Jewish Studies - Feature Films
updated (7/04)

Films with primarily Jewish themes or settings | Feature Films with Prominent Jewish Characters | Woody Allen Films

Films with primarily Jewish themes or settings

Affaire Blum = The Blum affair. 199. 1 videocassette (110 min.). Dramatic film that looks at institutional anti-Semitism in pre-Hitlerite Germany. Based on actual events which occurred in the 1920s. An accountant responds to an advertisement and is murdered for his money. Mr. Blum, a Jewish businessman, is blamed for the murder by anti-Semitic police because the accountant was about to give evidence about a tax fraud involving Blum's company. The investigation and trial lead to a scandalous political affair. VHS 4510

Almonds and raisins: A history of the Yiddish cinema. 1988. 1 videocassette (90 min.). A documentary on the Yiddish cinema in America, primarily in New York City from 1927 to the 1940's. Has contemporary footage of New York City and Eastern European village life. Includes interviews with those who have participated in the Yiddish cinema. Features extensive excerpts from Yiddish films (most subtitled in English) including "The Cantor's Son," "Overture to Glory" with Moishe Oysher, "Yidl Mitn Fidl" with Molly Picon and "Tevye" with Maurice Schwartz. VHS 2352

An American tail. 1998. 1 videocassette (81 min.). Follow the humorous and dramatic adventures of Fievel, a little boy mouse who journeys from Russia to America with his family to seek a new life free of cat persecution. During the stormy boat trip Fievel is lost at sea, finally washing up ashore in New York Harbor, where he vows to find his family. VHS 6753

Americaner schadchen =  I want to be a boarder. 1990. 1 videocassette (102 min.) A look at the Americanization process through the story of second-generation American Jewish immigrants. When he is jilted by his 8th fiancee, Nat (Fuchs) decides to become a matchmaker and help others. He becomes very successful but then Judith (Aarons) for whom he is suppose to be finding a husband, falls in love with him. I want to be a boarder: The story of a husband and wife who pretend to be landlady and tenant in an effort to rekindle the excitement of courtship. VHS 1826  

The apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. 1999. 1 videocassette (121 min.). The story of a young man in the Montreal Jewish ghetto of the 1940s who works and schemes his way out of the clutter and poverty of his surroundings. In his search to be "somebody," he uses those around him and resorts to lying and cheating yet he remains a sympathetic character. VHS 1309

Au revoir les enfants = Goodbye, children. 1989. 1 videocassette (103 min.). Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Malle's experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II. Julien is 12 years old, and the smartest boy in his class at boarding school when a new student appears. The two form a friendship even though Julien senses that there is something different about his new friend. VHS 804

Austeria = The Inn. 1994. 1 videocassette (ca. 110 min.). On the first day  of World War 1, a group of Jews flee from the Cossack army in Polish Galicia and find themselves trapped overnight in a border inn. Relationships develop, love affairs are snatched, the religious pray. VHS 2817

Avalon. 1991. 1 videocassette (126 min.). The story of several generations of a family, from the arrival of immigrant Sam Krichinsky in the suburb of Baltimore called Avalon down through his children and grandchildren. The family goes from poverty to prosperity and the world changes around them, but their love and humor hold the family together. VHS 1411

Ben-Hur. 1988. 2 videocassettes (211 min.). Examines the conflict of power between the Jews of Judea and the Romans in Jerusalem during the time of Christ. Ben Hur, a peace-loving prince of Judea, leads his nation against the wrath of conquering Romans. His self-imposed destiny brings tragedy to himself, and his people, as he learns how to fight, to love, to hate and, finally, to forgive. VHS 2578

A brivele der mamen = A letter to mother. 1994. 1 videocassette (106 min.). One of the last films made in Poland before the Nazi invasion. Set in the Ukraine before World War I and New York City after, the film traces the break-up of a family due to stress, the chaos of war and the difficulties of immigrant life.  It focuses on one Jewish mother's efforts to keep her family together. VHS 5705  

Crossfire. 1991. 1 videocassette (86 min.). A police captain methodically unravels the truth behind the brutal murder of an innocent Jewish man by a World War II soldier with a rabid hatred of Jews. VHS 3650

Crossing Delancey. 1989. 1 videocassette (97 min.). The grandmother of a 30-something year old woman in New York decides her granddaughter should be married, and hires a matchmaker. Isabelle, the granddaughter, who considers herself successful and happy, is appalled, but humors her grandmother and agrees to meet the marriage prospect. VHS 2647

Das boot ist voll = The boat is full. 1989. 1 videocassette (104 min.). Set in 1942 during World War II. The Swiss government, alarmed at the vast numbers of people fleeing Nazi Germany, has declared the country "a full lifeboat" and set up stringent immigration policies. When a Swiss innkeeper's wife finds a group of refugees hiding on her property she takes them in over her husband's objections. When the authorities are alerted, she, her husband and the townspeople must decide what to do.  

