As a youth, Academy-award winning director Barry Levinson had Holocaust-survivor relatives stay at his family’s home. Their visit made a great impression on him and he inserted such a visit in his 1990 film classic, Avalon. Now, Levinson has just finished a new film, The Survivor, about a concentration camp inmate who was made into a boxer for the entertainment of his Nazi guards. The film focuses not only on what happened during the Shoah, but on how this survivor adapts to American life after the war. These movies and other films by Levinson, like Diner and Liberty Heights, provide great insight into the American Jewish experience, the subject of this lecture with film clips. 

Dr. Eric Goldman is an adjunct professor of cinema at Yeshiva University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is a known scholar and lecturer on Yiddish, Israeli and Jewish film. A noted film educator, Dr. Goldman hosts “Jewish Cinematheque” on the Jewish Broadcasting Service (seen monthly across the nation). Dr. Goldman received a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and was a fellow of the Max Weinreich Center for Eastern European Jewish Studies at Columbia University. He was also adjunct fellow in cinema at The Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Dr. Goldman holds graduate degrees in Contemporary Jewish Studies and Theater Arts from Brandeis University. He is the author of Visions, Images and Dreams: Yiddish Film Past and Present (Holmes and Meier Publishers, 2011) and The American Jewish Story through Cinema (University of Texas Press, 2013).  He is former director of the Jewish Media Service, which was a national clearinghouse on film and television for the North American Jewish community and was curator of film for the Wolgin Jewish Film Festival in Philadelphia. He has also curated several Jewish film festivals, including the Ring Family Israel Film Series at Y.U. In 2014, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) featured a twenty-film series co-hosted by Dr. Goldman on “The Jewish Experience in Cinema.” His passion for films was first sown during his childhood on Sunday afternoons at the double feature matinee. While attending college at Temple University in Philadelphia with the intentions of becoming a medical doctor, Dr. Goldman found himself in a course entitled History of the Middle East. In addition to studying traditionally through texts, the class also was shown movies. The class was studying the Algerian War and watched a movie on the topic. Dr. Goldman said he learned a lesson. “The power of cinema was opened up. The film gave me a visual understanding of history. I realized that film was not just entertainment but edutainment.” At that point, Dr. Goldman knew he wanted to pull together his two loves–film and Jewish education.

There is no fee, but please RSVP for planning purposes. This event is held virtually on Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event. For more information, contact Program Director Ilene Tatro at itatro@cbisd.org.

CSP Partners: Beth Israel (San Diego, CA), Brotherhood Synagogue (Gramercy Park, NYC), Congregation Beth Shalom (Seattle, WA), Congregation B’nai Tzedek (Fountain Valley, CA), Congregation B’nai Israel (Tustin, CA), Jewish Collaborative of Orange County, CA, Shomrei Torah Synagogue (San Fernando Valley, CA), Temple Bat Yahm (Newport Beach, CA), Temple Beth El of South Orange County (Aliso Viejo, CA), Temple Beth Emet (Anaheim, CA), Temple Beth Ohr (La Mirada, CA), Temple Beth Tikvah (Fullerton, CA), Temple Beth Shalom (Needham, MA), Temple Beth Sholom (Santa Ana, CA), Temple Emanuel (Newton, MA), Town & Village Synagogue (NYC, NY), University Synagogue (Irvine, CA), Valley Beth Shalom (Encino, CA) & Walnut Street Synagogue (Chelsea, MA)