Judaism

• An epic true story of Jews fleeing Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Pursued to a mountain stronghold of the Herods, they face lives enslaved, or suicide. This is the full-length television miniseries. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 741952648291 UPC: 741952648291 Manufacturer No: KOC-DV6482

Peter O'Toole stars as a commander in Roman Palestine in the Emmy-award winning epic mini-series MASADA. Additionally nominated for 3 Golden Globes, Masada is the dramatic portrayal of the historical events that took place at the fortress, where the strength of the Romans was pitted against not only the harsh climate, but also the passion of Eleazar Ben Yair, played by Peter Srauss, and his devoted followers. This almost 7 hour mini-series is a must have for all fans of epic historical dramas.

This 1981 television miniseries, based on Ernest K. Gann's historical novel The Antagonists, is a dramatization of a documented revolt by nearly a thousand Jerusalem Jews against Roman oppressors in A.D. 72 to 73. Following a city-wide siege by Rome's soldiers, Jewish Zealots move into a fortress in the mountains of Masada, from which they present a defense strong enough to convince the enemy to negotiate. Peter O'Toole, in all his golden dignity, plays Cornelius Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman legions, and Peter Strauss is Zealot leader Eleazar ben Yair. Both are outstanding as representatives from each side trying, in good faith, to find a way out of the deadlocked situation. Unfortunately, neither realizes that Rome has no intention of yielding, resulting in one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. A strong cast of character actors--David Warner, Barbara Carrera, Timothy West, and Anthony Quayle--is rewardingly watchable, the action and sets are persuasive without overwhelming the story's human dimension, and direction by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man) is crisp and enthralling. This was a pleasure to watch when it was first broadcast, and it holds up very well today. --Tom Keogh

"A victory? What have we won?" laments a breathtaking Peter O'Toole as the Roman warrior Flavius Silva. "We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea." Thus does Masada, the epic 1981 miniseries about a horrific battle in ancient Palestine, echo the terrible toll of war in general, and of the brutal conflicts in today's Middle East in particular. Masada, from the golden age of miniseries (Roots, Shogun), is a transportive viewing event--shot on location, and apparently no expense spared.

The film retells (with some dramatic license) the true story of an uprising in Palestine of a ragtag band of Jews, in a fortress called Masada, who refuse to surrender to the governing Romans. O'Toole, as Flavius Silva, is the brilliant commander who, over the course of several years of trying, and failing, to breach Masada, comes to regard the leader of his foes, Eleazar ben Yair (the charismatic Peter Strauss), with a certain amount of respect and awe. If left to Flavius, he might have simply leave the holdout fortress and return to the Italy he so longs for; but the Roman emperor demands victory--at any cost.

The performances are uniformly crisp and believable; the direction by Boris Sagal, economical; the screenplay, sharp and incisive. David Warner, who won an Emmy for his performance, plays the brutal Roman henchman Falco with seething determination. The location shooting is nothing short of spectacular. There is sorrow in the story of Masada, but an uplifting message in the ability of true believers to create their own destiny. --A.T. Hurley

NTSC/Region 1. Disc 1: Theatrical Cut (Widescreen Feature) Director's Extended Cut (Widescreen Feature) with added scenes from Barbra's Archives An Introduction by Barbra Streisand Commentary with Barbra Streisand and Rusty Lemorande Deleted Scenes Disc 2: Special Features with Materials from Barbra's Archives An Introduction by Barbra Streisand The Director's Reel The Rehearsal Process with Materials from Barbra's Archives An Introduction by Barbra Streisand "Where is it Written?" Original Rehearsals/Pre-Rehearsals/Feature Comparisons/Deleted Song Storyboard Sequences. My Wonderful Cast and Crew Production Stills Gallery Portraits Stills Gallery Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery The Recording Studio Stills Gallery Teaser Trailer Theatrical Trail

Barbra Streisand made her directorial debut with this 1983 adaptation of the Isaac Bashevis Singer story about a young Eastern European woman (Streisand) who disguises herself as a male at the turn of the century in order to get an education. Except for an excessive musical score with too many songs and Streisand's tiresome tendency to play characters who suppress their beauty, the film is crisp and engaging, and the gender-bending love story complications are fun, if gimmicky. Streisand gives a smart, vulnerable performance and gets fresh work from costars Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving. --Tom Keogh

Baseball is seen as the quintessentially American sport with good reason. Emerging by the mid-nineteenth century as the nation s most popular game, baseball provided each new wave of immigrants with an avenue into American culture. Jews And Baseball traces the Jewish involvement in the history of the sport from the game s earliest days, through the tumultuous war years to today s All-Star games. By bringing to life dramatic moments in this history, including Hank Greenberg s support of Jackie Robinson and how the legendary Sandy Koufax pioneered rights for players, the film demonstrates how Jews shaped baseball, and baseball shaped them. Narrated by two-time Academy Awardr winner Dustin Hoffman, this lively and thorough account of Jewish America's love affair with baseball sheds new light on America's national pastime. Includes interviews with former player Al Rosen, sports historian Maury Allen, celebrity enthusiasts Larry King and Ron Howard, and all-stars Shawn Green and Kevin Youklis, as well as a rare interview with baseball legend Sandy Koufax.