Das schreckliche mädchen = The nasty girl. 1990. 1 videocassette (94 min.). Sonja, a model student, becomes a celebrity when she wins an essay contest. She is invited to compete in another contest and she chooses the topic "My hometown during the Third Reich" -- which according to lore didn't collaborate with the Nazis. However, the local archives produce contradictory evidence and she is denied access to local newspaper files. She quickly becomes the object of scorn and threats from the townspeople who have a surprising lot to conceal. VHS 1847

Démanty noci = Diamonds in the night; Sousto = Der Bissen = A bite to eat. 1987. 1 videocassette (ca. 74 min.). Diamonds of the night: Set in Czechoslovakia during World War II, film is a study of two Jewish boys who escape from a train which is taking them from one concentration camp to another only to be caught by local peasants and charged with stealing bread --  A Bite to eat:  A short film with minimal dialogue that shows a feverish attempt to steal a loaf of bread from a Nazi-guarded train.  VHS 446

Der ewige Jude = The eternal jew. 1988. 1 videocassette (62 min.). This anti-Semitic propaganda film, produced in Nazi Germany in 1938, was designed to prejudice contemporary German viewers against Jews.  The film uses archival footage and clips from newsreels and other sources, including scenes from the Lódz ghetto in occupied Poland, to portray Jews as swindlers and parasites. VHS 4019

Le dernier metro = The last metro. 1992. 2 videodiscs (131 min.). Truffaut's backstage tale of survival and strained loyalty, colored by childhood memories. Lucas Steiner (Bennent), the Jewish director of the Montmartre theatre, has supposedly left the country but is actually in hiding in the theatre's basement. In his absence, the theatre is run by his wife, Marion (Deneuve) who is determined to protect her husband. She hires Bernard Granger (Depardieu) to star with her in a new play. VDD 141

Le dernier metro = The last metro. 1992. 1 videocassette (131 min.). See above description. VHS 1872

The diary of Anne Frank. 1979. 1 videocassette (150 min.). A true story based on events recorded in the dairy of a young Jewish girl during two years of hiding from the Germans in an Amsterdam attic. VHS 98

The dybbuk. 1991. 1 videocassette (120 min.). Years after their parents had made a pledge that they would marry, a young couple meet and fall in love. The father of the young man had long before perished and the young woman's father keeps the two apart, ignoring his vow because he wants a wealthier son-in-law. The film concerns unfulfilled love, broken promises, and the supernatural, as the persona of the youth who has committed suicide enters his beloved's body at her wedding and possesses her. VHS 4486

Enemies, a love story. 1990. 1 videocassette (121 min). Set in New York in 1949, film concerns the tangled love life of a man who finds himself married to three women. Herman Broder, believing his wife died in a concentration camp, marries his ex-servant. After his first wife returns, he further complicates matters by marrying his pregnant mistress. VHS 2727

Europa, Europa. 1992. 1 videocassette (115 min.). The true story of a Jewish teenager who survived World War II by living as a Nazi for 7 years and through 3 countries. VHS 2030

Exodus. 1992. 2 videocassettes (208 min.). Story of the Jewish struggle for independence and the birth of the nation of Israel, beginning with the exodus from a Cypriot detention camp of a shipload of courageous European Jews heading to Israel aboard a weathered freighter. VHS 2406

Fatherland. 1995. 1 videocassette (106 min.). It's 1964 in Hitler's Germania.  Since Hitler's forces won World War II, the world has believed the Reich's claim that six million Jews were resettled "in the East."  Now a German policeman and an American journalist have uncovered the truth about the Nazi death camps.  Hitler's reign will be destroyed if the world finds out, which is something the Gestapo can never allow. VHS 3892

Fiddler on the roof. Jewish Heritage Video Collection. 1988. 2 videocassettes (180 min.). A story of changing values, dying traditions, and oppression of a man and his people. Tevye is a poor Jewish milkman with five unmarried daughters and a sharp-tonged wife in a small village in Czarist Russia.  He talks to God about his troubles. VHS 3826

