A documentary on the life and career of Yiddish actor Pesach Burstein and his family.

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A documentary portrait of Israel Becker, founder of the first professional Yiddish theatrical company in post-war Germany and writer and star of the historic film Long Is the Road, the first feature to portray the Holocaust from a Jewish point of view. The Balcony captures Becker at age 83, with an apartment adorned with his own paintings, many of which show family members killed during the Holocaust.

These images, along with footage from Long Is the Road, reveal a man whose past is always with him. Becker replies, “I am constantly on the run. All my memories are inhabited by countless escape instincts that I know not their origins. That is my fate, and I have lived until now only because I obeyed it.”

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When the residents of a small Jewish village come together to stage their annual adaptation of the Book of Esther, life imitates art in this Israeli musical comedy that will have the whole family laughing. Though generally a traditional play, this year’s performance gets a contemporary twist as the actors merge their own personalities with the actions of their characters to offer a unique take on an age-old tale. Adapted from the classic Yiddish play by Itzik Manger.

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The Ashkenazim is a humorous and moving film about young Israelis in search of their Ashkenazi roots. These women and men seek to reconnect with their Jewish European heritage which they feel was suppressed in order for their ancestors to acclimate to their new Israeli and Middle Eastern environment. The Ashkenazim follows the lives of a group of young women and men as they reconnect to their Ashkenazi roots. Assaf Galay forms “Ashkenazi Identity” to promote a cultural revolution in Israel. Tammy Ben-Tor creates an electro- Yiddish sexy cabaret. Itamar Handelman Ben Canaan, always ashamed of his Ashkenazi roots, falls in love with Olga, a new immigrant from Russia, and with her returns to the life style of his European ancestors. What makes these Israelis look back with longing at their Ashkenazi history and can they bring some of their forefather`s lost Jewish European culture to the Middle East?

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To some, Yiddish is a dead culture, but an increasing number of people feel strongly that the richness of its heritage is something to be preserved and passed down to future generations. The film presents these dilemmas on the rehearsal stage of the Yiddish Spiel Theater, where the performances themselves, filmed in Europe and Israel, allow audiences to identify with the stories and the emotions of this once vibrant culture. The film deals with Yiddish culture in its various aspects, from the Jewish kitchen to the most profound literature. The longing for this vanishing culture is expressed by a young Israeli student and an old woman from the Ukraine who remembers a Yiddish song that she heard as a child from her mother. Another way to preserve the language is shown by a youth band, who sings Yiddish to rock rhythms. The film swings between sadness and joy, tears and laughter, just like Yiddish songs.

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An adaptation of Aharon Appelfeld’s novel Night after Night. In the sixties, a group of Holocaust survivors live together in a hostel in Jerusalem and struggle to revive the Yiddish language.

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