After vandalism attack, Northwest Yeshiva High School focuses on ...

friday, ocTober 1, 2010 . www.JTnews.neT . JTnews lifecycles 31
W a FIlM UNFINISHeD Page 25 What makes A Film Unfinished unique
his superiors were insensitive to the lighting
conditions needed by cameramen. And
in many instances, the Jews of the ghetto
are more like props than actors in staged
scenes.
Early in the film we see footage of Adam
Czerniaków, head of the Warsaw Ghetto’s
Jewish Council taking a meeting with
bearded rabbis and other religious leaders.
Above the footage we hear a reading from
Czerniaków’s diary, explaining that the
Nazis are filming and that the whole thing
is staged: A lit candelabra is even placed on
his desk for effect.
It becomes clear early on that a goal of
the original footage was to present some
Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto as wealthy,
comfortable, even luxurious, and others as
exactly what they were: Starved, living in
squalor. Where this kind of film might fit
into the greater machinations of the Nazi
propaganda effort is left unanswered.
But propaganda or not, the filming itself
was an act of cruelty. One scene shows
a Jewish family in a sprawling, well-furnished
apartment, chatting and eating. At
that point, one of the survivors, viewing the
footage alone in a darkened theater, notices
flowers on a table.
“When did one ever see a flower?” she
said. “We would have eaten the flower.”
In another Nazi set piece, a theater is
filled with a Jewish audience and performers
who are forced to entertain despite the
fact they are likely aware that the film will
be used to further the destruction of their
own people. The audience was left without
food or facilities for eight hours, remembers
a survivor, and was then forced to
laugh when the comedians came on.
“Woe to anyone who didn’t laugh
properly,” the survivor said. “His fate was
doomed. They laughed as never before.”
All this for a silent film.
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in its genre is the understated way it blends
narrative — progressing through the four
reels of original film and then the laterdiscovered
outtakes — and serious meditation.
The tragedy of Europe’s Jews is not
the subject of, but rather the context for, a
film that asks questions of how we document
and fail to document our history, and
the role that plays in collective memory.
The differences are subtle. The Nazi
footage at the heart of the film shows staged
singing and dancing but it also shows children
skipping past crumpled bodies on the
street, massive piles of feces and garbage,
corpses being deposited by a slide into a
mass grave. For 40 years, historians relied
on the footage as authentic, unaware that it
was often staged. What, then, are the implications
of that newfound knowledge?
A scene in which torrents of panicked
Jews are herded down a main ghetto thoroughfare
by SS guards appears real — a
cruel exercise or drill perhaps. The looks on
the faces of the Jews reveal fear. Guns are
fired in the air. Panic sweeps the ghetto.
And to a point, it is real. The Nazis did
fire their guns in the air. They did scream
and yell and induce chaos. The Jews on the
screen — even aware that they are being
filmed — are oblivious to the meaning of
that which is happening around them and
are legitimately concerned for their lives.
Where does filmmaking end and history
begin?
2-for-1
“ Happy Chanukah”
Cards
When you let JFS “Tribute Cards”
do the talking, you send your best
wishes and say you care about
funding vital JFS programs here at
home. Call Irene at (206) 861-3150
or, on the web, click on “Donations”
at www.jfsseattle.org. Use Visa,
MasterCard or American Express.
W SYNagOgUe CHRONICleS Page 29
tennis games, where participants contribute
small amounts. In the wake of the
recession, Bet Alef decided to refocus its
finances and give up its office space. Now
the two paid staff (BenHaim and Executive
Director Shellie Oakley) work out of their
homes. The congregation rents out Unity
of Bellevue for most services. Members
contribute 2 percent of their gross income
for dues, but Klein emphasized that no one
is turned away for lack of funds.
Programming shows no sign of a recession,
either. In addition to meditative
Shabbat services, adult study circles and
the monthly Nishmat Shabbat, BenHaim
life
Bar Mitzvah
Aidan Muir Miller
Aidan will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on October 2, 2010
at Temple Beth Am in Seattle.
Aidan is the son of Lincoln Miller and Nancy Sapiro. His
sisters are Ana Rae and Kathryn Miller. His grandparents
are Robert and Heather Miller of Portage, Wis., the late
Elizabeth Miller, and the late Jane and Abner Sapiro.
Aidan is a 7th grader at The <strong>Northwest</strong> <strong>School</strong>. He
enjoys baseball, soccer, running, music, and reading. For
his Bar Mitzvah project, he is working with Green Seattle
to restore and maintain Seattle’s forest parklands.
will lead a silent retreat at the end of October
as well as a trip to Israel in November.
The Bet Alef Learning Institute commences
Nov. 12 with a Shabbaton seminar titled
“God, Gender and Justice.” BenHaim will
also launch a virtual meditation space this
October. On top of this, Bet Alef offers Bar
and Bat Mitzvah training and sponsors the
Rainier Beach <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>–Community
for Youth Alumni Association.
Going into the fall, BenHaim intends
to continue Falcon’s work, but specifically
to focus on Jewish meditational programming
and outreach to unaffiliated Jews. “I
want to share the gift that I received, that
brought me back to Judaism,” he said.
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