Fires in the mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and other identities. 1993. 1 videocassette (82 min.). On Aug. 19, 1991, in Crown Heights (Brooklyn, N.Y.) a Hasidic man accidentally ran over a Black boy (Gavin Cato). Three hours later a young Jewish scholar (Yankel Rosenbaum) was murdered by Black youths. Four days of fire-bombing and riots ensued. Smith acts out the roles of 18 persons involved in the racial conflict, trying to present the differing views of this serious problem. Includes actual film footage of the riots and violence. VHS 2539

Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini = The garden of the Finzi-Continis. 1987. 1 videocassette (ca. 90 min.). Set in Italy in 1938, when Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts began to isolate the Jews from their communities. Among the Jews were the Finzi-Continis, an enormously wealthy and aristocratic Jewish family.  Having attempted to isolate themselves within the walls of their palatial estate, they now are forced for the first time to acknowledge the world beyond the boundaries as the relentless march of fascism inexorably leads to the arrest of all Italian Jews. VHS 1637

Gentleman's agreement. Studio classic/20th Century Fox. 1993. 1 videocassette (118 min.). A writer who is assigned to do a magazine series on anti-Semitism decides to pose as a Jew in order to get a real feeling for his work. The immediate changes he observes in his associates is shocking, and he sets about trying to bring to the world what he has learned. VHS 2428

Giv'a 24 eina ona = Hill 24 doesn't answer. Israeli cinema. 1987. 1 videocassette (101 min.). Four young Israeli soldiers - an Irishman, an American, a native-born Israeli and a Yemenite woman - are assigned to defend strategic Hill 24 outside Jerusalem in order to maintain access to the besieged city during Israel's War of Independence. Through their individual stories, film offers a critical perspective on the birth of Israel and those who risked their lives to insure its survival. VHS 5289

Gmar gaviya = Cup final. 1993. 1 videocassette (107 min.). Film is set in 1982 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Cohen, an Israeli soldier, has tickets for the World Cup games in Barcelona but finds himself instead in Lebanon where he is captured by a band of retreating PLO soldiers. There is only one solace - Ziad, the PLO leader, shares his passion for the soccer tournament and especially for the Italian national soccer team. VHS 4869

Godafton, Herr Wallenberg en passion historia fran verkligheten = Good evening Mr. Wallenberg : a passion taken from reality . Jewish Heritage Video Collection. 1994. 1 videocassette (115 min.). Raoul Wallenberg moved from Sweden to Budapest in late 1944 to help protect Jews from Adolph Eichmann's Sonderkommando. VHS 4101

The golem. 198. 1 videocassette (94 min.). Retelling of the Jewish legend of the Golem, a popular figure in Jewish tradition who is created by a saintly rabbi to protect the Jews of Prague from a pogrom. Film is set in medieval Prague where Rabbi Loew creates the Golem, a Frankenstein-like monster, out of clay. The Golem falls in love with the rabbi's daughter, goes on a rampage against the emperor's court and is then destroyed by an innocent child who immobilizes him by removing his life force - the Star of David amulet around his neck. VHS 4893

The great dictator. 1989. 1 videocassette (126 min.). Satirical comedy in which Chaplin plays the double role of the persecuted Jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomania. The barber is imprisoned, escapes, and is finally mistaken for the dictator at which point he makes an impassioned, humanistic speech which amazes the dictator's followers. VHS 963

Hamsin = hot wind. Israeli cinema. 1988. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Shows the eternal problem of Jewish-Arab relationship between Jewish landowner and his Arab worker. The problem of Arab-Jewish relations is portrayed in this study of a Jewish landowner and his Arab worker. VHS 6246

Hanna K. 1984. 1 videocassette (111 min.). Melodrama about a woman's search for identity in strife-torn Israel. Hanna Kaufman, an Israeli defense attorney, is pregnant as a result of an affair with Joshua Herzog, the zealous District Attorney of Jerusalem. The two wind up on opposing sides when she attempts to exonerate an accused Palestinian terrorist who is attempting to claim his ancestral home. VHS 6092

Hester Street. Collector's series. 1997. 1 videocassette (89 min.). Focuses on the new Russian Jewish immigrants, Jake and Gitl, and their reactions to American life and customs. Follows their lives with all the trials and tribulations as they discard their old world traditions and adjust to life in New York's Lower East Side in 1896. VHS 38

Holocaust: The story of the family Weiss. 1994. 3 videocassettes (450 min.). VHS 6792

