European Rabbit
The European rabbit is a small mammal native to southwestern Europe and to northwest Africa. It is known as an invasive species because it has been introduced to countries on all continents with the exception of Antarctica, and has caused many problems within the environment and ecosystems. European rabbits are generally greyish-brown in color. The patch on their chest is brown, while the rest of the underparts are white or grey. A white star shape is often present on kits’ foreheads but rarely occurs in adults. The whiskers are long and black, and the feet are fully furred and buff-colored. The tail has a white underside, which becomes prominent when escaping danger. This may act as a signal for other rabbits to run.
Crepuscular animals are those that are active primarily during twilight (that is, the periods of dawn and dusk). This is distinguished from diurnal.
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example, foliage, for the main component of its die.
In zoology, a graminivore (not to be confused with a granivore) is an herbivorous animal that feeds primarily on grass. Graminivory is a form of g.
Coprophage animals are those that consume feces. Domesticated and wild mammals are sometimes coprophagic, and in some species, this forms an essent.
Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv.
Jumping (saltation) can be distinguished from running, galloping, and other gaits where the entire body is temporarily airborne by the relatively l.
Altricial animals are those species whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile. They lack hair or down, are not able to obtain food .
Grazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on plants such as grasses, or other multicellular organisms such as algae. In agriculture.
Animals with cosmopolitan distribution are those whose range extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Another aspect of cos.
A territory is a sociographical area that which an animal consistently defends against the conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against anima.
Among animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term ‘viviparity’ and its adjective form ‘viviparous’.
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct .
Polygyny is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male.
Monogamy is a form of relationship in which both the male and the female has only one partner. This pair may cohabitate in an area or territory for.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec.
A dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social gr.
Colonial animals live in large aggregations composed of two or more conspecific individuals in close association with or connected to, one another.
Animals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
Domesticated animals are those adapted to live with humans. It is the mutual relationship between animals and humans who have an influence on their.
Photos with European Rabbit
Distribution
Geography
European rabbits are found in southwestern Europe (including Portugal, Spain, and western France) and in northwest Africa (including Morocco and Algeria). Their ideal habitat consists of short grasslands with secure refuge (such as burrows, boulders, hedgerows, scrub, and woodland) near feeding areas. In large coniferous plantations, European rabbits only occur in peripheral areas and along fire breaks and rides.
Biome
Climate zones
Habits and Lifestyle
European rabbits are gregarious animals, which live in stable social groups centered around females sharing access to one or more burrow systems. Within these groups, there are dominance hierarchies for both bucks (males) and does (females). Warrens usually contain 2-10 individuals living in smaller groups to ensure greater breeding success. Does tend to be more territorial than bucks, although the areas most frequented by does are not defended. Territories are marked with dung hills. European rabbits are well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where they spend most of their time when not feeding. They are active from late afternoon to early morning and rarely stray far from their burrow; when feeding on cultivated fields, they typically only move 25 meters away from the burrow, and rarely 50 meters. European rabbits are usually silent animals, though they have at least two vocalizations. The most well-known is a high treble scream or squeal. This sound is uttered when in extreme distress, such as being caught by a predator or trap. During the spring, bucks express contentment by emitting grunting sounds when approaching other rabbits. These grunts are similar to shrill hiccups and are emitted with the mouth closed. Aggression is expressed with a low growl.
Diet and Nutrition
European rabbits are herbivores (graminivores) and coprophages. They eat a wide variety of herbage, especially grasses, favoring the young, succulent leaves and shoots of the most nutritious species. Hungry rabbits in winter may eat tree bark and blackberries. Like other leporids, European rabbits also consume their own faecal pellets, which are filled with protein-rich bacteria.
