Olga Gershenson is an author and professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and of Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Olga Gershenson
By Olga Gershenson
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Film & TV 7 great new films from Israel coming soon to a (big or small) screen near you
Documentaries and social dramas were among the highlights at this year’s Jerusalem Film Festival
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Culture Blu-Ray set of restored Yiddish classics comes alive with excellent commentary
Read this article in Yiddish There is an expression in Yiddish—di kale iz tsu sheyn—the bride is too beautiful. Basically, the problem is—it’s too good. This is exactly my problem with a new Blu-ray disk set “The Jewish Soul: Ten Classics of Yiddish Cinema,” issued by Kino Lorber. It took me a while to start…
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Culture In ‘The Dead Of Jaffa,’ The Past Haunts Israel’s Present
We usually don’t think of a debut feature as made by someone senior, especially if the filmmaker is one of the figureheads of Israeli culture. And yet, this is the case with Ram Loevy’s “The Dead of Jaffa,” which premiered recently at the Jerusalem Film Festival, and which will go into theatrical release in Israel…
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Art How Russia Created a Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center Even Vladimir Putin Can Tolerate
Today, post-Communist Europe is experiencing a museum boom. Countries are trying to consolidate a collective identity in museums that tell their nation’s story in a way that was not possible under communism. Jewish museums and Holocaust memorials offer not only histories of Jewish communities in a given town or country, but also a perspective on…
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Film & TV Is Zombie Armageddon a Metaphor for Mideast Conflict?
At the recent Jerusalem International Film Festival, the Israeli horror movie “Jeruzalem” was scheduled to premiere right after “From Caligari to Hitler,” a German documentary based on Siegfried Kracauer’s book of the same name. Kracauer was a Jewish writer and critic who escaped Nazi Germany. In his book, he analyzed Weimar-era German cinema and theorized…
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Culture An Indelible Legacy
Three years ago, an elderly patient came into an emergency room in northern Israel complaining about chest pain. When a young doctor, Dana Doron, examined her, the woman pulled up her sleeve, pointed to a tattooed number on her arm and asked, “Do you know what is it?” She then proceeded to talk for an…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: Iraq, Israel, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Courtesy of Ruth Diskin Films An intergenerational connection through music is at the heart of “Iraq n’ Roll,” a new Israeli documentary by Gili Gaon, which screened this year at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and is out on DVD next month. In the 1950s, brothers Saleh and Daoud Al-Kuwaity made aliyah to Israel. They…
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Culture In the Occupied Territories, Order Trumps Law
The audience was remarkably quiet during a screening of “The Law in These Parts” at the Jerusalem Film Festival. My fellow Israelis, who usually have no qualms about exchanging opinions during a movie, or even about answering an occasional cell phone call, sat absolutely still. Even after the movie ended, there was a moment of…
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