Homicide. 1992. 1 videocassette (100 min.). A tough cop in assigned to what appears to be a routine homicide case, only to be drawn into the center of a deadly conspiracy which causes him to question his personal beliefs and his loyalty to the force. VHS 5902

Hotel Terminus: The life and times of Klaus Barbie. 1995. 2 videocassettes (267 min.). This documentary covers more than 70 years, 3 continents, and 120 hours of interviews as it explores the disappearance of and subsequent 40-year hunt for Klaus Barbie, chief of Gestapo Dept. IV in Lyon, France, 1942-1944. VHS 3704

Hungry hearts. 1993? 1 videocassette (80 min.). Bittersweet classic that captures the hopes and hardships of Jewish immigrants in the New World. Focuses on the Levin family who emigrate from Eastern Europe to New York City. Abraham, the pious father, learned in religion but uninterested in business, has difficulty earning a living and adjusting to life in America. The daughter, Sara, scrubs floors in the tenement in order to earn money and "become a somebody." Hannah, the noble matriarch, scrimps and saves to paint her dingy kitchen white only to have her landlord raise the rent because of the improvement. VHS 2815

Infinity. 1999. 1 videodisc (ca. 120 min.). True-life story of physicist Richard Feynman, who, as a young man fell madly in love with a beautiful young woman, Arline Greenbaum, with whom he shared a very special bond.  In 1941, when the United States plunged into World War II, Feynman was recruited to work at Los Alamos on the top-secret government project that was to develop the first atomic bomb--a job he accepted, in part, because it allowed him to resolve the crisis that he and Arline would face alone. DVD 252

Jacob the liar. Icestorm International classics. 1999. 1 videodisc (96 min.). Trapped in a Polish ghetto with thousands of other Jews facing starvation or deportation to the death camps, Jacob is detained one evening at the local Gestapo headquarters. Eavesdropping, he overhears a radio report about a nearby Russian victory. At first he is silent, but circumstances compel him to pass on the good news of hope. In order to be believed, he feigns access to a hidden, strictly forbidden radio. Quickly he becomes a one-man bulwark against despair, a reluctant hero, but a tragic figure still-- a man ultimately powerless to see or change the fate of his people. DVD 349

The Jazz Singer. Jewish heritage video collection. 1997. 1 videocassette (89 min.). A young boy's intense desire to sing jazz conflicts with his father's wish that his son follow in his footsteps as a cantor. Features the songs "Blue skies," "Mammy," and "Toot toot tootsie goodbye." VHS 6724

Jesus Christ superstar. 1986. 1 videocassette (108 min.). Depicts in song, images, and music, the story of the last week of Christ's life, his betrayal and crucifixion as seen from the point of view of Judas. VHS 1425

Jud Süss. 1996. 1 videocassette (ca. 95 min.). Based on the character of Josef Süss Oppenheimer who was tax advisor to Karl Alexander during the early 1700's and was publicly executed in Stuttgart for manipulation of state funds, film was made at the behest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In this version a power seeking Jewish man victimizes innocent Aryans. VHS 5699

Judgment at Nuremberg. 1983. 2 videocassettes (178 min.). A fictionalized account of a war crimes trial of four eminent Nazi judges at Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II. Provides insight into Nazi brutality and raises questions about freedom of choice, loyalty to one's country, and responsibility to mankind. DVD 1887, HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 196

Korczak. 1993. 1 videocassette (118 min.). Tells the true story of Janusz Korczak, a renowned physician and author who ran a home for Jewish orphans in 1930's Warsaw. Eventually he is forced to move his home to the Warsaw ghetto.  Though the children will be deported to concentration camps, Korczak vows to remain with them till the end. VHS 2543

Lacombe Lucien. Les Films de ma vie. 1995? 1 videocassette (135 min.). Set in France in June 1944, the film tells of the misfortunes of a young man who avoids involvement in the Resistance only to find himself involved with the French auxiliary (fascist) police. VHS 4966

The last butterfly. 1994. 1 videocassette (106 min.). A French actor is taken prisoner by the Gestapo and sentenced to perform in the "model city" of Terezin, a concentration camp filled with artists and children to prove to the world how well the Nazis treat the imprisoned Jews. But the actor discovers the horrifying truth and as he rehearses with a group of children in what is to be the last performance of their lives, he refuses to play a role in the Nazi's charade. VHS 6225

