Movie: Israel: The Vision and Venture of the Jewish People – A Short Film by Beit Hatfutsot

Synopsis

In this short, but fast-paced movie, the story of the State of Israel is told. In this telling the State of Israel grew out of the global and historical vision of the Jewish Peoplehood to return to their homeland. And together, as a joint venture, and with a great deal of effort, the Jewish People realized its dream, building a modern, vibrant and exciting state that can absorb immigrants from all over the world, lead the world in innovation and allow Jews to participate in the global project of nation-building.

The movie is 7 minutes long.

Find and watch the movie

You can watch the movie here.

Questions

Watch the movie (7 minutes) and start with the following questions:

• What are the central dilemmas or conflicts in the movie?
• Do any of those dilemmas/conflicts resonate with you?
• What is the Jewish vision for the State of Israel built on?
• Who is/are the hero/es in the movie? What can we learn about Israel and the Jewish People from the stories of their heroes?

Then move onto a discussion focused on one or more of the following issues:

Issues for Discussion

Hatikva

• What does Hatikva mean to you (if anything)? How does it compare to the national anthem in your home country?
• How do you feel when you sing it?

Aliyah

• What does aliyah mean to you? Do you think that the Israeli government should be encouraging you (and other Jews living in the Diaspora) to make aliyah? Is aliyah an important value for the future of the State of Israel?

Mutual Responsibility

• Are there Jews that you feel responsible for today? Does another Jewish community feel responsible for you?
• What did the “Save Soviet Jewry” campaign mean to you (or your parents)?

Israel as Start-Up Nation

• How do you feel when an Israeli technological breakthrough or medical discovery is being announced?
• What is it about Israel or Jewish values that encourage innovation and creativity?

Israel and Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World)

• How do you feel about Israeli involvement in aiding people in crisis in faraway corners of the world?
• How do you feel when Israel is being portrayed negatively? In other words, does a connection exist there on the personal level and what does it reflect?

Movie:  House 103 –  A film by Ohad Domb

Synopsis

It is August 2005 and the Tal family have lived in Gush Katif, the Jewish settlement bloc in Gaza, for 19 years. Now the government of Ariel Sharon is implementing the “Disengagement”, evacuating the Jewish population from their homes. The movie follows the Tal family in its final days in Neve Dekalim and shows the pain of a community and a family that is literally breaking apart. Each of the family members struggles with the choices they still have left, as they consider where their strongest loyalties lie and try to deal with the reality of leaving their home.

In the context of unsolved and ongoing conflict that Israel continues to deal with in Gaza, and following Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, this movie returns us to the reality of 2005, when Israeli society was dealing with the collective trauma of thousands of Israelis being evacuated, as a result of a government policy to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. The movie raises several central themes. Choose one of the themes below to focus on.

The movie is 30 minutes long.

Back to top

Find and watch the movie

You can download and watch the movie from the Ma’aleh Film School website. Click here or search for “House 103” in the film catalogue. There is a small fee to watch the movie.

Back to top

Questions

Watch the movie (30 minutes) and start with the following questions:

• What are the central dilemmas or conflicts in the movie?
• Do any of those dilemmas/conflicts resonate with you?
• Which characters do you find most interesting or do you have empathy with? Who is/are the hero/es?

Then move onto a discussion focused on one of the core themes:

Back to top

Core Themes

Personal versus Communal Needs – Responsibility to the Community

House no. 103 shows us what happens when there is tension between individual needs on one hand, and the demands of a community, on the other. At the time, even though there was strong and widespread resistance to the Disengagement, the majority of Israelis supported the government and believed that, for the good of the collective, it was necessary to take difficult steps that, for the Tal family for example, required enormous personal sacrifice. In any collective, there are times when individuals are required to sacrifice their own needs for the greater good and this can be enormously painful. In addition, as we see poignantly in the movie, the Israeli army played a key role as the implementer of government policy. The relationship of the Tal family members to the army is complex and touching. And we see how individual soldiers and policemen take on the symbolism of the state as they put on their uniforms, and represent the collective, regardless of their personal views.