Mating Habits
European rabbits exhibit an interesting mating system; dominant bucks are polygynous, whereas lower-status individuals (both bucks and does) often form monogamous pairs. Rabbits signal their readiness to mate by marking other animals and inanimate objects with an odoriferous substance secreted through a chin gland; this process is known as “chinning”. The breeding season usually takes place from January to August. Does give birth to 3-7 kittens after the gestation period of 30 days. Shortly before giving birth, the doe will construct a separate burrow known as a “stop” or “stab”, generally in an open field away from the main warren. These breeding burrows are typically a few feet long and are lined with grass and moss as well as fur plucked from the doe’s belly. The breeding burrow protects the kittens from adult bucks as well as from predators. Kittens are altricial, being born blind, deaf, and furless, and they are totally dependent upon their mother. The young born to the dominant buck and doe enjoy better nesting and feeding grounds; they tend to grow larger and stronger and become more dominant than kittens born to subordinate rabbits. Does nurse their kittens once a night, for only a few minutes. After suckling is complete, the doe seals the entrance to the stop with soil and vegetation. The kittens grow rapidly and their eyes open 11 days after birth. The ears do not gain the power of motion until 10 days of age and can be erected after 13. At 18 days, the kittens begin to leave the burrow and at 4 weeks they are weaned. Young bucks become reproductively mature at four months of age, while does can begin to breed at three to five months.
About Us
Orach Chaim, a Modern Orthodox synagogue founded in 1879, has long contributed to Jewish life on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Our members are from varying backgrounds; our Shul is inclusive; our community warm and caring. In our family home, you’ll find meaningful davening and learning, solidarity with the State of Israel, along with social, educational and communal activities. We invite you to join us. Our doors are always open.
OUR EXECUTIVE BOARD
David Icikson President president@orachchaim.org
Ilana Bander Vice President vp@orachchaim.org
Barry Ness Treasurer treasurer@orachchaim.org
David Freedman Financial Secretary
Richard Leavy Recording Secretary
OUR RABBI: RABBI BENJAMIN E. SKYDELL
Rabbi Ben Skydell has been the Rabbi at Congregation Orach Chaim since January 2013. He follows an illustrious tradition of major American Rabbis to have served as the Congregation’s Rabbi, including Rabbis Michael D. Shmidman, Kenneth Hain and Simon Langer.
A native of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Rabbi Skydell is a graduate of Yeshiva College and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a long-time faculty member of the North Shore Hebrew Academy High School, and the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, and taught for several years at Yeshivat Hadar. Rabbi Skydell also served on the rabbinic staff of Congregation Beth Sholom of Lawrence, New York for nine years.
Rabbi Skydell’s areas of interest include the intersection of Halacha and history, the spiritual worlds of mussar and hasidut, and the historical world of the Rabbis of the Talmud. Rabbi Skydell’s dynamic and engaging presentation has made him a sought-out speaker on college campuses throughout the United States.
Rabbi Skydell is married to Shani, a dedicated social worker and teacher. They are the proud parents of Hannah, Emmie and Zacky.
CHAZAN AARON KOHL
OUR HISTORY: RABBIS & CHAZANIM THAT HAVE SERVED
Rabbi Dr. Michael D. Shmidman (Senior Rabbi)
Rabbi Shmidman has served the Orach Chaim congregation and Upper East Side community since 1988. In addition to Rabbinic ordination, he holds a Ph.D. degree in Public Law and Government from Columbia University. He has served as Professor and Chairman of Political and Social Science at City University of New York and most recently as Dean of Undergraduate Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. A widely recognized scholar, he is acclaimed as an outstanding teacher and inspiring preacher. An ardent Zionist, he has been honored by religious, social and cultural institutions in Israel and the United States.
Cantor Yaakov Y. Stark
Cantor Yaakov Y. Stark served the OC community for nearly 25 year and has been described as possessing “a voice of great beauty, clear and true…breathtaking, radiant, as though from another world.” A child prodigy, at the mere age of seven Yaakov Yoseph Stark was already thrilling congregations with his heartrending solos on the High Holidays. His talent and ability were nurtured by the distinguished cantors in his family, and through continuously listening to the master cantors of the golden age: Rosenblatt, Hershman, Kwartin, Pinchik, Glantz and Koussevitzky. Huge crowds of people regularly attend to savor the stirring songs and timeless tefillos eloquently enhanced and warmly delivered by their beloved cantor. Cantor Stark was privileged to perform at numerous sold-out concerts with the most prestigious philharmonic orchestras and finest choirs throughout the world. His lyric tenor voice has put him in constant demand as a guest cantor in synagogues worldwide. Cantor Stark resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his wife and children.
