“It’s not about comparing scars,” says Rabbi Capers Funnye, his thought completed moments later by Dr. Michael Berenbaum’s, “It doesn’t mean the Holocaust doesn’t have something to say about slavery and slavery doesn’t have something to say about the Holocaust. Both of them have something to say about suffering.” You couldn’t prove it by my Hebrew school teacher, Rabbi Sol Lerner, who, in 1966, escorted his class to Chicago’s Roosevelt Theatre a downtown picture palace that took up an entire city block to attend a performance of the 10-year anniversary reissue of DeMille’s
Tango Shalom: Lainie Kazan and Renée Taylor co-star in a picture playing this year s San Diego Jewish Film Festival that has audience favorite written all over it.
Another week, another film festival this time, the 31st Annual San Diego International Jewish Film Festival, which runs February 11-21. For a complete lineup of features and virtual discussion groups, visit www.lfjcc.org/cjc/sdijff.aspx. Here are two must-sees and one… well, I suffered, why shouldn’t you?
Tango Shalom (2021)
It’s not often one thinks of rabbis and their wives as amorous entities, but that’s the first thing you’ll notice when Moshe Yehuda (Jos Laniado) and his spouse Raquel (Judi Beecher) are introduced in mid-passionate embrace. (It s a family affair all around: Jos co-wrote the script with brother/co-star Claudio Laniado and co-star Joseph Bologna, the late husband of Renée Taylor. And that s Jos daughter Justine Laniado playing his onscreen daughter Shira). It’s important to establi