His cousin is the Chief Rabbi of Israel, his uncle the former Chief Rabbi, his father was the Israeli Consul General to New York, and he descends from 39 generations of Orthodox rabbis back to King David.
We watch as Amichai slowly embraces the ancient role of rabbi on his own terms - weaving together his explorations in a wide range of worlds - trickster, gay, counterculture, skeptic and seeker. He launches Lab/Shul, a part laboratory, part synagogue - an everybody-friendly, God optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings based in NYC and reaching the world.
Rabbi Movie
One boy learned from the rabbi that his own gentile grandfather had risked his life to hide Jews beneath the floorboards of his home in northern Holland during World War II -- a legacy his family had never discussed.
Set in pre-World War II Algeria, THE RABBI'S CAT is based on director Joann Sfar's graphic novels and follows the fantastical tale of a rabbi (voiced by Maurice Benichou) and his lovely daughter (Hafsia Herzi), whose cat gains the ability to talk after swallowing a parrot. With his powers of speech, the cat (Francois Morel) begins to question whether he, like his master and mistress, is Jewish. After discovering a young Russian Jew hidden in a shipping crate, the rabbi and his cat follow the strapping Zionist across Africa -- with the help of a distant cousin who's a Muslim scholar -- to find the African Jews of Ethiopia.
Although the movie's many subplots are interesting, a few characters seem unnecessarily introduced -- like the rabbi's desert journeyman cousin "Lion Malka," who figures prominently in the books but has little to do in the movie. But the cat's myriad observations about religion and life are both educational and entertaining (and occasionally hilarious). And audiences will learn as they're sucked into a story with messages that are still relevant -- particularly the relationship between the rabbi and his Muslim cousin. This cat speaks the truth, and THE RABBI'S CAT is an animated adventure worth reading subtitles to see.
What are The Rabbi's Cat's messages about race and religion? Is the historical context of the movie -- pre-WWII, French colonial Algeria -- confusing for those who aren't familiar with it? How could you find out more?
The rabbi who dropped dead was Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser), an important figure in the London Orthodox Jewish community. His daughter Ronit (Rachel Weisz), a New York-based photographer, left years ago. When she returns home, she walks into the unchanged world of her childhood, looked at by relatives and former friends with curiosity and concern. She is rebelliously secular, with long free hair, cigarettes, short leather skirts. The obituary for her father states that "sadly" he had no children. It stings. She's been gone so long she had no idea that Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), taken in by her father as a protégé at 13, and Esti, her childhood friend (Rachel McAdams) have gotten married. There's an awkward moment in the kitchen when she makes the connection. The shock on Weisz's face is eloquent, although we don't know the backstory yet.
The colors of the film are subdued and chilly, all blacks, greys, smoky-blues, so that at times it looks like a black-and-white photograph. It's beautiful, in a classical and formal way. "A Fantastic Woman" featured many surreal dreamlike images, but Lelio plays this one straight. So straight, though, it is sometimes a detriment. It's the kind of movie where teachers are shown giving lectures which directly comment on the action of the movie. Dovid and his young rabbinical students discuss sensuous love and its importance, and Esti discusses "Othello" with her students. In one scene in "A Fantastic Woman," Aretha's "(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman" is prominently featured, and in a scene in "Disobedience," to break an awkward silence with Esti, Ronit spins the dial on the radio and stops on The Cure's "Love Song," which just so happens to narrate perfectly the emotions of the moment. These obvious choices really stick out.
Sanders played "Rabbi Manny Shevitz" in the 1999 low-budget comedy My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception. Sanders, who appears in the trailer, makes an appearance for about two minutes midway through the movie.
My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception is a "laugh out loud" film full of all things we love and hate about weddings. A slice of life film that shows us what really happens on the most important days in some of our lives. Whether you wish to follow the love triangle between the bride, groom and ex-boyfriend or see what the bridesmaids really talk about in the powder room; this is the movie for you. Take a peek into a Jewish-Italian wedding as the families and their guests show us what we are all thinking yet never say at these events. Regardless of your heritage, you will find at least one character and one sup plot you can relate to and it might make you think for a bit before getting married.