Rabbi Kenneth Hain
Rabbi Hain was educated and ordained at Yeshiva University – Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He has taught Judaic Studies at Stern College – YU and served as a director of YU’s Division of Communal Services. From 1999-2001, Rabbi Hain served as President of the Rabbinical Council of America and has also served as President of RIETS Rabbinical Alumni. Since 1988 Rabbi Kenneth Hain has served as Rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence, New York.
Rabbi Simon Langer
Rabbi Langer is a native of Alsace Lorraine, France. For sixteen years he headed the Societe du Culte Traditionnel Israelite, an Orthodox congregation in Paris. In 1939, he was one of twenty-two rabbis serving as chaplains with the French army. He continued his functions as chaplain until October, 1940, when the Vichy government purged the French army of all Jewish officers and soldiers. Thereafter he served as chaplain at several concentration camps. In July, 1941, he left Marseilles for the United States.
Rabbi Dr. Joseph H. Hertz
Born in Hungary and educated in New York after emigrating in 1884, he moved to South Africa in 1898 returing to New York and joining Orach Chaim in 1911. In 1913, after a highly publicized battle, he is elected Chief Rabbi of the British Empire over Moses Hyamson, a position he held until he died. He is the author of the “Hertz Chumash.”
Rabbi Dr. Moses Hyamson
Former head Dayan of the Beth Din of London and acting Chief Rabbi of the British Empire was the OC Rabbi for 31 years. Founder of the Board of Milah (ritual circumcision) in New York. Early leader of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Initiated the formation of the Central Relief Committee which provided European yeshivoth with much needed assistance.
Rabbi Gersion Appel
Rabbi Dr. Gersion Appel (1916-2008) was widely known as a scholar, educator, and author. He began his Torah studies in Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah V’Daas, and continued his rabbinical studies, receiving Semicha at Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, and the degrees of Doctor of Hebrew Literature from Yeshiva University, and Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University. Rabbi Appel served as Rabbi of leading orthodox congregations in Worcester, MA, Seattle, WA, and Kew Gardens, NY as well as Congregation Orach Chaim
Rabbi Appel’s former academic positions included: Yeshiva University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Stern College of Yeshiva University, and Adjunct Professor of Graduate Hebrew Studies at New York University.
Rabbi Samson R. Weiss
Born in Emden, Germany, Weiss received his rabbinical diploma at the yeshivah of Mir. He received his Ph.D. summa cum laude at Dorpat University, Estonia, after studying at the universities of Breslau, Berlin, and Zurich. He headed the Hebrew department of the Jewish teachers’ college in Wuerz burg, Germany, before immigrating to the United States in 1938. After teaching at the Ner Israel Yeshivah in Baltimore (1938–40), Weiss moved to Detroit to direct Yeshivath Beth Yehudah in that city (1941–44). He moved to New York in 1944 where he became rabbi of Congregation Orach Chaim and organized *Torah Umesorah, a national association for the promotion of Hebrew day-school education. In 1945 he founded and became director of Young Israel’s Institute for Jewish Studies and two years later was made director of the National Council of *Young Israel, serving in this position until 1956, when he became executive vice president of the *Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Weiss resigned from the latter position in 1972 to settle in Israel. He maintained his position as professor of Jewish philosophy at Touro College and was first chairman of the Department for Judaica Studies at Touro.
Rabbi Joseph Mayor Asher
Born in Manchester, England, and a Cambridge graduate, his obituary notes that he was “…an Erudite Talmudic scholar.” (The New York Times, 11/10/1909)
10 great Jewish LGBT films
As Jewish arts centre JW3 celebrates the best of LGBT culture, and the release of BFI-backed documentary Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? draws closer, we remember some of the best Jewish and Israeli gay and lesbian films.
14 February 2017
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? (2016)
With a day to go until the launch of this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, the best of queer cinema is about to take over BFI Southbank for a 31st glorious year. As JW3 , the Jewish community centre in north London, launches GayW3, celebrating the lives of the LGBTQ community throughout history to the present day through film, theatre, music and discussion, and uplifting British-Israeli documentary Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?, backed by the BFI , prepares for its cinema release, now is a great time to look back at the best of Jewish and Israeli LGBT cinema.
