Filming Jewish

If you can tell a lot about a society by what it likes to watch, then something quite interesting must be happening in Israel, where one of the top-rated television shows is called “Srugim.” The show is an Israeli twist on the American hit “Friends,” and it follows the daily dramas of a group of single Jews living in modern-day Israel.

But here’s the twist: These hip young singles are religious. Not the black-hat type of religious, but still devout Orthodox Jews who spend their Saturdays in houses of worship rather than in malls or at soccer stadiums.

In a country where the secular often look down on the religious, how could such a show be so popular?

I got part of an answer the other day when I went to visit my friend and Hollywood film producer, Tom Barad, at his offices on Beverly Drive. Barad is chairing the premiere, on Feb. 11, of a one-week film festival from The Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts in Jerusalem, and since I’m a big fan of their films, he asked me to get involved.

Barad has reached out to an eclectic mix of Hollywood Jews, many of whom are Torah-observant, to help him attract an audience to the Feb. 11 premiere and to the festival — names like David Sacks, Michael Borkow, Mia Goldman, Dan Adler, Jeff Astroff and one of the “Shrek 2” writers himself, David Weiss.

It could be that he’s pulling out all the stops because of the unusual nature of the Ma’aleh films. You see, there are no steamy sex scenes, no blood and gore, no trucks getting blown up, no Jews killing Arabs or Arabs killing Jews and no cheap shots against Judaism or Israel. In fact, you’re likely to walk out of these films feeling better, or at least deeper, about your Jewish identity.

I guess you’d expect that from a school that describes itself as “an institution of higher education which trains filmmakers to produce work inspired by their Jewish heritage, fostering a unique connection between the world of media and Jewish culture. The school aims to build bridges between Jewish tradition and social experience, as well as between the religious and secular worlds.”

In other words, they make really Jewish films. 

But I can see how using cinema for a cause like “building bridges” might smell fishy. When people go to the movies, the last thing they want to see is an agenda, especially a pious agenda. Most moviegoers want to be entertained, not sermonized. And let’s face it, when you see words like “Jewish heritage” and “Jewish tradition,” you’re thinking synagogue or JCC, not the Cineplex.

Maybe that’s why the films of Ma’aleh are so noteworthy — it’s their degree of difficulty. It’s a lot harder to entertain an audience when you’re working within certain boundaries.

However, these boundaries — whether of decency, modesty or good taste — can also be a blessing in disguise, by forcing filmmakers to put a greater emphasis on character and drama. One of the best-known examples of this in recent years is “Ushpizin” — a highly entertaining film about ultra-Orthodox Jews in their tight-knit Jerusalem neighborhood during the holiday of Sukkot. The film worked not because it promoted a pious message of religious hospitality — although it certainly did that — but because the characters, plot and dialogue are utterly engrossing.

The students at Ma’aleh, which was founded in 1989 and is run by a woman named Neta Ariel, don’t create feature-length films like “Ushpizin”; their films are short-form, anything from 15-minute dramas and comedies to 60-minute documentaries. But all their films explore issues of Jewish and Israeli identity — whether dealing with sensitive subjects like religious divorce, homosexuality or the trauma of memory, to any of the societal, family or inner conflicts that arise when trying to live a traditional life in a modern Jewish state.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, then, when Barad told me that the creative force behind the hit television show “Srugim,” Eliezer Shapira, is a graduate of Ma’aleh. Before reaching national prominence, Shapira produced some award-winning documentaries at Ma’aleh, including “Saving Private Finkelstein,” “Eicha” and a festival favorite, “The Last Scene,” which tells the story of an elderly woman trying to transform an image of sisterly loss that has haunted her for 70 years.

The organizers of the festival, which will have its premiere at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills and hold screenings at 10 different synagogues and schools throughout Los Angeles, hope to spawn many more success stories like that of Shapira. They don’t hide the fact that their films, just like the show “Srugim,” have a mission: to humanize traditional Jews, elevate the notions of Jewish and Israeli identity and foster greater understanding between the religious and nonreligious communities.

Over the past few years, a growing demand for their films has come from Jewish schools around the world, which have found that the films are very popular with students as a way of engaging them about their Jewish identity.

Apparently, these students have something in common with the millions of Israelis who watch “Srugim,” and pretty much anybody who watches television these days — they don’t mind listening to a serious message, as long as it’s got lots of drama and it’s fun to watch.

David Suissa is the founder of OLAM magazine and OLAM.org. You can read his daily blog at suissablog.com and e-mail him at {encode=”dsuissa@olam.org” title=”dsuissa@olam.org”}.