With stunning photography and compelling insights, this National Geographic program takes you far beyond the "picture postcard" treatment of Jerusalem. Discover fascinating new information about the sacred city and its most revered locations, including the Noble Sanctuary, the Western Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 52 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; timeline.

Long recognized as history's most incendiary film, Jud Süss was the cultural centerpiece in Joseph Goebbels campaign against the Jews. Released in 1940, it was a box office sensation across Germany and Europe; alongside the movie's theatrical distribution, it became a staple of Nazi propaganda evenings organized by the Hitler Youth, SS and others. At once a rousing melodrama and murderous antisemitic incitement, the movie draws loosely from historical events from the early eighteenth century, when Jud Süss Oppenheimer, financial advisor to the Duke of Württemberg, was subjected to a sensational trial and gruesome execution. The film depicts Süss as a figure of cynical cunning and malign will, a sexual predator sowing corruption everywhere; his promotion of Jewish emancipation brings Christian Württemberg to the brink of moral and social ruination. That these qualities are conveyed through Ferdinand Marian's stunningly charismatic performance as Süss suggests something of the film's disturbing power even as it acknowledges Jewish misery, Jud Süss argues for still more lethal, pitiless solutions to the Jewish question. A key historical document of the twentieth century, Jud Süss remains a deeply unsettling cinematic experience. Directed by Veit Harlan; music by Wolfgang Zeller; featuring Ferdinand Marian, Werner Krauss, Heinrich George, and Kristina Söderbaum. Germany, 1940, B&W, 95 minutes, German dialogue, Switchable English, French & Italian subtitles.

SPECIAL DVD FEATURES
Historical Slide Show: The Life & Trials of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer by John Abbott
Video Commentary by Harvard's Eric Rentschler
Illustrated 22 page Essay Booklet by Louisiana State University's David Culbert**
Original Promotional Materials and Posters Slide Show
Interactive Scene Selection
Switchable English, French & Italian Subtitles
Digitally Restored from Original 35mm Film Elements using state of the art daVinci RevivalTM Technology by I-Cubed Chicago

**Jud Suess (Jew Suess, Germany, 1940) is the most successful anti-Semitic feature film ever made, a product of opportunism, brilliant acting, and the hateful agenda of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister. It remains notorious to this day. Softbound, 22 pages, 29 B&W and Color Photos, 4 1/2 x 7 inches size. Booklet included with this DVD.

• The first feature film to utilize Synchronous Sound. The story is about Cantor Oland's son who goes into show business over his objections. Tunes include "Mammy," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" and more. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Adapted Writing. Academy Awards: Special Award for technical achievement. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS Rating: NR Ag

The groundbreaking film that brought sound to the movies to stay stars Al Jolson as the cantor's son who would rather sing on stage than in temple. Songs include "My Mammy," "Toot Toot Tootsie" and "Blue Skies"; with Warner Oland, May McAvoy and William Demarest. 90 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English; Subtitles: English (SDH), French, Spanish; audio commentary; bonus shorts; featurettes; theatrical trailers. Collector's edition includes hours of rare Vitaphone short films, photo cards, collectible booklet, more. Three-disc set.

It's one of the most famous titles in film history, and everybody knows why: in a handful of sequences in The Jazz Singer, sound and image are excitingly synchronized. By 1927, some short subjects had already been "talkies," and a few features had synchronized music, but The Jazz Singer gets the prize as the breakthrough. Because the film is largely without dialogue, you can--even watching the film today--almost palpably sense the shift in movie epochs, as cinema takes an evolutionary leap from one form to the next. The movie itself, based on a successful Broadway show by Samson Raphaelson, is strictly melodrama of an ancient kind. Young Jakie Rabinowitz is expected to follow in the long line of family Cantors, but his heart yearns to sing "Toot Toot, Tootsie" instead of "Kol Nidre." Al Jolson plays Jakie (later Jack Robin of footlights fame), and you get a taste of why he was widely considered the greatest entertainer of his time; watch him with a tearjerker such as "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" and you'll see the skillful, completely irony-free manipulations of a master storyteller. Equally fun is Jolson's non-singing patter--in fact, this is where you get the thrill of talking pictures, more so than the songs. "You ain't heard nuthin' yet," he burbles, and it's hard not to catch the excitement.

Jolson's numbers include his blackface act, a longstanding tradition of minstrel shows and music halls, and an unavoidable source of awkwardness for later viewers (see The Savages for an amusing account of the embarrassment this can cause). Blackface is a bizarre show business reality, and it's part of the movie, so some historical context is required.