La ultima cena = The last supper. 1989. 1 videocassette (110 min.). An historical drama based on an incident from Cuban history. Set in Havana at the end of the 18th century, a guilt-ridden count invites twelve of his plantation slaves to a "last supper" during which he attempts to teach them what he sees as the crucial elements of Christianity, namely, submissive obedience to their master and joy in suffering.  When the count breaks his word, however, and forces the slaves to work the next day (Good Friday), they revolt and the count's punishment is swift and brutal. VHS 4203

The last temptation of Christ. 1996. 1 videocassette (163 min.). In this controversial movie, Jesus, as both fully human and fully divine, is viewed as free of sin but subject to all temptations, including sexual ones. VHS 4777

Lean neelam Daniel Vax? = But where is Daniel Vax? 1990. 1 videocassette (95 min.). After many years of separation, two men, a successful doctor and a popular singing star who returns to Israel from abroad, meet at a high school reunion. Both men fantasize about their youth and the hero worship they once shared for Daniel Wax, the popular hero of their school class. Both emerge sadder but wiser when they find that Wax is now a professor with little hair and even less charisma. VHS 5288

Lenny. 1989. 1 videocassette (112 min.). Depicts the rise to stardom of comedian Lenny Bruce and his fatal decline through drug addiction. VHS 1149

The life and times of Allen Ginsberg. 1993. 1 videocassette (82 min.). Depicts Allen Ginsberg, an American poet and social activist in the different decades of his life and activities. VHS 2691

The life and times of Hank Greenberg. 2001. 1 videodisc (95 min.). See above description. DVD 267

Me-ahorei hasoragim = Beyond the walls. 1986. 1 videocassette (103 min.). The struggle between Arabs and Jews within the confines of an overcrowded Israeli maximum security prison is the focus of this film. In a joint effort, the two factions (headed by Israeli Arnon Zadok and Arab Muhamad Bakri) unite in a mutiny to halt the prison's increasingly inhumane regulations and conditions. VHS 197

Mina Tannenbaum. International cinema. 1996. 1 videocassette (128 min.). Film that explores the humor, pain, and truths of female friendship. Mousy, introspective Mina and overweight, outgoing Ethel meet at age seven, and for the next 25 years their lives are intimately intertwined until they clash over their careers and the man they both want. VHS 4858

Mirele Efros. 1990. 1 videocassette (91 min.). Set in turn-of-the-century Grodno, film is a classic study in the relations between mothers-and-daughters-in-law. Mirele (Berta Gersten) is a noble, dignified widow and successful businesswoman who comes into conflict with the daughter-in-law she chose for her eldest son. All must deal with the issues of what it means to be a family. VHS 5710

Modlitba pro Katerina Horovitzovou = A prayer for Katerina Horovitzova. 1991. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Tale of a Polish singer who becomes a pawn in a nefarious arrangement which entails exchanging Jewish captives for Nazi officers held in American prisons. VHS 2038

Molly ; The Goldbergs. 1987? 1 videocassette (ca. 60 min.). Molly: Molly arranges for her daughter Rosie to audition with a singing teacher although she is not certain how she can afford the lessons. --The Goldbergs: Cousin Benjamin visits and invites Uncle Davey to return to Dublin with him, but Benjamin's new love does not want a third person to accompany them on their honeymoon. VHS 4133

Mother night. 1997. 1 videocassette (113 min.). An American playwright living in Germany is persuaded by a mysterious American to become an allied spy within the Nazi Party, with destructive effects for his life. He becomes a notorious spokesman for the Nazi's anti-American and anti-Semitic agenda. After the war, the writer begins to struggle with his shocking past - is he a hero, a villain, or both? VHS 5271

Mr. Death: The rise and fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. 2000. 1 videodisc (92 min.). Acclaimed filmmaker Errol Morris presents the provocative and chilling true story of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., a self-taught execution expert who consulted across the country to make capitol punishment more humane. Includes theatrical trailer. DVD 449

Nadia. 1996. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Nadia, a 16-year-old Arab girl from an Arab village in Israel, enrolls in Jewish boarding school to improve her chances to be accepted into medical school. Both Arab and Jewish classmates react to her with uncertainty and prejudice. VHS 5287

Noce en Galilée Urs al-Jalil = Wedding in Galilee. 1989. 1 videocassette (113 min.). A richly-detailed allegory of marriage, tradition, and national identity. The elder of a West Bank Palestinian village is given permission by the Israeli leaders to hold a traditional wedding for his son on the condition that the Israeli military governor and his staff be guests of honor at the ceremony. VHS 727

Novia que te vea. 1993. 1 videocassette (ca. 114 min.). Two young Jewish women growing up amid the social turmoil of 1960s Mexico follow their separate paths toward marriage in defiance of tradition and their families' expectations. VHS 6600

