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A Life Apart - Hasidism in America
starring: Leonard Nimoy, Sarah Jessica Parker
directed by: Menachem Daum;Oren Rudavsky

List Price: $29.95

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Used Price: $17.51
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0720229909716
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Manufacturer: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 17, 2001
Running Time: 95 minutes
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Theatrical Release Date: 1997
Sales Rank: 17882
MPN: 909716

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
In New York City, the Hasidim are a common sight, but even here their way of life remains a mystery to those outside their community. With their use of Yiddish, their distinctive clothes and their strict observance of Jewish ritual and law, the Hasidim are considered by many an insular people with little connection to mainstream America. Yet their values are those that many Americans find most precious: family, community, and a life of meaning.

In this "unique glimpse into this closed society" (Philadelphia Inquirer), seven years in the making, we are taken into the depths of the Hasidim's joyous, sometimes harsh, and often beautiful world. A "series of beautifully shot, startlingly intimate interviews" (New York Post) sheds light on idiosyncratic customs such as matchmaking, secular education and traditional dress, by taking us through the homes, schools and synagogues of this insular world. The filmmakers also candidly address suspicions of racism and accusations of sexism from the outside community.

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, narrated by Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker takes us on an illuminating journey into a "beautiful, mesmerizing and mysterious world" (San Francisco Bay Guardian) of a community kept distinct from its surrounding culture for generations.

Amazon.com:
Hasidic Jews seem alien, and even hostile, to those outside their culture, which frequently includes other Jews. They dress differently, don't mingle between the sexes, speak Yiddish, and wear side curls, all in an attempt to rigorously follow the commandments of the Torah. They tend to keep to themselves, shunning television and the media so outside influences cannot corrupt their values and views. Yet filmmakers Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum were able to enter their world, and the result is the fascinating documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America. Using interviews with academics and members of the community and some historical footage, the filmmakers trace the growth of Hasidic groups in the United States. Groups formed around particular Rebbes (learned leaders) and they took their names from their Eastern European home cities (the Samovar Hasids, the Breslover Hasids, and so on). Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker narrate, explaining how this movement came to America and how it was able to flourish. Dissenting voices also appear, in the form of neighborhood people who are distressed at the Hasids' refusal to speak to members not in their community and of a young woman, Pearl Gluck, who left the community in order to pursue her writing and to follow a life of her own choosing. Many Hasids refuse to speak on camera, and we see many shielding themselves with hands or coats so as not to appear on film. But those who do appear are poignant in their discussions of why the Hasidic life is important to them. One man speaks to the directors, even as he acknowledges that he will never see the movie, but he will do it "in order to help a Jew make a living." One couple, Holocaust survivors, are not Hasidic, but their children are, and the reasonings of both the parents and the children are interesting. This film, shown on PBS, is a consequential look into a lifestyle many of us don't understand, and it may help in increasing an understanding. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Informative but rather superficial
This film is informative but rather superficial. If you know well the hassidic world or search for a deep understanding of his ways and thinking, this will be not enough for you. It gives information and (bless God!!) is sympathetic, but if the mind and professional expertise of the fim makers is there, the soul is not. And the soul, the neshameh, is an important thing in hassidism after all...

Rating:

- The high cost of righteousness
The adherents of all religions seek purity of one kind or another, but only a handful of nonmonastic religious communities believe that radical separation from the world is a necessary condition for it. In the US, the Amish, the Hutterites, some of the more extreme fundamentalist Mormons, and the Hasidim are the religious groups which continue to live enclaved existences. In "A Life Apart," directors Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky explore the Hasidic community in NYC.

Most Hasidim came to the US in the wake of the holocaust. Four out of five European Hasidim were exterminated by the Nazis. After the war, the five surviving heads of Hasidic communities brought their people to the US to begin anew--not in search of the great American dream, as the film makes clear, but in search ... Read More

Rating:

- A Good Introductory Look at Chasidic Life
I ordered this DVD from Amazon, and have been most impressed with it. The producers have really done a fine job of showing a glimpse of Chasidic life. My wife said after viewing it for about the third time that this makes her want to be Chasidic !! A warm, positive look at a world most of us don't often see, let alone understand. It even contains some detractors such as former Chasidim amd non-Jews looking in. Very well done.

Rating:

- Very interesting
I loved the documentary. I learned a lot about the Hadsidic community that I didn't know. Highly recommend it!

Rating:

- An Excellent Primer on Hasidic Judaism
The focus of this documentary is the Brooklyn Hasidic community. The sharp-eyed viewer can spot the twin towers of the World Trade center, rising above the apartments, in one of the scenes.

The Hasidic movement began as a reaction against what some had considered the excessively rule-oriented and punitive view of God that characterized Orthodox Judaism. In Vilna (Wilno, Vilnius), the then-current rabbis denounced the new movement as a heresy, and its members were excommunicated. Yet Hasidism went on to become the dominant form of Judaism in eastern Europe. In the 19th century, some of its member turned away to substitute religions--Zionism, socialism, and Communism.

For centuries, the Hassidim viewed America as a wild land that was amoral and materialistic. Many Hassidim ... Read More

DVD : A Life Apart - Hasidism in America