SYNOPSIS:

Jewish activists Irit Reinheimer & Konnie Chameides traveled the US interviewing their Lefty comrades about the intersections of Judaism with their social justice work. The result: a 60-minute documentary with a fresh and constructive take on race, spirituality, Zionism, queerness, resistance, justice, and liberation.

Young, Jewish, and Left "highlights the plight of an oft-ignored faction of liberal Jews who are facing exclusion because of their progressive politics," writes Danny Lanzetta in Pulse Magazine. But while alienation and oppression emerge as themes in this documentary, the activists featured are anything but defeated.

Meet Shira Hassan, who co-created a radical Machzor (prayer book) for the high holidays after she and her trans-gender partner "were literally laughed out of synagogue." Listen as Loolwa Khazoom, an Iraqi Jew and editor of Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage, recounts her experience in a U.S. Hebrew School when the Rabbi told her it was a sin to use an Arab Jewish prayer book. And follow Steve Quester, of Jews Against the Occupation, as he explains why coming out as a Jew against the occupation is a natural progression for someone who has already come out as gay in the Jewish community.

As these community organizers, playwrights, artists, and Rabbis speak of building progressive organizations, new rituals, and more inclusive communities, it is clear that their inspiration is drawn from a proud Jewish past. Inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Workmen's Circle, and by their own communist & socialist grandparents, these Jewish radicals are creating a more just future by learning from and identifying with a collective, rich Jewish heritage of reform and rebellion. At a time when the religious right around the globe are rising to power, this documentary is an inspiration for people of any faith. Grab your Bubbe (grandmother) and your habibi (loved one) and check it out.

VOICES: 

Miriam Grant -  former participant and staff Jewish Youth for Community Action

And A. Lusia - rabble rouser, participant of 'Birthright Israel'

Dara Silverman - director JFREJ- Jews for Racial and Economic Justice

Liz Werner - writer/translator/teacher, grandparents blacklisted in McCarthy era

Molly Hein - media artist, klezmer singer

Deb Shoval - playwright, director of An Olive on the Seder Plate

Nava EtShalom - writer and activist

Jenine Bressner - artist

Rabbi Michael Lerner - national chair, The Tikkun Community and Author

Julia Caplan - co-founder of A Jewish Voice for Peace, San Francisco Bay Area

Rachel Marcus - student, Oberlin College– grew up going to Kinderland, a Jewish socialist summer camp

Shira Hassan - social worker

Loolwa Khazzoom - editor, The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage

Steve Quester - early-childhood educator and queer Jewish activist

Yonah Diamond - union organizer

Micah Bazant - co-author of the Love & Justice Haggadah

Harmony Goldberg - educator, SOUL (School of Unity and Liberation)

Rabbi Arthur Waskow - director of Shalom Center, author

Jna Shelomith - revolutionary

Paul Kivel - violence prevention educator

Rabbi Chaim Beliak co-Director, Stop Moskowitz Campaign

Julie Iny - community organizer

MUSIC 

Batya Sobell, Mirah, Nomy Lamm, Divahn, Instrumenches, and DJ Kismet.

This project is possible because of the 100+ people who have offered their time, resources, and money.  

Additional Support provided by

New York Foundation of the Arts

DOCUMENTARIANS:

Konnie Chameides:
Konnie is a southern Jew transplanted as a Yankee. He is a former Canvass Director for US PIRG and campaign manager for an independent, locally based political party. He gives anti-racist and anti-sexist trainings to activist, student, and non-profits organizations and has led successful fair labor and voting rights campaigns. In 2002, Konnie began working as a youth media educator in Poughkeepsie, NY - teaching video and media literacy. In 2003, Konnie started working on Young, Jewish, & Left - seeking to understand how his Jewish identity intersects with his politics, family history, culture, and gender expression. He is currently the program curator and publicist at Time & Space Limited.

Irit Reinheimer:
Irit Reinheimer is a visual artist and activist, began learning video when teaching youth stop-motion animation and mini-movies at the Children’s Media Project in Poughkeepsie, NY. Reinheimer graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz with a BFA in Sculpture. Reinheimer assisted Amy Trompetter in building over 40 life size puppets for the production of “The Barber of Seville,” and later performed in the production at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. She co-created Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls Will Be. . .  a coloring book, published by Soft Skull Press in 2004.  She has been active in labor, feminist, anti-war, and queer movements for the past 10 years.