Once again I am a volunteer for this special event, February 16 – 19, now in it’s eighth exciting year. There will be over 50 documentaries and feature films to chose from, but I would like to point out one in particular. It is called “Nicky’s Family” and even though it is reminiscent of ‘Schindler’s List,” it is quite different in a number of ways.

The film tells the story of Nicholas Winton, an Englishman who organized the rescue of 669 Czech and Slovak children just before the outbreak of World War II. Winton, now 102 years old, did not speak about these events with anyone for more than half a century. His story may have gone untold, but his wife found a suitcase in the attic full of documents and transport plans. Today the story of this rescue is known all over the world. Thousands of children in many countries have decided to follow in his footsteps and do something important. Knighted by Queen Elisabeth II and nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace, Nicholas Winton’s story is heart-warming and uplifting in the extreme, and I promise that once you see this extraordinary film about an extraordinary man, you will never forget it or the man.

If you get 25 people together to see this film, or any other, let us know and we will give you a discount on your tickets. The full BIFF program is now up and running on the internet.  You will also notice that Kevin Kline and Diane Keaton, along with Diane Weist are starring in the opening night film “Darling Companion” directed by award winning director Lawrence Kasdan, and produced by Andrew Bregman, both of whom will be on hand to answer questions directly following the film.

William Macy and Martin Sheen are coming to take part in the festival and each have special events devoted to them. And there are many more exciting sessions and films to look forward to. Download a program now. And spread the word about this special documentary and BIFF in general. We than you for your support and look forward to seeing you at BIFF.

Although I expect “A Separation” will win, I have not seen it yet. The trailer looks terrific, however. The Iranian film, which nabbed a Golden Globe last week and has gotten great reviews, centers on a couple’s unraveling marriage.

But my allegiance is split between the Israeli nominee and a Holocaust drama, both of which I saw at the Telluride Film Festival in September.

“Footnote,” Israel’s entry, is a gripping character study directed by Joseph Cedar. The taut story focuses on the rivalry between father-and-son Talmudic scholars. Sony Pictures Classics plans to release the film in March. This is the 10^th nomination for an Israeli film in this category – though none has ever won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar – and the second nomination for Cedar, who was nominated in 2008 for “Beaufort.” (“Waltz with Bashir” and “Ajami” were Oscar nominees in 2009 and 2010, respectively.) Go Israel!!

“In Darkness,” from Jewish director Agnieszka Holland (“Europa, Europa”) is also a knockout, and probably the best film I saw at Telluride. Based on a true story about a Polish sewer worker who sheltered a group of Jews in the sewer during the Holocaust, the film is brilliant and brutal. It will be released theatrically in February – the trailer is now playing at the 29^th St Theaters.

I loved both these films so much, I don’t care which one wins. I am just thrilled they are nominated and hope that earns them larger audiences.

Of course, there are, as always, other Jewish points of interest in this year’s nominees, announced Tuesday. Woody Allen was rightfully acknowledged for his enchanting “Midnight in Paris,” which has been nominated for best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

“Moneyball” earned adapted screenplay nominations for Aaron Sorkin (with Steven Zailian) and best supporting actor nomination for that loveable shlub, Jonah Hill, who gave a terrifically understated performance in this excellent movie. Spielberg got a nod for “War Horse.” No comment.

You can be sure I’ll be glued to my big screen TV on February 26. Champagne, anyone?

Menorah hosts its first community-wide book club event on Sunday, January 29, at 4 pm. This program is also a commemoration of the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War and includes a book discussion, a meal and a film.

DU Professor Adam Rovner returns to the Boulder JCC to discuss the work of award-winning author Dara Horn and lead a book-club style discussion of her third acclaimed novel, “All Other Nights,” a page-turner set against the backdrop of the Civil War. “All Other Nights,” published in 2009, was selected as New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice.