Nuit et brouillard = Night and fog. 1980 1 videocassette (64 min.). Award winning documentary using actual black and white film footage shot inside Hitler's concentration camps. Intercuts film footage from World War II with present day scenes of various concentration camps to describe the horror and the atrocities of the German concentration camps during World War II. Le retour: An understated account of the liberation of French prisoners from Nazi concentration camps and shows their removals to hospitals and joyful reunions with family and friends. DVD 20, DVD 948, VHS 127, VHS 128

Obchod na korze = The shop on Main Street. Jewish Heritage Video Collection. 1966. 1 videocassette (128 min.). In 1942, Tono and his wife are struggling because of his antipathy towards the fascist regime. His brother-in-law, the local fuehrer, chooses Tono to oversee a button shop owned by a sweet, harmless Jewish widow, Mrs. Lautman. Unable to explain his position to Mrs. Lautman, Tono gradually accepts her belief that he is her assistant. When the Jews are ordered deported, the well-meaning Tono decides to shield her from the Nazis. VHS 3143

One day in September. 2001. 1 videodisc (91 min.). This is the shocking and incredibly true story of the brutal massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by a team of extreme Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. From terrorist training in Libya to the terrorists sneaking into the Olympic Village to the tension-filled negotiations to the shocking conclusion at a German airport. Told with actual video shot during the crisis. VHS 450

Onkl Mozes  =Uncle Moses. 1988. 1 videocassette (87 min.). The perspective of Uncle Moses, the flamboyant, benevolent despot and self-made patriarch, changes as he becomes involved with romantic difficulties and labor union struggles. Portrays the lives of East European shtetl Jews transplanted to turn-of-the-century New York's Lower East Side. VHS 1827

Partisans of Vilna. 1986. 1 videocassette (130 min). Examines the moral dilemma facing the Jewish youth who organized an underground resistance in the Vilna ghetto and fought as partisans in the woods against the Nazis. Features interviews with surviving partisans interspersed with archival footage. VHS 6190

The pawnbroker. 1982. 1 videocassette (100 min.). Story about Marilyn Birchfield's love for a miserable New York pawnbroker, Sol Nazerman, who lost all faith in mankind during Nazi imprisonment. Nazerman's sad convictions are reinforced when he learns that the real owner of the pawnshop also operates a prostitution and crime ring. Not until Nazerman's assistant sacrifices his life for him during a holdup is there hope for the concentration camp survivor who is dead spiritually. VHS 102

Portnoy's complaint. 1989. 1 videocassette (101 min.). Details the journey of guilt-ridden, sex-obsessed Alexander Portnoy, searching for his manhood as he psychoanalyzes himself, sparing the viewer none of the raunchy detail and savage self-contempt. VHS 3983

The producers. 1987. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and his accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) face catastrophe when their play, "Springtime for Hitler," unexpectedly becomes a success. VHS 2739

The quarrel. 1996. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Two Holocaust survivers meet in Montreal in 1948. One is a deeply religious rabbi. The other, a journalist for a Yiddish newspaper, has turned his back on God. Now they have one afternoon to reconcile their differences, and renew their faith and friendship as they debate the existence of God and the role of religion, politics and morality in the life of man. VHS 4674

Romance of a Jewess. 1995? 1 videocassette (15 min.). Archival footage of a silent melodrama. Ruth, a young woman, lives on New York's Lower East Side and works with her father in his pawnshop. Her greatest treasure is a locket her dying mother gave her. She falls in love and marries in defiance of her father's wishes. He disowns her. She and her husband are happy and have a daughter but he dies in an accident. Impoverished, she must send her child to pawn the locket. 4613

Sallah. 1990. 1 videocassette (105 min.). A satirical comedy showing the problems an immigrant family from North Africa encounters in adjusting to life in Israel. Sallah arrives with his large family and with great expectations. Instead, he lands in a ramshackle transit camp that arouses his disgust. He decides to take on the bureaucracy in this own inimitable fashion, with hilarious results. VHS 5712

Schindler's list. 1994. 2 videocassettes (197 min.). The true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party, womanizer and war profiteer, who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. VHS 3116

Schindler's list. 1994. 2 videodiscs (197 min.). See above description. DVD 245

School ties. 1999. 1 videodisc (110 min.). David Greene, a popular student at an exclusive New England prep school, becomes the object of ridicule and scorn when his Jewish heritage is revealed, leading him to take the most important stand of his life.  DVD 153

