyan--must accede to selling their building and merging with a community in New Jersey (one of the most poignant moments is the final Latrobe bat mitzvah). Another example is Laredo, TX, where Uri Druker is futilely trying to reinvigorate the local community before considering moving to San Antonio with his wife, a Catholic convert. In Butte, MT, the focus is on Nancy Oyer, whose leadership of the community is threatened when she falls ill and the congregation is forced to rely on its former president and student rabbis. But the community in Dothan, AL, seems to have a more positive future--a benefactor is offering $50,000 to Jewish families who choose to move to the town, and the film documents the successful recruitment of one family from California. An affecting portrait of religious communities struggling to survive, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
There Are Jews Here
(2018) 90 min. DVD: $99: public libraries; $350 w/PPR: colleges & universities. Seventh Art Releasing. Volume 33, Issue 3
There Are Jews Here
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