Gay Jewish characters have been the subject of great films from around the world, and the list below features films from the UK , France, Germany, the US , and, of course, Israel. A number of British films just missed the list, including Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), in which Jewish doctor Peter Finch enjoyed British cinema’s first male-on-male kiss; award-winning short film Sidney Turtlebaum (2008), starring Derek Jacobi as an elderly gay Jewish pickpocket and conman; and Lisa Gornick’s latest film, The Book of Gabrielle (2016), a funny and sharp study of a Jewish lesbian whose sexuality is thrown into turmoil. Gala hits from BFI LGBT film festivals past, such as New York comedy Jeffrey (1995) and Israeli romance Out in the Dark (2012), just missed the cut, while Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! (2009) nearly made it through its fabulous title alone (shame the film is such dreck).
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Special mention must go to TV , too. Jenny Schecter from The L Word remains queer TV ’s most polarising figure, while the television adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, starring Al Pacino as vicious, closeted senator Roy Cohn, remains an all-time great. And though the groundbreaking portrayal of transgender characters has won Jill Soloway’s Transparent (2014-) an army of fans, it’s just as much a Jewish series, topped by a likeable performance by Kathryn Hahn as Rabbi Raquel Fein.
These 10 films focus on culturally Jewish films featuring gay and lesbian protagonists, almost all of which were directed by Jewish filmmakers.
The Boys in the Band (1970)
Director: William Friedkin
The Boys in the Band (1970)
“What I am Michael is a 32-year-old, ugly, pock-marked Jew fairy, and if it takes me a little while to pull myself together, and if I smoke a little grass before I get up the nerve to show my face to the world, it’s nobody’s goddamned business but my own. And how are you this evening?”
Now that’s how you make an entrance. Harold (Leonard Frey) is the most memorable and, despite the self-loathing of his opening lines, strongest character in William Friedkin’s film, made before The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) established him as a Hollywood heavyweight. His adaptation of Mart Crowley’s play, about a group of gay men who gather for Harold’s party, resulting in a cruel evening of sadistic games and sabotage, came at the wrong time – as the gay liberation movement established its voice in the early 1970s, negative or depressing depictions of gay men in the media were seen as archaic and obstructive to progress.
While Michael, the pathetic protagonist, is indeed an unlikeable and self-pitying monster, the other characters are far more sympathetic, while the glorious Harold, utterly unashamed of his homosexuality and with nothing to hide, emerges from the carnage unscathed. Friedkin would go on to make a far more dubious gay film – the notorious S&M killer thriller Cruising (1980). Frey, who gives the performance of his career as Harold, found greater fame the following year with an Oscar-nominated turn in Fiddler on the Roof (1971). He, like many of his fellow Boys in the Band cast members, later died from an AIDS -related illness.
Torch Song Trilogy (1988)
Director: Paul Bogart
Torch Song Trilogy (1988)
Harvey Fierstein is best known for his stage work, particularly for writing the books for the stage musicals La Cage aux Folles and Kinky Boots, joining Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman as Broadway legends who happened to be both gay and Jewish. But it all began with Torch Song Trilogy, a play that started life as an off-off-Broadway production before transferring and becoming a Tony-winning classic. Directed by Paul Bogart, the film is a moving and often very funny look into the tragicomic life of Arnold (Fierstein), a drag queen searching for love and acceptance. It hasn’t dated a jot – more’s the pity, as resistance to effeminate men and gay adoption still prevail today.
Matthew Broderick, fresh from success in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), is sweet as Arnold’s flawed love interest, while you may need to take cover for Anne Bancroft’s barnstorming portrayal of Arnold’s difficult mother, embodying many Jewish mama stereotypes, for better or worse. The star of the show, though, is Fierstein, who makes Arnold a lovable, vulgar and believably human figure who challenged the perception of drag queens as sexless clowns shaming the gay community.
Amazing Grace (1992)
Director: Amos Guttman
Amazing Grace (1992)
Gay men don’t smile much in the cinema of Amos Guttman. He kicked off his short career with Drifting (1982), a grim, semi-autobiographical tale of a gay filmmaker trying and failing to find love and funding for his next film. Amazing Grace, made nearly a decade later, is a much stronger piece of work, about two gay men – one an innocent teenager from a troubled family, the other an HIV patient – who fall for each other after meeting in Tel Aviv.
