Blacks and Jews | |
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Directed by | Deborah Kaufman, Alan Snitow |
Written by | Deborah Kaufman, Alan Snitow |
Produced by | Deborah Kaufman, Bari Scott, Alan Snitow |
Cinematography | Ashley James |
Edited by | Veronica Selver |
Music by | David Slusser |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 min. |
Language | English |
Blacks and Jews is a 1997 documentary film that examines the relationships and conflicts between Black and Jewish activists, from the 1991 Crown Heights Riot to Steven Spielberg's controversial visit to the predominantly Black Castlemont High School after some students laughed during a screening of Schindler's List . [1] [2]
The film focused on incidents such as the 1960s blockbusting of the then-largely Jewish Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago and a rabbi's efforts to maintain stability in the community and of a Hasidic father and son who were protected by a Black journalist during the 1991 riots in Brooklyn that took place in the wake of the death of Gavin Cato by a Hasidic driver. [3] [4]
Blacks and Jews was directed by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow. The 90-minute film was aired as part of PBS's Point of View series. [3]
The film was shown as part of the 1997 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. [5]
Steven Allan Spielberg is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is the most commercially successful director in film history. Among other accolades, he has received three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and two BAFTA Awards, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel Schindler's Ark (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
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Borough Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. The neighborhood is bordered by Bensonhurst to the south, Dyker Heights to the southwest, Sunset Park to the west, Kensington and Green-Wood Cemetery to the northeast, Flatbush to the east, and Mapleton to the southeast.
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard/East New York Avenue to the south. It is about one mile (1.6 km) wide and two miles (3.2 km) long. Neighborhoods bordering Crown Heights include Prospect Heights to the west, Flatbush and Prospect Lefferts Gardens to the south, Brownsville to the east, and Bedford–Stuyvesant to the north.
Anthony Robert Kushner is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Among his stage work, he is most known for Angels in America, which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, as well as its subsequent acclaimed HBO miniseries of the same name. At the turn of the 21st century, he became known for his numerous film collaborations with Steven Spielberg. He received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013. Kushner is among the few playwrights in history nominated for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.
The Crown Heights riot was a race riot that took place from August 19 to August 21, 1991, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York City. Black residents attacked Orthodox Jewish residents, damaged their homes, and looted businesses. The riots began on August 19, 1991, after two 7 year-old children of Guyanese immigrants were unintentionally struck by a driver running a red light while following the motorcade of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of Chabad, a Jewish religious movement. One child died and the second was severely injured.
Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities (1992) is a one-person play by Anna Deavere Smith, an African-American playwright, author, actress, and professor. It explores the Crown Heights riot and its aftermath through the viewpoints of African-American and Jewish people, mostly based in New York City, who were connected directly and indirectly to the riot.
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Isaac "Jacky" Bitton is a French-American musician. Initially gaining fame as the drummer for secular rock band Les Variations, Bitton became a baal teshuva through Chabad in the late 1970s and subsequently began a career in contemporary Jewish music.
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Jews comprise approximately 10% of New York City's population, making the Jewish community the largest in the world outside of Israel. As of 2020, over 960,000 Jews lived in the five boroughs of New York City, and over 1.9 million Jews lived in the New York metropolitan area, approximately 25% of the American Jewish population.
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As of 2020, the Jewish population in New York State was 1,598,000, accounting for 21% of all Jews in the United States. In New York City alone, there are approximately 960,000 Jews, establishing it as the largest Jewish community in the world, surpassing the combined totals of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Anabaptists and Jews have had interactions for several centuries, since the origins of Anabaptism in the Radical Reformation in early modern Europe. Due to the insularity of many Anabaptist and Jewish communities, Anabaptist–Jewish relations have historically been limited but there are notable examples of interactions between Anabaptists and Jews. Due to some similarities in dress, culture, and language, Amish and Mennonite communities in particular have often been compared and contrasted to Haredi and Hasidic Jewish communities.
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Black Jews in New York City are one of the largest communities of Black Jews in the United States. Black Jews have lived in New York City since colonial times, with organized Black-Jewish communities emerging during the early 20th century. Black Jewish communities have historically been centered in Harlem, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Queens. The Black Orthodox Jewish community is centered in Brooklyn. A small Beta Israel (Ethiopian-Jewish) community also exists in New York City, many of whom emigrated from Israel.