SCREEN

Menachem & Fred - Two Jewish brothers from a small German town are separated during the war while living at a French orphanage. Shortly after the war, the older brother--Fred, then 16--left for America and found that assimilation was easier than his Jewish identity. The younger brother—Menachem--then 13, made his way to Palestine and continued to live a traditional Jewish life. Each had many unresolved issues with the other, including feelings of abandonment and guilt. Only after 60 years were the brothers able to reunite, and this story, highly emotional in parts, explains how that event happened. Following the film, meet and ask questions of Fred Raymes, one of the two brothers featured in the movie. Fred was saved from deportation by the Quakers, and he will talk about his family’s assimilation, as well as their difficulty in confronting issues around the Holocaust.

Altalena - A dramatic and nail-biting re-enactment of the sinking of the freighter “Altalena” in June 1948, a month after Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The Irgun attempted to smuggle arms and ammunition to re-supply its fighters but for Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, there was to be only one army in the new country. The confrontation turned into a civil-war like battle when the newly-formed Israel Defense Forces shelled the Irgun vessel, resulting in the death of more than 20 fellow Jews. This tragedy created political hatred that still simmers in some quarters until today. This docudrama faithfully and objectively recounts the story.

S'rugim - S’rugim are the knitted kipot worn by the hip and religious. You will love the nine episodes of the smash-hit Israeli television series that depicts the lives of 30-something highly educated, and modern religious professionals in Jerusalem. It’s compared to Sex in the City but in this Israeli series the people are all religiously observant, and the complex intertwining of many of their lives began in the religious youth movement. The common threads are universal in nature, namely, a search for emotional and spiritual fulfillment and, above all, for a mate.