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Turner Classic Movies is airing a ‘Jewish Experience’ series of films this month
(JTA) — Turner Classic Movies admits that capturing the “Jewish experience” in a series of films is a daunting task, but the network is attempting to do so anyway.
Every Thursday night in January, the channel is showing movies spanning from the 1930s through the 1990s on the theme. According to an article on the TCM website, the series aims to show “how filmmakers have attempted to deal with such themes as assimilation, antisemitism, religion, family life and the Holocaust, sometimes with clarity and honesty, other times with varying degrees of distortion and caricature.”
There are a couple of films in the series set during the Holocaust, but notably none involve concentration camp settings. Instead, the general focus seems to be on portraying comedy, romance and the joy of everyday Jewish life.
Antisemitism does come up often in the Jewish experience, and that is reflected in the films, including in “Crossfire,” a film noir from 1947 about the murder of a Jewish man that helped kick off the series last week. The theme is also prominent in “Fiddler on the Roof,” which also aired on the series’ first night.
Here are the remaining movies to look forward to, in the order in which they will air in EST.
“Bye Bye Braverman” (1968), Jan. 12 at 8 p.m.
In this film adapted from the novel “To An Early Grave” by Wallace Markfield, four Jewish writer friends — played by George Segal, Jack Warden, Sorrell Brooke and Joseph Wiseman — travel to the funeral of their other friend after he dies suddenly. Though the film was not as well received as other films directed by Sidney Lumet (who started his career as a child actor in Yiddish theater), it includes a Black-Jewish character, which is still rare in cinema today.
“The Angel Levine” (1970), Jan. 12 at 10 p.m.
Speaking of Jews of color on screen: this movie has a Jewish angel played by Harry Belafonte, whose real-life father was of Jewish descent. The angel visits a poor Jewish tailor, played by Zero Mostel, who starred as the original Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway. It was directed by Hungarian-born Jew Ján Kadár.
“Annie Hall” (1977), Jan. 13 at 12 a.m.
This is the only Woody Allen film in the lineup. Before the scandalous accusations against the director picked up steam again over the past decade, “Annie Hall” was a landmark for American Jews in film, encapsulating the neurotic Jewish New York comedic archetype. Allen plays comedian Alvy Singer who falls in love with the titular character played by Diane Keaton.
“Soup For One” (1982), Jan. 13 at 2 a.m.
This is not a Woody Allen film, but his influence is all over this comedy written and directed by Jonathan Kaufer, in which a New York Jewish television producer played by Saul Rubinek tries to find his perfect woman.
“Set Me Free” (1999), Jan. 13 at 3:45 a.m.
Most of the movies in the series are American, but there are a couple of international films, including this French-Canadian coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old Jewish girl obsessed with the character that Anna Karina plays in Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Vivre sa vie.” Directed by Léa Pool, it’s the most recent film in the lineup, though it is set in 1963. Pool, whose father was a Holocaust survivor from Poland, is one of several women directors represented in the series.
“Crossing Delancey” (1988), Jan. 19 at 8 p.m.
Probably the most famous of the romantic comedies in the series, “Crossing Delancey” was also directed and written by women: Joan Micklin Silver and Susan Sandler, respectively. Amy Irving stars as Isabelle Grossman, a young New Yorker who works for a bookstore and is close with her grandmother — who wants to see her granddaughter settle down. She has a matchmaker set her up with Sam Posner (Peter Riegert), a pickle salesman, and Isabelle is torn between him and the intellectual world. The film also shows the Lower East Side from the era when it was bustling with Jewish immigrant shops and vendors, before gentrification irrevocably changed it.
“Over the Brooklyn Bridge” (1984), Jan. 19 at 10 p.m.
One can never have too many romantic comedies set in New York. In this one, directed by Israeli-born Menahem Golan, Elliott Gould plays Alby Sherman, a business owner whose wealthy uncle will only loan him money if he breaks up with his gentile girlfriend (Margaux Hemingway). The very Jewish cast also includes Sid Caesar, Carol Kane, Shelley Winters and a very young (and uncredited) Sarah Michelle Gellar.
“Girlfriends” (1978), Jan. 20 at 12 a.m.
This pioneering indie film — which according to The New York Times was the first independent American film to be funded primarily by grantmaking organizations — is also is notable for its portrayal of female friendship between Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Mayron), a Jewish photographer, and her ex-roommate Anne Munroe (Anita Skinner), who moves out to get married. Directed by Claudia Weill, who also wrote it along with Vicki Polon, the film is a precursor to so many contemporary indies, including Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s “Frances Ha.”
“The Frisco Kid” (1979), Jan. 20 at 1:45 a.m.
Jews are not usually associated with Westerns. But in this comedy, Gene Wilder stars as a rabbi from Poland who is set to lead a congregation in San Francisco. He gets stuck en route in the Wild West and befriends a bank robber played by Harrison Ford. Some scenes don’t hold up in contemporary times, especially ones portraying Native Americans, but TCM doesn’t shy away from showing how stereotypes are part of film history.