Following a light dinner break featuring Civil War era cuisine (vegetarian), audiences can sit back (or recline) to watch the new documentary, “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray.” Professor Ronnie Grinberg from CU’s Program in Jewish Studies will lead a discussion about Jewish life during the Civil War after the screening.

Did you know there were 150,00 Jews living in America at the time of the Civil War? And that more Jews lived in Charleston and New Orleans than New York and Philadelphia? Did you know that 10,000 Jews fought in the Civil War? Ever heard of Judah Benjamin, a lawyer and US Senator who was the most prominent and highest ranking Jewish figure in Civil War history, fighting for the Confederacy?

Copies of “All Other Nights” are available at the Boulder JCC Library, HaSifria. But reading Horn’s suspenseful work of historical fiction is not required for participation. The program is for anyone interested in learning more about the role played by Jews as they defended both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War, when allegiances split the Jewish community as deeply as the country at large. Some prominent Jewish voices cited the Torah to justify slavery, while others led the abolitionist movement.

Come celebrate Passover in 1862. Join the African-American spy network. Watch the destruction of Richmond. Next week at One JCC Reads.

Tickets are $18. Click here to reserve your spot.

CU’s 2012 Holocaust Awareness Week will also adopt the UN’s theme this year which will focus on the “Children and the Holocaust.” Some children managed to survive in hiding, others fled to safe havens before it was too late, while many others suffered medical experiments or were sent to the gas chambers immediately upon arriving at the death camps. Highlighting the impact of mass violence on children, this theme has important implications for the 21st century. CU’s keynote lecture, “Hidden Children of the Holocaust” on Thursday, January 26 at 7:00 pm in the University Memorial Center room 235 features University of California Davis professor and author Diane Wolf.

Anne Frank has largely shaped the image of the Jewish child hiding from the Nazis, yet her experience was not the norm. Wolf’s keynote lecture is based on her book “Beyond Anne Frank: Hidden Children and Postwar Families in Holland” in which she draws on interviews with seventy Jewish men and women who, as children, were placed in non-Jewish families during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Wolf analyzes the experiences of these Holocaust survivors, which were diametrically opposed to those who suffered in concentration camps. Although the war years were tolerable for most of these children, it was the end of the war that marked the beginning of a traumatic time, especially if parents survived, leading many of those interviewed to remark, “My war began after the war.”

Diane Wolf, professor of Sociology and director of Jewish Studies at UC Davis

Diane Wolf is professor of Sociology and director of Jewish Studies at the University of California, Davis. She has authored “Beyond Anne Frank: Hidden Children and Postwar Families in Holland,” “From Auschwitz to Ithaca: The Transnational Journey of Jake Geldwert” and “Factory Daughters“. She edited “Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork” and co-edited “Sociology Confronts the Holocaust: Memories and Identities in Jewish Diasporas“. Her current research focuses on American cultural memory of the Holocaust, children of Holocaust survivors, and comparing the religious practices of secular Jews in both Israel and the U.S.

CU’s 28th Annual Holocaust Awareness Week includes film screenings, presentations  and testimonies from survivors. The schedule of events begins Tuesday, January 24:

Tuesday, January 24 at 7:00 pm
Film screening of “Mephisto”
Boulder JCC, 3800 Kalmia Avenue
$10 at the door**
This Oscar-winning political drama is based on Klaus Mann’s 1936 novel of the same name. In early 1930s Germany, ambitious actor Hendrik Hofgen cares little for politics and lives only for his art. But when the Nazis rise to power, Hofgen seizes the opportunity to perform propaganda plays for the Reich, gaining popularity and fame. But can he survive in a world where the ideology of evil is the ultimate drama?
**Presented by Menorah: Arts, Culture and Education at the Boulder Jewish Community Center. Visit www.boulderjcc.org for details.