Warner Bros. rightly considers The Jazz Singer a key moment in the studio's history, and this three-disc DVD package gives the deluxe treatment. The film itself is beautifully restored, and reproductions of original supporting materials (souvenir program, stills, ads) are fun. A booklet on early Vitaphone shorts clearly predates The Jazz Singer, for Jolson is mentioned only as a star of Vitaphone shorts, and George Jessel is tabbed as the future star of The Jazz Singer (he'd played Jakie on Broadway). A 90-minute documentary gives a fine account of how the Vitaphone system worked, and how other systems actually became the industry standard.

Supplemental short films are a true treasure trove. A Plantation Act is more Jolson blackface, Hollywood Handicap a studio short comedy directed by Buster Keaton, and I Love to Singa a hilarious 1936 Tex Avery cartoon--a spoof of The Jazz Singer starring a bird named Owl Jolson. A flabbergasting collection of Vitagraph shorts--over four hours' worth--makes up disc 3 of this set: utterly weird and wonderful performances by some of the strangest acts ever to kill vaudeville. There are a few names here: George Burns and Gracie Allen in a short called Lambchops, the Foy Family doing wacky stage business. But the cornball timed jokes of Shaw & Lee, the saucy songs of Trixie Friganza, not to mention "The Wizard of the Mandolin," Bernardo De Pace--these are gems, folks. Anyone with a taste for showbiz past will love them. --Robert Horton

The daily struggles faced by Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are also part of the gay and lesbian community is the subject of this compelling documentary. Choosing not to turn their backs on their faith, these courageous men and women instead attempt to find a place for themselves in a religion that firmly disapproves of their lifestyle. 84 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English, Hebrew, Yiddish Dolby Digital Surround; Subtitles: Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish; Subtitles: English; interviews; deleted scenes; featurette; bonus short "Tomboychik"; theatrical trailer; more.

Just what it's called: Old Jews telling jokes. The 18 joke tellers featured aren't professionals; rather they're doctors, lawyers, a garment worker, a wine salesman - just like your favorite Jewish uncle or grandparent. With wonderful timing and mannerisms, and bouncy klezmer music backing them up, these funny old alter kockers deliver, with great delight, the off-color and risqué jokes from a bygone era.

In New York City, the Hasidim are a common sight, but even here their way of life remains a mystery to those outside their community. With their use of Yiddish, their distinctive clothes and their strict observance of Jewish ritual and law, the Hasidim are considered by many an insular people with little connection to mainstream America. Yet their values are those that many Americans find most precious: family, community, and a life of meaning.

In this "unique glimpse into this closed society" (Philadelphia Inquirer), seven years in the making, we are taken into the depths of the Hasidim's joyous, sometimes harsh, and often beautiful world. A "series of beautifully shot, startlingly intimate interviews" (New York Post) sheds light on idiosyncratic customs such as matchmaking, secular education and traditional dress, by taking us through the homes, schools and synagogues of this insular world. The filmmakers also candidly address suspicions of racism and accusations of sexism from the outside community.

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, narrated by Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker takes us on an illuminating journey into a "beautiful, mesmerizing and mysterious world" (San Francisco Bay Guardian) of a community kept distinct from its surrounding culture for generations.

Hasidic Jews seem alien, and even hostile, to those outside their culture,which frequently includes other Jews. They dress differently, don't mingle between the sexes, speak Yiddish, and wear side curls, all in an attempt to rigorously follow the commandments of the Torah. They tend to keep to themselves, shunning television and the media so outside influences cannot corrupt their values and views. Yet filmmakers Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum were able to enter their world, and the result is the fascinating documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America. Using interviews with academics and members of the community and some historical footage, the filmmakers trace the growth of Hasidic groups in the United States. Groups formed around particular Rebbes (learned leaders) and they took their names from their Eastern European home cities (the Satmar Hasids, the Breslov Hasids, and so on). Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker narrate, explaining how this movement came to America and how it was able to flourish. Dissenting voices also appear, in the form of neighborhood people who are distressed at the Hasids' refusal to speak to members not in their community and of a young woman, Pearl Gluck, who left the community in order to pursue her writing and to follow a life of her own choosing. Many Hasids refuse to speak on camera, and we see many shielding themselves with hands or coats so as not to appear on film. But those who do appear are poignant in their discussions of why the Hasidic life is important to them. One man speaks to the directors, even as he acknowledges that he will never see the movie, but he will do it "in order to help a Jew make a living." One couple, Holocaust survivors, are not Hasidic, but their children are, and the reasonings of both the parents and the children are interesting. This film, shown on PBS, is a consequential look into a lifestyle many of us don't understand, and it may help in increasing an understanding. --Jenny Brown