“Au Revoir, Les Enfants” (1987), Jan. 20 at 4 a.m.
This French film is one of the few in the series that takes place during the years of the Holocaust. Louis Malle’s autobiographical film is based on his time at the Catholic school Petit-College d’Avon, at which the real headmaster Pére Jacques (Pére Jean in the film) attempted to hide Jewish children from the Nazis. The film focuses on the friendship of two fictionalized 12-year-old boys, Julian Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) and Jean Bonnet, whose real name is Jean Kippelstein (Raphael Fejtö).
“Biloxi Blues” (1988), Jan. 26 at 8 p.m.
Neil Simon adapted his own play, the second in his semi-autobiographical trilogy about growing up in Brighton Beach, for the screen. Eugene Jerome (Matthew Broderick), a young Jewish Brooklynite, is drafted into the army during World War II and is sent to bootcamp in Mississippi. The movie is helmed by prolific Jewish film and theater director Mike Nichols, who was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States as a young boy in 1939.
“The Chosen” (1981), Jan. 26 at 10 p.m.
Many of the movies selected for this series unsurprisingly take place in Brooklyn, including this one based on Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel set towards the end of World War II. It shows the conflict between different sects of Judaism by focusing on the friendship of two Jewish teenagers — Reuven Malter (Barry Miller), who is Modern Orthodox, and Danny Saunders (Robby Benson), who is Hasidic.
“Portnoy’s Complaint” (1972), Jan. 27 at 12 a.m.
Richard Benjamin stars in this movie based on Philip Roth’s book, adapted and directed by Ernest Lehman. Though the novel — which is written as a monologue from Alexander Portnoy to his psychoanalyst — turned Roth into a celebrity author, the film adaptation was not critically or commercially successful, especially when compared to another Roth adaptation starring Benjamin: “Goodbye Columbus.”
“The Last Metro” (1980), Jan. 27 at 2 a.m.
The other Holocaust movie in the series is also from France, and is one of director French New Wave pioneer François Truffaut’s most commercially successful films. The manager of a small theater company in Paris (Catherine Deneuve) hides her Jewish husband (Gérard Depardieu) during the Nazi occupation.
“Tevya” (1939), Jan. 27 at 4:15 a.m.
The series closes with another take on Sholem Aleichem’s stories that makes a nice bookend with “Fiddler on the Roof.” Adapted and directed by Maurice Schwartz, who also stars in the titular role, the Yiddish film was thought to be lost until a print was found in 1978. In 1991, it became the first non-English film to be selected for preservation in the library of Congress National Film Registry for its cultural significance.
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University of Michigan will have a leader who defended pro-Palestinian protesters in court
A civil rights attorney who defended pro-Palestinian protesters in court and made social media posts viewed as pro-Hezbollah and antisemitic, has won his bid for the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
Michigan is one of a few states in which voters play a direct role in choosing university overseers. As a regent, Amir Makled (D) will help oversee expenditures at the university where his clients, the student protesters, were arrested. The position is unpaid and carries an eight-year term. Democrat Paul Brown won the other seat up for election, maintaining the board’s 6-2 Democratic majority.
Makled beat out Republican challenger Lena Epstein, who is Jewish and previously identified as a “Jewish Messianic believer of Christ,” but recanted the statement and later said she was “100% Jewish.” Mainstream Judaism does not accept Messianic Jews because they believe in the divinity of Christ and try to convert Jews to Jesus.
Epstein told the Forward in an April interview that the Democrats had handed her an opportunity to win the seat by endorsing Makled, who was facing intense scrutiny. In one of his controversial posts, Makled called Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a “martyr” after he was killed by Israeli strikes in 2024. He lost an endorsement from Service Employees International Union for the posts and later deleted them.
In the regents race, voters picked up to two of six candidates, with the top two winning. Makled received 25.6% of the vote while Brown received 27.2%. Epstein received 22.2% while her fellow Republican Michael Schostak received 22.6%.
Makled’s election comes as part of a wave of Democratic Party wins, including in Michigan, which elected as Senator Abdul El-Sayed (D), who also faced severe backlash for statements related to Israel and Gaza and for appearing alongside streamer Hasan Piker, who has been accused of antisemitic rhetoric.
Israel played a major role in the rhetoric surrounding Michigan’s midterms. But voters, including 60% of Jewish voters that voted for El-Sayed according to early exit polls, favored sharp critics of the Jewish state to candidates in support of it.
The post University of Michigan will have a leader who defended pro-Palestinian protesters in court appeared first on The Forward.
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This grandson of Holocaust survivors is headed to Congress. The ADL has concerns about his antisemitism record.
