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.
These are among the themes of Rosh Hashanah: Who will live and who will die? Who will suffer and who will prosper? And if I may add a couple of questions of my own: Who will be grateful and who will be ungrateful? Who will complain and who will create?
One thing I am sure of: Judea is inarguably a proud Jew, a steadfast member of this multimillennial Jewish Peoplehood. The other is that I love the man, plain and simple.
Daniela Gersonβs “The Wanderers” is all that you can ask for from a book. Meticulously researched, exquisitely told, it is an adventure story spanning more than 80 years, even a love story.
The project was organized by the Nova Tribe Community Association, the nonprofit created after Oct. 7, by producers of the Nova festival to support survivors and bereaved families and commemorate those murdered.
OBKLA has welcomed more than 80,000 volunteers, including students, synagogue and church groups, corporate organizations, top leadership teams from companies such as Netflix and Amazon and, of course, celebrities.
Through poetic reflections, Torah wisdom and personal stories, Salem explores the shofar as a tool for mindfulness, healing, surrender and inner transformation.
Islamist terrorism remains a threat to the United States, the West, and the Jewish people. We cannot allow the history of September 11 to be twisted into an indictment of the society that was attacked.
This ideological pogrom eerily mapped out the antizionism mania that has now hit Americaβs shores, using the noble fights against racism, colonialism and oppression for ignoble ends.
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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