The House on August Street by Aylelet Bargur

Wednesday, January 25 at 7:00 pm
“The House on August Street” with post-film discussion by Diane Wolf, professor of Sociology and director of Jewish Studies at UC Davis
University of Colorado Boulder, Atlas Building Room 100
**Free and open to the public, RSVPs are required as space is limited, email Nicholas.Underwood@colorado.edu or call 303.492.7143
From award-winning director Aylelet Bargur, “The House on August Street” tells the remarkable, unknown story of Beate Berger, a German Jew who single-handedly and with great resolve and vision rescued over 100 children during the Holocaust, smuggling them from Berlin to Palestine in the 1930s. Berger, founder of the House of Love Children’s Home (Beith Ahawah Kinderheim), Berlin’s first home for poor Jewish children, was quick to recognize the Nazi threat and resolved to protect the 120 children under her care. Raising the funds and making all the clandestine arrangements, Berger brought groups of children into Palestine from Germany from 1934 to 1939. The Beit Ahava orphanage in Haifa remains open today.

Thursday, January 26 at 7:00 pm
Keynote lecture “Hidden Children of the Holocaust” with Diane Wolf, author and professor of Sociology and director of Jewish Studies at UC Davis
University of Colorado Boulder, University Memorial Center room 235
Anne Frank largely shaped the image of the Jewish child hiding from the Nazis, yet her experience was not the norm. Drawing on interviews with seventy Jewish men and women who, as children, were placed in non-Jewish families during the Nazi occupation of Holland, Wolf analyzes the experiences of these Holocaust survivors which were diametrically opposed to the those who suffered in concentration camps. Although the war years were tolerable for most of these children, it was the end of the war that marked the beginning of a traumatic time, especially if parents survived, leading many of those interviewed here to remark, “My war began after the war.”

Friday, January 27 at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm
Reading of the names and survivor testimonies
University of Colorado Boulder
University Memorial Center room 235
CU’s Holocaust Awareness Week concludes with the reading of Holocaust victims’ names called the Litany of the Martyrs which will begin at 10:00 am in the UMC. Testimonies from local Holocaust survivors will be at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm.

A complete schedule of events can be found at www.hillelcolorado.org and http://jewishstudies.colorado.edu.

Holocaust Awareness Week is presented by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Hillel and co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies at CU, Menorah: Arts, Culture and Education at the Boulder JCC, the Cultural Events Board at CU, and Movers: Art and Conscience community collaborative series.

Diane Wolf’s visit has been made possible by generous donors to CU’s Hillel, the Program in Jewish Studies and the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project, directed by the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). Support for the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project is generously provided by Legacy Heritage Fund Limited.

Prof. Carlos Zarur and Kathryn Bernheimer

Menorah held another in their successful series on Jews from around the world on Saturday night, this time taking 120 or so community members to Greece, via the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  The evening featured a documentary on the only remaining Romaniote Jewish synagogue left in the Western Hemisphere, on Broome St. in Manhattan, in what used to be a thriving Greek-Jewish island in the middle of a larger immigrant community.

Professor Carlos Zarur then elaborated on the historical information provided in the film, following by a question and answer period that uncovered a few Boulder community members with Romaniote roots.  This was followed by a delicious meal served, according to Menorah tradition, by Menorah Board members and consisting of spanikopita, Greek salad and a traditional Greek soup.

Sherefe

After a dessert of baklava, almond biscotti and Ouzo, guests were treated to a concert of Greek and Greek-inspired music by Sherefe, which inspired some dancing as well.

The Romaniote Greek Jewish community was established in Greece during the time of Alexander the Great,  flourished there for 1100 years, creating synagogues (a word with Greek roots) and rabbis to lead them in prayer away from the Temple Judaism of Judah and Israel at the time. Starting in 1492, many of these communities were overwhelmed by the fleeing Jews of Spain and Portugal after the Expulsion.  Over the next few hundred years, most Romaniote communities became absorbed into the larger and growing Sephardic communities, leaving relatively few Greek-speaking communities with traditions that dated back to before the Second Temple.  Many of these Greek Jews immigrated to America (and the Lower East side) during the many upsets in the Balkans between 1900 and 1925, the end of which saw the expulsion of long-established Greek communities from Turkey and Asia Minor during the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War.

