Jews for Jesus

Movie Review
No Place on Earth (2012)
PG-13
-reviewed by Arielle Rothbard

Movie Review
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
PG-13
-reviewed by Matt Sieger

I just saw the 2012 version of the movie Les Misérables. I am also a quarter of the way through the unabridged audiobook. I think the question “the book or the movie?” is more complex with Les Mis than it is with some other titles. (“The Hobbit,” for example, in which the film version gives added meaning to “an unexpected journey” if you “expect” the film to follow the book).

In case The DaVinci Code wasn't enough for you, the Discovery Channel's Lost Tomb of Jesus aired March 4. (A related web site is here.)

As Eli (Denzel Washington) listens to “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” by Al Green on his I-Pod-like relic in post-apocalyptic America, the real question is, how do you mend a broken world? This film captures tikkun olam on a major scale.

Ushpizin” is the Aramaic word for “guest.” It is also the title of a 2004 Israeli film, directed by Gidi Dar and written by Shuli Rand. Rand, who also starred in the film, won the Best Actor award from the Israeli Film Academy for the role of Moshe. On a side note, Shuli Rand is a Hassid in “real life” and Michal Bat Sheva Rand, the woman who plays his wife in the film is—his wife! This viewer would never have guessed that “Ushpizin” was her first film. Bat Sheva Rand’s debut is owing to the fact that as a Hassidic Jew, Shuli Rand is not permitted to touch any other woman.

reviewed by Remy Remigio

The word whimsical" seems out of place when describing a story set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, yet the 1999 Paramount Classics film, "Train of Life" indeed is a whimsical treatment of a serious topic. In fact, there are many humorous scenes. The humor is not about Nazis or the Holocaust—but about life and especially about the absurdities that survival requires. In French with English subtitles, the movie has a surreal quality owing to its implausible plot and some "Fiddler on the Roof"-style musical interludes.

60 minutes running time. Produced by Jews for Jesus. Available for purchase.

To say that the crucifixion of Jesus as depicted in passion plays has been bad for the Jews is more than a gross understatement. These plays, which in years past often cast our people as devils with horns and as sinister characters, have given rise to accusations that we were not only collectively responsible for the death of Christ, but we killed Christian babies, we poisoned wells, we spread the Black Plague and so on. It is no wonder then that Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the Christ, which depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, has elecited strong, defensive reactions from some: