Fleeing from Kaunas, Lithuania in 1940, thousands of Jewish refugees escaped by train across Russia and then by boat to Japan thanks to visas from the Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara. Many years later — as told in the film Sugihara Survivors — a Japanese writer, Akira Kitade, inherits a photo album with pictures of some of these refugees. He sets out on a mission to discover what became of these Sugihara visa recipients.
This film-and-discussion program tells the story of how a group of young Jewish women, in Britain, Ireland and several other western countries, known as the “35s” because of their median age, created an international movement to rescue persecuted “refusenik” Jews from the Soviet Union. In the new film Iron Ladies, these remarkable women share their untold story on film, joined by Natan Sharansky and others.
Fred Korematsu defied the US government in 1942 when he refused to be interned as a Japanese American. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him. He was finally exonerated in 1983, in a landmark case that restored his civil rights and led to reparations for all Japanese Americans who had been interned during World War II. In 1998, Korematsu received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The film Of Civil Wrongs and Rights tells his powerful and important story.
On this Mother’s Day film-and-discussion program we present Family Treasures Lost & Found — exploring the quest of journalist Karen Frenkel to learn the stories that remained untold about her mother’s Holocaust survival experience.
The film The Consul of Bordeaux is a semi-fictionalized feature film based on the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the families he saved. Please join us for this free program on our inspiring hero!
Did you know the secret Jewish history of Superman, Spiderman and other famous superhero characters? Tune into this free program to find out.
Told largely through his own words and eloquent voice, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire seeks to penetrate to the heart of the known and unknown Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) — his passions, his conflicts and his legacy as one of the most public survivors of the trauma of the Holocaust. With unique access to personal archives, original interviews and employing hand-painted animation, the film illuminates Wiesel’s biography as a survivor, writer, teacher and public figure.