On September 6th, join Scribe Video Center and Jewish Currents in Philadelphia for a 20th anniversary screening of the documentary Young, Jewish, and Left.
Twenty years ago, Michael Chameides and Irit Reinheimer traveled across the US, searching for a Jewish culture that coincided with their liberatory, leftist values. On that journey, they interviewed over 50 Jews who identified as anarchists, communists, socialists, leftists, and radicals; these conversations became the basis for Young, Jewish, and Left, a 55-minute documentary that offers a multi-layered portrait of progressive Jewish politics in 2003, touching on themes including queer culture, Jewish Arab history, secular Yiddishkeit, anti-racism, and religious/spiritual traditions.
Join us as we now return to Young, Jewish, and Left, two decades later. After the screening in Philadelphia, Jewish Currents’ director of community engagement Sol Brager will moderate a conversation with the documentary’s co-director Irit Reinheimer, and two of its subjects, Ezra Berkley Nepon and Nava EtShalom. We will look at the political and cultural moment in which Young, Jewish, and Left was made, what has shifted since the documentary’s creation, and the important resonances the film holds in the present moment.
Tickets are available via Scribe Video Center--$7.50 General Admission, $5 Students/Seniors, $4 Scribe Members
Irit Reinheimer is a filmmaker and writer based in Philadelphia. She has a background in experimental filmmaking, taking a sculptural approach to the themes of loss and inheritance through short films constructed from her late father’s 8mm home movies, archival materials, and new footage. Irit’s films Young, Jewish, and Left, How the Bridge Works, I Told Her This Was Home, and Of Origin have screened nationally and internationally. Her first book, Push the Water (2023), was published by Thread Makes Blanket Press. She is a long-time member of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Ezra Berkley Nepon is a Philadelphia-based activist and author of Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda (2012), and Dazzle Camouflage: Spectacular Theatrical Strategies for Resistance and Resilience (2016). Ezra is Deputy Director of the Global Philanthropy Project, and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace; he was also a founding member of the JVP Artist Council.
Nava EtShalom is a poet, editor, and educator based in West Philly, and author of the poetry collections The Knives We Need (2021) and Fortunately (2020). Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, The Believer, LA Review of Books, and other journals. Nava holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and has received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the 92Y Discovery Prize, and two prizes from the Academy of American Poets.
Solomon J. Brager is director of community engagement at Jewish Currents and author of the graphic memoir Heavyweight (2024).
Photo Credit: Elle Pérez
This event is co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace Philly and the Leeway Foundation.