Sophie's choice. 1992. 1 videocassette (152 min.). In 1947 Sophie Zawistowska, a tragic Polish Catholic beauty, having survived Auschwitz, has settled in America. Stingo, a 22 year-old aspiring writer from rural Virginia, is drawn to Sophie and her lover Nathan -- a madly romantic couple whose instability and flamboyance utterly capture this young man's imagination. The deeper Stingo sinks into these people's lives, the more he learns that each harbors terrible and terrifying secrets. VHS 2019

A stranger among us. 1993. 1 videocassette (109 min.). Emily Eden, a tough New York City detective, is forced to go undercover to solve a puzzling murder. VHS 6523

The ten commandments. 1991. 2 videocassettes (245 min.). The epic story of Moses, the prophet who led his people, the Israelites, out of bondage in the land of Egypt to the Promised Land. VHS 2567

The times of Harvey Milk. 1986. 1 videocassette (88 min.). A portrait of the life and career of Harvey Milk, a charismatic grass-roots activist, and one of the first avowed homosexuals elected to political office.  Through television news footage and interviews, follows him from his early days as a Castro Street businessman to his murder, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.  Relates these events to the ongoing movement for gay rights in the United States. VHS 284

Torch song trilogy. 1989. 1 videocassette (120 min.). Chronicles a New Yorker's search for love, respect and tradition in a world that seems not especially made for him. Set in the 1970s, film looks at the relationships of a gay, Jewish New Yorker with his bisexual lover, with the fashion model he believes is his one true love, and with his overbearing mother. VHS 3012

Transport z raje = Transport from paradise. Images series. 1987? 1 videocassette (94 min.). Depicts life in the Terezin ghetto in Czechoslovakia during World War II. VHS 449

Ulica Granicza = Border Street. 1984. 1 videocassette (110 min.). The lives of several families from different social classes in a neighborhood of pre-war Poland are changed by tragic events of a period as an old tailor tries to save his daughters and others in the Warsaw ghetto. Culminates with the uprising of 1943, when Jews, supported by the Polish underground, take up arms and die fighting. VHS 327

La vita è bella = Life is beautiful. Miramax collector's series. 1999. 1 videodisc (116 min.). A charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colorful imagination and an irresistible sense of humor has won the heart of the woman he loves and has created a beautiful life for his young family. Then that life is threatened by World War II. DVD 156

The Wannsee Conference. 1986. 1 videocassette (87 min.). Dramatic recreation of the infamous meeting convened by SS General Reinhard Heydrich. Held in a Berlin suburb in January 1942, members of the SS, the Nazi Party, and the government bureaucracy discussed the ways and means of systematically exterminating European Jews. Based on minutes taken at the actual meeting. VHS 413

Yentl. 1989. 1 videocassette (134 min.). Set in Eastern Europe in the early 1900's. Yentl is the daughter of a kindly scholar, a man able to instill in his daughter a love of learning as deep as his own.  However, in the world of Eastern Europe at the turn of the century, higher education is denied women so Yentl disguises herself as a man in order to gain entrance to an orthodox Jewish school. VHS 4244

Yiddle with his fiddle. 1988. 1 videocassette (92 min.). A classic Yiddish language musical-comedy. After they are thrown out of their home, a young girl fiddle player, disguised as a boy for safety, goes off to the Polish countryside with her musician father. They meet up with two other traveling musicians, one of whom is a young man. VHS 5715

 Feature Films with Prominent Jewish Characters

American history X. 1999. 1 videocassette (119 min.). A young man falls in with a group of white supremacists after his father is murdered. VHS 6285

The apartment. 1994. 1 videocassette (125 min.). An ambitious office clerk plans to get ahead by lending out his apartment to his philandering boss, Instead he falls in love with the boss' girlfriend. VHS 3062

Barton Fink. 1992. 1 videocassette (116 min.). A satirical look at Hollywood in the 40s. Barton Fink (Turturro), a New York playwright, has been lured there by a boorish studio boss (Lerner) to work as a screenwriter. He is assigned a wrestling movie - and quickly develops writer's block. Barton is living in a seedy hotel populated by bizarre people such as a chatty insurance salesman (Goodman) who tries to teach him the finer points of wrestling. Things progress from strange to chaotic as his life spins out of control. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 4623, DVD 1877