As with most Manhattan Jewish neighborhoods, by the 1950′s the community started to disintegrate as the second and third generations moved away.  Broome St. synagogue managed to stay afloat, however, and survived partly by becoming a museum about Romaniote Judaism.  In the last ten years, however, the membership has begun to grow again as third and fourth generation Jews, interested in their heritage, started coming again.

Here are pictures and some video from the event:

Video of Sherefe:

The word “opa” is the Greek equivalent of L’Chaim, used as a celebratory salutation. Unlike, “L’Chaim, which means “to life,” opa doesn’t really ‘mean’ anything. It’s an exclamation of joy, like “whoopee” or “hooray.” It is frequently used in conjunction with dancing and drinking.

OPA! Celebrating the Jews of Greece, which takes place  Saturday, December 3 starting at 6:00 pm at the Boulder JCC, is an opportunity to use both affirmations of joy. There will be dancing. There will be drinking. There will be an abundance of great food.

The Jewish presence in Greece goes back at least to the times of Alexander the Great – come experience their rich culture, cuisine and history.

The highlight of the evening will be a concert of Greek music by the band Sherefe. The evening will also include a short film about the Romaniote Jews, who have 2,000 years of history, and their own language, customs and traditions. Carlos Zarur, Menorah’s favorite teacher, will lead a discussion following the film.

Come enjoy baklava and ouzo, spanakopita and dolmas, Greek wine and Greek salad. Learn Greek dances from Jean Hertzberg. (Yes, she’s Jewish and a great dancer, but not Greek.)

Pre-registration is strongly recommended as this event fills the Boulder JCC. Tickets are $25 in advance; $30 at the door.

Mary Lou

Fox’s earlier films Yossi and Jagger and Walk on Water have been shown at the Boulder JCC, and The Bubble screened at Limmud Colorado. Mary Lou follows the story of a famous drag queen in search of her mother and has been called “the Israeli Glee“. Kathryn Bernheimer calls Fox “one of my favorite Israeli directors” and adds,

Mary Lou” is his first musical. But it shares many qualities with his earlier films, all of which are humane, deeply felt, compelling, deadly serious yet life-affirming. Like his previous films, Mary Lou does not shy from the painful realities of life, but is ultimately uplifting. There is an audacious spirit in Fox’s films, and the infectious soundtrack that drives the overtly emotional story in Mary Lou captures this flamboyance well. Fox is maturing as a filmmaker, and is becoming stylistically more sophisticated with each film.

I applaud the Boedecker Theater for booking this high octane Israeli drama, and for partnering with Bent Lens and Keshet. If you haven’t yet been to the Boe, you are in for a treat.”

To read the Forward review of “Mary Lou,” click here.

Both screenings are at the “Boe” – Boedecker Theater at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder. Cost: $10 regular, $8 seniors/student. Purchase tickets on the Dairy website.

As we commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War, we will also show “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray,” with a discussion led by Professor Ronnie Grinberg from CU’s Program in Jewish Studies.

Copies of “All Other Nights” are available at the Boulder JCC Library, HaSifria.

The event is January 29^th, 4-8 pm. Cost is $18; includes film, book discussion and a Civil War-themed dinner (including corn chowder and apple pie).

Take our Civil War trivia test:

1. How many Jews were living in America at the time of the Civil War?

a)    15,000

b)   150,00

c)    500,000

2.  How many Jews fought in the Civil War?

a)    5,000

b)   10,000

c)    30,000

Judah Benjamin

3.  Judah Benjamin, the most prominent and highest ranking Jewish figure in Civil War history, fought on the side of…

a)    The Union

b)   The Confederacy

4.  What were the largest centers of Jewish population during the Civil War?

a)    New York and Philadelphia

b)   Charleston and New Orleans