The election of Daniel Biss, a Jewish critic of Israel, to an Illinois congressional seat Tuesday has sparked a public feud between the Anti-Defamation League and the liberal Zionist group J Street over whether the ADL remains a credible voice in the fight against antisemitism.
After Biss, the former Jewish mayor of Evanston, Ill., won his seat Tuesday night, the ADL Midwest took to social media to express “serious concerns” about Biss’ “approach to antisemitism.”
J Street, which had endorsed Biss, hit back, noting that Biss is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and calling the ADL’s statement “a shanda,” the Yiddish word for disgrace.
“It is hard to read this statement without wondering how far the ADL has drifted from the organization it once was – a gold standard in our community for standing up against bigotry, hatred and discrimination,” J street wrote on X.
Biss, who speaks Hebrew and spent childhood summers in Israel, was elected with 75% of the vote in a district where 11% of the electorate is Jewish.
“It saddens me to watch the ADL, once a preeminent civil rights organization, devolve into an entity that traffics in fear, intimidation and extremism,” Biss wrote in a statement to the Forward. “This kind of rhetoric does nothing to keep the Jewish people safe—in fact, it undermines that very cause.”
The ADL has long faced scrutiny from critics who view the watchdog group as labeling too broad a swath of Israel criticism as antisemitic, while less forcefully condemning antisemitism when it comes from the political right.
“Our statement speaks for itself,” an ADL spokesperson wrote in an email to the Forward.
In its statement, the ADL pointed to a specific set of concerns involving Biss’ record as mayor of Evanston, Illinois, the college town home to Northwestern University.
Biss did not provide Evanston police support that Northwestern requested after reported “antisemitic conduct” at the Gaza war encampment on campus in April 2024, the ADL said, “raising serious questions about whether the safety, dignity, and equal access of Jewish students were treated with the urgency they required.”
Biss has defended his decision not to dispatch police to the encampment, writing in response to a congressional inquiry that forcibly clearing the protest would have gone against police department advice and suppressed “constitutionally protected speech.”
The ADL also said that Biss “dismissed scrutiny of his response as a politically motivated attack fueled by AIPAC, rather than substantively addressing the concerns raised by Jewish students and community members.”
Biss made opposition to AIPAC a central theme of his primary campaign for Congress after the hardline pro-Israel lobbying group spent millions opposing him and supporting another candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine.
In an interview with the Forward in March, Biss said it was “absurd” that AIPAC opposes imposing any conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel. “And then try to enforce it with millions of dollars of dark money, is certainly bad for democracy and bad for our politics here in America,” Biss added.
At the same time, Biss faced pressure to his left on Israel in the primary, defeating Kat Abughazaleh, a Palestinian-American who has characterized Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a genocide. Biss, who has described himself as a progressive Zionist, declined to use the word genocide, despite repeated calls from Abughazaleh to do so.
In a March op-ed in The Nation, Biss wrote that he believed he was one of AIPAC’s top targets partly because “I’m the grandson of Holocaust survivors. My mother is Israeli. My extended family lives in Israel. AIPAC knew that they couldn’t dismiss me as anti-Israel or antisemitic.”
The ADL also criticized Biss for supporting the repeal of an anti-BDS law, which bars Illinois from investing public pension funds in companies that boycott Israel. That position, the ADL said, “raises additional concerns about his willingness to stand against efforts to isolate and delegitimize the Jewish state.”
In an April Substack post explaining his position, Biss said that he personally opposes the global movement to boycott Israel, but he does not believe the government should “stop people from using their economic agency to advocate for their values.”
Biss will succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Jewish lawmaker who represented the district for nearly three decades and was also an outspoken critic of AIPAC.
The post This grandson of Holocaust survivors is headed to Congress. The ADL has concerns about his antisemitism record. appeared first on The Forward.
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At the Vatican, two elderly men — one Jewish, one Catholic — exchange gifts and mutual admiration
On Wednesday, two senior citizens, Robert Zimmerman, 85, a Jew originally from Minnesota, and Robert Prevost, 71, a Catholic of Chicago, had a brief meeting at the younger man’s office in central Italy.
Sources on the scene report that Zimmerman was in town for business and Prevost, who goes professionally by Leo, had recently cited Zimmerman’s work in the preface to a book about nuclear disarmament.
Both men dressed in uniform, looking a bit Spy Vs. Spy, with Zimmerman in a black hoodie and Prevost in white with a small white skull cap. The confab was brief, a bulletin from Prevost’s workplace reported, consisting of “greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges.”
Prevost gifted Zimmerman with prayer beads, and Zimmerman presented Prevost with a copy of his memoir, published under his pen name, Bob Dylan.
While Zimmerman was raised in a Jewish home, he had, for a time in the late 1970s to early 1980s, converted to born-again Christianity, confounding many.
The post At the Vatican, two elderly men — one Jewish, one Catholic — exchange gifts and mutual admiration appeared first on The Forward.