Rabbi Sfar (voiced by Maurice Benichou) lives with his voluptuous daughter Zlabya (Hafsia Herzi) and their mischievous cat. After eating the family's talking parrot, the feline (Francois Morel) starts talking in human language, much to the amazement of the rabbi who suddenly finds himself having to answer questions about God and faith.
Although the cat has little interest in the story of creation, declaring the biblical version "ridiculous," he becomes convinced that as a Jewish cat he must have a bar mitzvah. At a loss for what to do, the rabbi goes to his teacher for counsel, but this conservative elder recommends drowning the cat for his vanity and lack of respect for essential Jewish belief.
Sfar and his co-director amplify the story with a succession of visits to the rabbi's house by guests and encounters with strangers. The rabbi hosts his cousin Malka of the Lions (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) and on a pilgrimage to a saint's tomb, joins another cousin, Mohammed Sfar (Fellag Sheik), a Sufi lover of God whose openness to the variety of faiths is admirable. The sheik's donkey also talks.
Later, these two travel with a Russian painter (Sava Lova) and a reporter (Francois Damiens) to find the fabled African Jerusalem in Ethiopia, reputed to be the homeland for all blacks and Jews. Along the way, they stop in the encampment of a desert prince (Mathieu Amalric) and his fanatically conservative followers. (An outbreak of violence and two deaths in this scene make this animated feature unsuitable for younger children.) Further on, the Russian meets a beautiful black woman in a bar; they fall in love and are married by the rabbi. Meanwhile, the cat pines for his mistress.
Throughout this adventure, the rabbi and his companions learn many lessons. Signs of the presence of God are all around you. There is no value in trying to figure out which religion is better. When you see a new thing, advises the Sufi, just look and don't speak; silence is precious.
Gevirtz, 66, grew up in Washington Heights and has lived alone in Riverdale for 22 years. He taught math and Judaic Studies at a local Jewish day school from 1981 to 2013 and has also written and edited number of books: a biography of the Chofetz Chaim, a famous 19th century rabbi, as well as a guide to the basic laws of Shabbat, and a young adult detective book titled The Mystery of the Missing Bar Mitzvah Gift.
The first listing he ever responded to appeared in a newspaper, The Jewish Press, around 1980. The film's producers were looking for men with beards. Gevirtz at the time had no previous acting experience and no desire to transition into a full time career in the arts. But he decided to pick up the phone and dial the number from the ad. He was told the movie was called The Chosen and based on the novel, of the same name, by the author Chaim Potok.
Three Pints And A Rabbi was a VOD / Digital release in 2021 on Friday, April 30, 2021. There were 11 other movies released on the same date, including Triumph, The Mitchells vs. The Machines and Separation.
HomeTrailerStoryAccoladesBackgroundGalleryCrewShopContactDownload HomeTrailerStoryAccoladesBackgroundGalleryCrewShopContactDownloadStoryWilliam Wolff is nearly 90 and perhaps the most unconventional rabbi in the world.
Even as a child of four or five in Berlin, he dreamt of becoming a rabbi - a desire which survived his adolescence. Fascinated by ancient wisdoms contained within the Old Testament, he wanted to minister to others. However, as a refugee after the war, there was no money to fund his rabbinic studies. Instead he left school and started working as a journalist.
But Wolff, who never abandoned his lifelong dream of becoming a rabbi, embarked on his training at the Leo Baeck College in London at the age of 53. Ordained in 1984, he went on to hold posts at synagogues in Central London, Newcastle, Brighton, and Wimbledon (in South London). In April 2002, then aged 75, he succumbed to serial invitations from the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and assumed the Office of State Rabbi of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in the former East Germany), a position that had lain vacant for 65 years. Until his recent retirement at the age of 88, Wolff ministered to Jews in Schwerin, Rostock, and Wismar, communities totalling around 2000 members. And, because these Jews hailed almost exclusively from the former USSR, he learned Russian!
It was the spring of 2008 and I was looking for some sort of narrator for my film In Heaven, Underground, which was about the Weissensee Jewish cemetery in Berlin. I felt that a rabbi would be best suited to convey the differences between Christian and Jewish rituals of bereavement and the concept of the afterlife in Judaism. Willy Wolff, a State Rabbi in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany, who was born in Berlin and has known the cemetery since his childhood, immediately agreed to help with the film. 2ff7e9595c
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