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.
While the documentary succeeds in showing the bandβs power and chemistry, and is full of energy, one is left wondering what would have happened if Slovak lived.
The war against two stubborn enemies, such as Iran and Hezbollah, has an interesting lesson to teach on obstacles created by regimes that are polar opposites.
There is something deeply cyclical about Judaism and our holidays. We return to the same storyβthe same words, the same questionsβbut we are not the same people telling it. And that changes everything.
Emmaβs diary represents testimony of an America, and an American Jewish community, torn asunder during Americaβs strenuous effort to manifest its founding ideal of the equality of all people who were created in the image of God.
On Yom HaShoah, we speak of six million who were murdered. But I also remember the nine million who lived. Nine million Jews who got up every morning, took their children to school, and strove every day to survive, because they believed in life.
Gratitude is greatly emphasized in much of Jewish observance, from blessings before and after meals, the celebration of holidays such as Passover, a festival that celebrates liberation from slavery, and in the psalms.
The seder table itself is a model of radical welcome: we are told explicitly to invite the stranger, to make room for those who ask questions and for those who do not yet know how to ask.
The playground in Jerusalem didnβt stop antisemitism, and renovating playgrounds in New York City is not likely to stop it there, either β because antisemitism in America today is not rooted in a lack of slides or swings.
As Donald Trump continues to struggle to explain his goals there, his backers have begun casting about for scapegoats to blame for the presidentβs decision to enter the war. Not surprisingly, a growing number of conservative fingers are now pointing at Benjamin Netanyahu.
Americaβs national derangement poses myriad challenges to those not yet caught up in it. The anomie is daunting enough for the general public β if that term still makes sense in this fragmented age β and it is virtually insurmountable for the defenders of Israel.
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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