You are now entering the Jewish Currents archive.
The Rabbi in Berlin
The Rabbi in Berlin, 2006, created during the brutal war between Gaza and Israel, is a 12-minute imagining of what might happen if Israel lost and its land were given to the Arabs. Recorded in Berlin by Bil Thompson, based on a script and edited by Shalom Gorewitz, the video features legendary artworld luminary Willoughby Sharp. Narrated by a ghost, the story describes the dead protagonist’s artist/father, who has arrived in Germany, the place of his birth, because of this Third Exile. Below, Past Present, 2009, is a four-minute, 3-D animation of fragmented Hebrew letters floating over a simulated mountain. Gorewitz (www.gorewitz.net) is a pioneering video artist whose work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid; Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe in Germany; and numerous other museums around the world.
I’m Arielle Angel, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. Before you go, there’s something I need to ask.
We’ve seen over and over how the mainstream media falters in telling stories on our beats—whether it’s antisemitism, Israel/Palestine in American politics, Jewish identity, or the American left. At Jewish Currents we’re committed to uncompromising analysis and longform reporting on these issues and more—stories you won’t find anywhere else. In a media landscape that obscures injustice and flattens discussion, we’re changing the conversation. But we need you.
If you believe in this work, please consider making a donation—or even better, a recurring one—to ensure that we are able to keep publishing stories like this one. We can’t do it without you.
