Israeli Cinema: Perverting the Image of Holocaust Survivors

Summer 2012

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RESEARCH
Getting Hotter All the Time
Israeli Cinema: Perverting the Image of Holocaust Survivors
Can We Split Our Attention?
Violent Digital Games: Are They Just a Game?
Video Screening for ADD
The Sun's Cycles

STUDENTS & GRADUATES
Blind Date with the Open University
"The Open University: A Superior Training Ground for Professional Success"
From Tractor Driver to Master's Degree
A Family Affair

TECHNOLOGY
Digital University: Mobile Digital Books Project
Is Technology Tromping the ABC's?

INITIATIVES - LANGUAGE
Arabic-Speaking Students Study in Arabic
Sao Paulo University Students Learn About Israeli Society in Spanish

EVENTS
Graduation Ceremonies
The 7th Chais Conference
Evening in Honor of Dov Lautman
Visit by NASA Astronaut, William S. McArthur, Jr.
Exhibition: "Fireworks Blossoming in the Winter"
"Psychic Numbing of Genocide"

INTERNATIONAL
Conference at Cambridge University
Cambridge in Ra'anana
American Friends: The Open University Foundation

HIGHLIGHTS
Dr. Milly Perry
Prof. Yoav Yair
Prof. Yoram Eshet
Aviel Atias
Laurence Berry
Edna Tal
SuperBrands Israel
Prof. Judith Gal-Ezer
Co-editors: Elissa Allerhand, Ilene Bloch-Levy Photographer: Gideon Markowitz Graphic Designer: Laura Grinberg Web Manager: Batsheva Engelberg-Behr Web Master: Sonia Pechersky

RESEARCH
Israeli Cinema: Perverting the Image of Holocaust Survivors In spite of the remarkable personal stories of many Holocaust survivors – stories which could have been the bread and butter of countless films – rarely were these portrayed by Israeli cinematographers. Indeed over the past six decades, Israeli fiction cinema has largely presented a perverted, unsympathetic, even cruel image of Holocaust survivors. Dr. Liat Steir-Livny, lecturer at the Open University, makes some startling revelations in her new book, "Two Faces in the Mirror: The Image of Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema: 1945-2009." When the State of Israel was established, one of every three Jewish citizens had come from Eastern Europe. Many had survived the concentration camps, lived in hiding or fought among the partisans. Each individual – more than a quarter of a million people – had an extraordinary story to tell, a harrowing experience to share, a narrative of a life that had been miraculously spared. The miracle of each individual's survival was epic in nature. In any cinematic environment, these stories would have constituted an endless bounty of inspirational films. Yet, none of this found expression in Israeli cinema. According to Dr. Liat Steir-Livny, Open University's Coordinator of the M.A. Program in Cultural Studies and lecturer in the Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, in her newest book: "Two Faces in the Mirror: The Image of Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema: 1945-2009," Israeli fiction cinematographers in the past and the present "used the stories of the Holocaust survivors as tools to further their own agenda, and ended up portraying Holocaust survivors as negative stereotypes." So, in spite of the many stories about Jews during the Holocaust that have made their way into the public consciousness, very little has changed on the Israeli screen in the past sixty years. Page: 1 2 3

RESEARCH

Israeli Cinema: Perverting the Image of Holocaust Survivors

In spite of the remarkable personal stories of many Holocaust survivors – stories which could have been the bread and butter of countless films – rarely were these portrayed by Israeli cinematographers. Indeed over the past six decades, Israeli fiction cinema has largely presented a perverted, unsympathetic, even cruel image of Holocaust survivors. Dr. Liat Steir-Livny, lecturer at the Open University, makes some startling revelations in her new book, "Two Faces in the Mirror: The Image of Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema: 1945-2009."

When the State of Israel was established, one of every three Jewish citizens had come from Eastern Europe. Many had survived the concentration camps, lived in hiding or fought among the partisans. Each individual – more than a quarter of a million people – had an extraordinary story to tell, a harrowing experience to share, a narrative of a life that had been miraculously spared.

The miracle of each individual's survival was epic in nature. In any cinematic environment, these stories would have constituted an endless bounty of inspirational films. Yet, none of this found expression in Israeli cinema.

According to Dr. Liat Steir-Livny, Open University's Coordinator of the M.A. Program in Cultural Studies and lecturer in the Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, in her newest book: "Two Faces in the Mirror: The Image of Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema: 1945-2009," Israeli fiction cinematographers in the past and the present "used the stories of the Holocaust survivors as tools to further their own agenda, and ended up portraying Holocaust survivors as negative stereotypes."

So, in spite of the many stories about Jews during the Holocaust that have made their way into the public consciousness, very little has changed on the Israeli screen in the past sixty years.

Page: 1 2 3