• Describe some scenes in the movie where the tension between personal and collective needs can be seen.
• How do you feel when you see this tension? What would you do differently, if you were in charge?
• Have you ever been in a situation where your individual needs had to be sacrificed for the greater good of the collective? How did you feel and what did you do?
• What would you want to say to the Tal family, and to the other people in the movie?

Back to top

Sources of Strength in Adversity

For the Tal family, and Israeli society overall, the Disengagement from Gaza was an enormously painful situation. Families were uprooted from their homes, communities broke apart, the country as a whole was split over the whole issue, and there was fear of civil dissent and what the results would be. The movie tells an intimate story of one family’s pain and shows how each of the family members struggle to deal with the stress, the anger, disappointment and fear of the future. At the same time the movie also shows us some of the many ways in which people find strength to carry on and how communities as a whole overcome hardship.  The Jewish People has been through many painful situations, and overcome great adversity. The annual commemoration of Tisha B’Av (the 9th Av), during which we remember the destruction of the First and Second Temples, also offers us a model of collective tragedy and ways to deal with it.

• In the movie, what resources do the Tal family have to help them deal with their pain and trauma?
• What sources of strength do individuals and families draw on?
• What has helped the Jewish People overcome hardship successfully in the past?
• How do we deal with and commemorate pain on a collective level?
• What can we learn for ourselves and our communities in the future?

Back to top

Additional Resources

• On the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, see Engaging Disengagement from Makom at the Jewish Agency for Israel.
• Activity using contemporary Israeli music, related to the Disengagement and notions of Home.

Israel’s National Anthem – Hatikva (The Hope)

Synopsis

One of the most well known symbols of a country is its anthem. It serves to unify a nation and presents a symbolic ‘face’ to the outside world. Different from other national anthems, however, when it comes to the Israeli anthem, the borders of the term ‘nation’ seem quite broad. With lines like “as long as deep in your heart, the soul of a Jew still stirs” and “as long as gazing forward to the East your eyes still seek Zion”, is the intention of Hatikva meant to unify the entire Jewish people and not only the citizens living within its borders?

Below are three clips, which represent different lenses to understand the anthem. What does each version evoke? Who is it meant to inspire?

Watch the Clips

Hatikva with Barbara Streisand in 1978 Stars Salute Israel Event

Cue to: 2:54 through end

Hatikva with Acapella Group KOLture Shock

KOLture Shock performed this version of Hatikva as a part of a Flash Mob on the Tel Aviv light rail produced before the 2015 Israeli Elections.

Questions

• What inspires you about Hatikva?
• What images did you notice in each of the three versions of Hatikva (in the Barbara Streisand version, notice that the broadcast was telecast in Israel and the US). Which images did you connect with?
• Through its visual representation, what story does each version of Hatikva tell?
•  If Hatikva were the anthem of the Jewish People, what images should be reflected? Who would be invited to sing it?

For a more extended activity on the topic go to Hatikva.

Resources

For another Hatikva related activity see Makom Israel

For historical background on Hatikva check out the iCenter and jweekly.

A Tale of Two Zions

Synopsis

In his 2014 ELI talk, Rabbi Mishael Zion reflects on two zions, or two promised lands – America and Israel.  He argues that the Jewish experience in both the United States and Israel is profound and contains within it aspects that can inspire and enrich dilemmas that Jews in the other place feel.  Taken together they can form the ying and yang of Jewish life.  He characterizes the American experience as tending toward the universal and the Israeli experience as tending toward the particular.  Instead of seeing these ideas in conflict, he presents them as two halves of the same whole.

Watch the Clip

Cue from 9.22 to the end.

Questions

1. What are the values that we can honor about the American Jewish experience and the Israeli Jewish one?
2.  As a Jew living in the Diaspora, how does the Israeli Jewish experience help you answer your own questions around “Why be Jewish?”
3. Think about an Israeli Jew you know – how does his/her life/ identity as someone who speaks Hebrew and lives out the Jewish calendar inspire you?  Now think about an American Jew you know.  How does his/her commitment to individual choice and personal dignity inspire you?  What is one concrete step you might take in your own life journey to put that inspiration into action?

For a more extended activity on the topic go to “A Tale of Two Zions”