A New Look at the Old World - Eastern European Jewry: Scenes of Life

A series of lectures, presented by Anu - Museum of the Jewish People in collaboration with Beit Shalom Aleichem.

2025-2026, Fridays once a month, 9:00am-11:00am

Series producer: Rivka Aderet

Series price: 680 ILS

Program:

November 21, 2025

• Kazimierz: Faded Hebrew Signs and Traces of Mezuzahs on Doors: Krakow's Jewish past is visible from every corner. A stroll through the streets of the Jewish quarter, accompanied by archival photographs and rare texts. A lecture by Ofer Aderet, history correspondent for "Haaretz" newspaper.
• To the Place, To the Home - On the Road Following Books: A late visit to the childhood locales written about by the best authors. With Prof. Ruhama Elbag.

December 12, 2025

• Berlin-Vilna-New-York 1925 - 2025: The YIVO Institute and its Research of Eastern European Jewish Culture. With Prof. Avraham Novershtern.
• "Jewish Warsaw": Chapters of memoirs by Moshe Zonszain, who revived his lost city in his words. A talk with the Yiddish translator, Beni Mer.
• A cinematic view of Warsaw in films from 1939 and 1948, from the Oster Visual Documentation Center at Anu - The Museum of the Jewish People. With Rivka Aderet.

January 16, 2026

• Stempenyu on the Way to the "Bolshoi": Discovering Roots Among the St. Petersburg School: A musical conversation accompanied by recordings and live demonstrations. Lecturer and flutist - Dr. Michael Lukin.
• Perhaps We Shall Meet Again: Letters from Jewish children in Poland from the town of Nowy Dwór to their teacher who immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1934. With Prof. David Assaf.

February 13, 2026

• "Vishniac," 2023, a film about the renowned photographer Roman Vishniac, who documented Jews in towns and cities in the 1930s until the eve of World War II. His photographs gained widespread fame and left their mark on the memory and image of the Jewish world in Eastern Europe. A talk with lecture by the filmmaker, Laura Bialis.

March 13, 2026

• American Jews Documenting Visits to Their Hometowns with Film Cameras: Rare films from the Oster Visual Documentation Center. With Rivka Aderet.
• A Journey Along the Jewish Heritage Route of Slovakia: On the renovated Trenčín synagogue and the Bátovce synagogue, which is undergoing restoration and renovation as part of the synagogue preservation project in Slovakia. An encounter with Meir Bulka, Chairman of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Eastern Europe.

April 24, 2026

• Not Just Days, Shabbaths, and Holidays: Leafing Through Yiddish Calendars, 1860-1914: קאַלענדאַר – The Window to the World. With Prof. Nati Cohen.
• Salon Guests in Kiev Dream of the Shtetl: Songs of Mark Warshawsky. Lecturer and flutist: Dr. Michael Lukin, Vocals: Vera Lozinsky, Piano: Yuri Povolotsky.

May 29, 2026

• Fiddler on the Screen: The Adaptations of Tevye and Yentl from Book to Film. With Dr. Yuval Rivlin.
• "The Baal Shem Tov's Neighbor in Paradise," an Israeli-Hasidic story from the musical "There Once Was a Hassid." With Dr. Ze'ev Kizzis.

June 12, 2026

• The Shtetl Through the Lens of Hollywood in the New Museum of the History of the Shtetl of Šeduva (Lithuania). A talk with Prof. Motti Zalkin, advisor to the museum project in the town.
• Looking Back: The Shtetl in Yiddish Theater Songs from the YIVO Collection. Conductor and flutist: Dr. Michael Lukin, Vocals: Vera Lozinsky, Piano: Igor Ostrovsky, Members of "די גאַסן טריו" - Clarinet: Gal Klein, Accordion: Yanush Hurwitz, Contrabass: Asaf Rabi.

Many Faces - Documentary Cinema on Jewish and Israeli Identity - held in Mishkan Raanana

A series of four meetings to be held at the Mishkan in Raanana with film screening (subtitles in English) and meeting with the filmmakers (in English).

Address: 2 HaPalmach Street, Raanana

Additionally, there will be a special visit to ANU - Museum of the Jewish People.

Editor: Rivka Aderet

November 26, 2025

Spotting Yossi

Thirteen years after his death, the great Yossi Banai comes to life for one final encore. A cinematic memoir pieced together from numerous archival materials - films, plays, radio shows, songs and stage performances – this personal documentary is led by Banai's deep iconic voice. An actor, singer, writer and director, Banai represented the pure essence and contradictions of Israeli culture: an atheist from a religious family, a native that insisted on importing European motives and a consensual Israeli figure that wasn’t afraid to take a political stand. From childhood to death, through love, family and life on the stage, Yossi Banai directs the spotlight on his own image.

 Directors: Kobi Farag, Morris Ben Mayor

December 24, 2025

Covered up

The personal journey of Rachel, an ultra-Orthodox film director, through marriage, divorce, matchmaking, and family life. Rachel unveils the world of ultra-Orthodox women and gives voice, for the first time, to their concealed inner world through the wig that covers up women's' hair.

Rachel, a graduate of Beit Ya’akov, entered an ‘arranged’ marriage, wishing only to be ‘a kosher woman doing the will of her husband’. Finding herself in a marriage that did not succeed, she divorced, after which she asked permission to remove her wig– an unusual move in Ultra-Orthodox society. The opposition of her parents, Halakha, and society left her feeling conflicted, and set her out on a personal and social quest: to understand the issues of coverage and disclosure, repressed femininity, beauty and modesty, marriage and divorce, marriage at a young age, extremely large families, livelihood or career.

Director: Rachel Elitzur

January 28, 2026

Bad Nazi. Good Nazi

"Bad Nazi. Good Nazi" is the extraordinary story of German officer Wilm Hosenfeld, immortalized in Roman Polanski’s film as the Nazi who saved The Pianist’s life. Hosenfeld’s personal diaries record his chilling, gradual disillusionment with the Nazi war machine he belonged to and that Szpilman, incredibly, is just one of sixty people he saved. Thalau’s group of supporters are inspired to have Hosenfeld memorialized at the local school he led before enlisting in Hitler’s army, but the villagers struggle to come to terms with the complicated legacy of a man they want to forget; a Nazi officer and a serial rescuer.

Director: Chanoch Ze'evi

February 25, 2026

ADA – My Mother the Architect

Ada Karmi Melamede is one of the most prolific architects of her generation in Israel and abroad. Through the lens of her daughter’s film camera lens, an extraordinary protagonist is revealed whose life story is intertwined with the story of the turbulent and complicated country she loves. Ada offers an unusually evocative perspective on ideas such as “place,” “home,” and “state” as someone working toward improving the public sphere while that sphere deteriorates and becomes increasingly fraught. As so many are shaken by the fragility of the democracy we call home, Ada gives us ways to think about what we seek in our personal and public lives, and the spaces and places in between.

Director: Yael Melamede Editor: Sharon Yaish

March 20, 2026

 13:00-10:00 ANU - Museum of the Jewish People

*Tour of the museum in English

Shores of Light, 2015, Salento 1945-7

This is the poignant untold story of warmth and compassion after a terrible war. Thousands of Jewish survivors arrived in Southern Italy after WWII, on their way to the land of Israel. To their surprise they were welcomed by the poor local Italians. At this time of psychological and physical healing, hundreds of children were born. The film follows the story of three Israeli women who were born then, in Santa-Maria-di-Leuca (1946). They decide to discover the footprints left by their parents. The film weaves rare historical footage with unique current testimonials capturing a ray of light after great darkness.

Director: Yael Katzir