Thank you to Judith Gigliotti and Peter Decherney for joining me on my podcast. Peter is an author, filmmaker and Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where we met when my class had a film and TV panel for our 30th reunion. May 2024 is my 35th reunion at PENN!
Listen to our discussion about the Jews in Africa: the Abayudaya in Uganda πΊπ¬ and Beta Israel in Ethiopia πͺπΉBoth Peter and Judith have spent years in Africa filming, photographing and helping.
In 2020 with a colleague at Penn, Sosena Solomon, we made a film about the Jewish community in Gondar, Ethiopia. There’s a lot written and films made about Jews, Ethiopians living in Israel, but it was actually hard to find information about the Jews who were still living in Gondar, what was their life like, and so that’s what brought us there and then over a few years led us to make to make a film about it.
The film is really just trying to amplify their stories, and we tell stories about their soccer team, amazing stories, and their circus, which is amazing, about a rabbi who moved to Israel, became a rabbi, and then goes back regularly to still be a rabbi in that community.
The film is on Discovery + and It’s called Dreaming of Jerusalem. But as we showed the film at festivals and synagogues and places, I was surprised by how little people knew about the story. I thought they knew, and if they know anything they know about the airlifts in the 80s and 90s, but not that there’s thousands of years of history before that and there’s still an active community and there’s a lot happening.
Jewish New Teacher Project (JNTP), which helps Jewish day school educators gain and maintain their classroom skills, is becoming part of Prizmah, an organization that unites Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America.
A new documentary called βFrom October 6 to October 7,β which premiered in February at the 37th Israeli Film Festival in Los Angeles, is showing Doronβs life on the big screen.
Americans – and Israelis in particular – are not reacting to spin, or to partisan framing, or to media distortions. They are reacting to the text of the agreement itself, and to what has followed it.
America’s 250th birthday arrives at a time when things have been especially lousy for Jews. But gratitude is a great Jewish value, so we’ve created a very special birthday present: an e-book with 250 reasons to be grateful for America.
The documents were carefully selected by the National Archivesβ Office of Presidential Libraries in collaboration with nonprofit Presidential Foundations.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.
Jews in Africa: the Abayudaya in Uganda πΊπ¬ and Beta Israel in Ethiopia πͺπΉ
Lisa Ellen Niver
Thank you to Judith Gigliotti and Peter Decherney for joining me on my podcast. Peter is an author, filmmaker and Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where we met when my class had a film and TV panel for our 30th reunion. May 2024 is my 35th reunion at PENN!
Judith took the author photo for my book, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, and is an incredible artist and photographer. We met because of ceramics and belong to the same art studio, Members Only LA (MOLA).
Listen to our discussion about the Jews in Africa: the Abayudaya in Uganda πΊπ¬ and Beta Israel in Ethiopia πͺπΉBoth Peter and Judith have spent years in Africa filming, photographing and helping.
Listen or watch our interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or your favorite podcast platform
In 2020 with a colleague at Penn, Sosena Solomon, we made a film about the Jewish community in Gondar, Ethiopia. There’s a lot written and films made about Jews, Ethiopians living in Israel, but it was actually hard to find information about the Jews who were still living in Gondar, what was their life like, and so that’s what brought us there and then over a few years led us to make to make a film about it.
The film is really just trying to amplify their stories, and we tell stories about their soccer team, amazing stories, and their circus, which is amazing, about a rabbi who moved to Israel, became a rabbi, and then goes back regularly to still be a rabbi in that community.
The film is on Discovery + and It’s called Dreaming of Jerusalem. But as we showed the film at festivals and synagogues and places, I was surprised by how little people knew about the story. I thought they knew, and if they know anything they know about the airlifts in the 80s and 90s, but not that there’s thousands of years of history before that and there’s still an active community and there’s a lot happening.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON WE SAID GO TRAVEL
Professor Peter Decherney’s website
Penn Global Documentary Institute
Info aboutΒ Dreaming of Jerusalem
Virtual photography exhibit
Judith Gigliotti website
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