Film Shul – Jews & The Movies | Columbia Jewish Congregation - Reconstructionist SynagogueColumbia Jewish Congregation

February 2, 2023

8:30 pm

FilmShul is an informative, engaging and fun presentation on Hollywood and the Jewish American Experience, curated by noted film historians Irv Slifkin and Laurence Lerman and specifically designed for Zoom interactivity. They are a pair of nice, middle-aged Jewish guys who write, review and talk about movies a whole helluva lot, have been professional colleagues and friends for nearly 30 years. They’re a pair of “Movie Mensches.”

The role of FilmShul is to reflect on and relate to the American Jewish experience so audiences will be informed and entertained, and recognize the valuable contributions made by entertainment innovators of the Jewish faith.

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WWII and Hollywood’s Jewish Question
Thursday, February 2, 2023 | 8:30pm
The Production Code in 1934, the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and a general growth in anti-Semitism didn’t bode well for the Hollywood studio moguls, Jewish men like Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Jack Warner and others who virtually created Hollywood. The moguls tried to ignore the rise of Nazism but that could only go so far, even as they continued distributing films in Germany up until the war broke out and not making an anti-Nazi film until 1940. With World War II & Hollywood’s Jewish Question, we look at how the Jewish moguls reacted–and failed to react–to what was happening in Europe in the 1930s, and how they proceeded through the war and its subsequent years.