Die blechtrommel = The tin drum. 1996. 1 videocassette (142 min.). Feature chronicles Danzig in the 1920s/1930s and the life and times of Oskar Matzerath, a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he views the insane world around him as the Nazis come to power. Oskar has two weapons to see him through the ordeal of modern history: his tin drum, which he bangs to drown out horror and hypocrisy, and his childish voice raised in a shriek piercing enough to break glass. He uses both to protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which symbolize all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. VHS 7597

Die blechtrommel = The tin drum. 1998. 1 videodisc ( 142 min.). See above description. DVD 40

The boys in the band. 1984. 1 videocassette (119 min.). A heterosexual is accidentally invited to a homosexual gathering at a birthday party, and tension builds as tempers fray. VHS 2624

Cabaret. 1988. 1 videocassette (119 min.). An egocentric American girl dreams of becoming a star while working in a third-rate Berlin cabaret. "Cabaret deals with the psychology of a decaying society, 1930's pre-World War II Germany, at a time when the ... collapsing Weimar Republic was being replaced by the rising tide of Nazism.  Set in Berlin, a hotbed of vice, depravity, and anti-Semitism, this musical drama revolves around the seedy Kit Kat Klub, which serves as a microcosm of Germany in transition." - Magill's survey of cinema. VHS 574

Cabaret. 1998. 1 videodisc (124 min.). See above description. DVD 41

Café au lait. International cinema. 1996. 1 videocassette (94 min.). A tale of love's triumphant power to bring people together. Lola, a West Indian beauty, confronts her two lovers (Jamal, the son of well-to-do African diplomats and Felix, an impoverished Jewish messenger) with her impending motherhood, then flatly refuses to reveal which of the two men is the father. VHS 4774

The commissar. Soviet cinema today. 1988. 1 videocassette (105 min.). In this drama set against the Russian Civil War, a tough Red Army commander's military career is disrupted by an unwanted pregnancy. Forced to stay with a poor Jewish family until her child is born, she finds herself transformed by the warmth and compassion of her hosts. She must ultimately decide whether to rejoin her troops or stay with her child. VHS 6531

Dirty dancing. 1999. 1 videodisc (105 min.). Summer romance between a dance instructor and a guest at a hotel in the Catskills. DVD 296

Diner. 1983. 1 videodisc (110 min.). Directorial debut of Barry Levinson. Film is set in 1959 in a Baltimore diner, where five young men, long-time friends and just out of college, gather together for support as they try to make sense of their lives, face their various problems (all having to do with women) and find the courage to move on. They are drifting apart but cling to the group rituals they have shared since boyhood. VDD 137

Diner. 1987. 1 videocassette (110 min.). See above description. VHS 1510

Driving Miss Daisy. 1991. 1 videocassette (99 min.). Miss Daisy is white, Jewish, and no longer able to be trusted behind the wheel of a car. Hoke is the black man hired by Boolie, Miss Daisy's son, to be her chauffeur. The film covers their 25 year relationship in which they build the friendship of a lifetime. VHS 4673

Fame. Contemporary classics. 1999? 1 videocassette (VHS) (133 min.). A musical-drama set in Manhattan's High School of the Performing Arts. Looks at the hopes and dreams of eight young people vying for a foothold on the world of show business. VHS 6723

Funny girl. 1987. 1 videocassette (ca. 165 min.). Follows the early career of stage comedienne Fanny Brice. Only her mother believes Fanny can make it in show business until she is given a chance at Keeney's Music Hall where her hilarious debut as a rollerskating chorus girl gets her hired as a comedienne.  Fanny becomes a star with the Ziegfeld Follies, falls in love and marries Nick Arnstein, a handsome gambler whose luck doesn't hold up. VHS 2573

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. MGM musicals. 1998. 1 videocassette (97 min.). Bawdy tale set in early Rome, about Pseudolus, a comically sly and conniving slave, eager to win his freedom. His plan: to hook up his innocent, young master with the virgin courtesan next door! VHS 5477

Get on the bus. 1997. 1 videocassette (ca. 121 min.). Director Spike Lee examines the question of what it means to be a black man in America as he follows a group of 18 men with differing viewpoints and from a wide variety of backgrounds (a father estranged from his teenage son, a hate filled aspiring actor, a cop, a devout Muslim, an old man, a film student) who are traveling by bus from Los Angeles to Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in Washington, D.C. Lee shot much of the film on the bus (using 16 mm film and a small hand-held camera) and the story focuses on the men as they interact and explain why they are making the trip during which they must deal with a bus breakdown, a white, Jewish driver and bigoted white police. DVD 1680, HOME USE COLLECTION