It’s a sad, poetic film, with some beautiful visual flourishes. The fantasy sequence where male models in a porn magazine come to life is worthy of Derek Jarman, while the sad camera pan around the room following the gaze of the dying grandmother of one of the men is filled with poignancy and regret. Guttman died from an AID s-related illness the year after the film was released. Amazing Grace is a heartbreaking legacy of the potential future classics that he might have gone on to make.
Man Is a Woman (1998)
Director: Jean-Jacques Zilbermann
Man Is a Woman (1998)
In the UK , Antoine de Caunes is best known as the wry presenter of Eurotrash (1993-), ever at risk of being upstaged by Jean-Paul Gaultier and cardboard giraffes Pipi and Popo. In Man Is a Woman, he brings all his considerable charm and charisma to the role of Simon, a gay Klezmer musician who is offered 10 million francs from his traditionalist uncle if he agrees to marry a woman. Simon needs the cash, and when Rosalie, a single Jewish performer who sings in Yiddish, falls for him, the deal is struck, unbeknown to his fiancée. Much to Simon’s surprise, however, the clandestine business deal turns to true love.
The sexual politics of the film are hard to pin down. Is Simon gay, bi, or does he defy such labels? Is the meaning of the film’s title, explained at the vibrant Jewish wedding that starts the film, a homophobic nonsense? Is Simon really in love with his brother-in-law, too, or is it mere lust? No matter, just go with the flow and you’ll find much to enjoy. De Caunes, a gifted farceur, plays with the clichés of the philandering French man and makes Simon a winning, if errant, antihero, and the script is very funny. A sequel, He Is My Girl (2009), followed, also directed by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann.
Aimée & Jaguar (1999)
Director: Max Färberböck
Aimée & Jaguar (1999)
Maria Schrader and Juliane Köhler shared the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for their performances as two real-life women who embarked on a dangerous love affair in Nazi Germany. Felice (Schrader) is a Jewish lesbian working for a resistance group, while Lilly (Köhler) is the unhappy wife of a Nazi officer with four children. An attempted kiss at a New Year’s Eve party develops into a passionate romance, but the violently homophobic and antisemitic world of wartime Berlin threatens their happiness. ‘Aimée’ and ‘Jaguar’ are the pet names they use for each other.
The film’s greatest triumph is to humanise these two emblems of love under repression – Felice is sometimes selfish and unfaithful, Lilly can be silly and insensitive to the greater danger her lover and her queer friends face. Despite the menace around them, we also see the great joy and spirit of these two brave women, and the love and affection they have for each other is delightful. It was nominated for the Golden Globe for best foreign language film and was unlucky to be up against Pedro Almodóvar’s all-conquering All about My Mother (1999).
Paragraph 175 (2000)
Directors: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Paragraph 175 (2000)
The Nazi persecution of homosexuals is seldom explored on film. Few gay and lesbian survivors were alive to tell their stories when Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman made their important documentary Paragraph 175, whose title derives from the German act of law prohibiting gay sex, which continued to exist into the 1990s. In the documentary, a number of men and a Jewish lesbian talk about their harrowing experiences.
As well as providing an invaluable record of a history that was nearly lost – all of the participants are now dead – Epstein and Friedman allow the camera to capture the humanity of the talking heads. Rather than producing a parade of crushed victims, the film foregrounds the sharp commentary of Gad Beck, a Jewish gay man who helped refugees escape; the wistful memories of love lost from Heinz F., still too guarded to reveal his full name; and the undiluted anger of Pierre Seel, who was tortured by Nazi officers.
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
Director: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
A comedy about two women who decide to dabble in a same-sex relationship initially based on a series of failed heterosexual affairs, and the fact that they are drawn together through a shared admiration for a Rilke quote, sounds at best tiresome, at worst offensive. Luckily, Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt, who wrote and star as said let’s-give-it-a-whirl ‘lesbians’, have wit and chemistry on their side and create the nearest cinema has come to a gay Woody Allen movie. It’s based on their hit play Lipschtick, so named for an endearing early scene in which the women bond over makeup, albeit for completely different reasons.
Westfeldt, playing the ‘Jewish Sandra Dee’, gives great New York neurotic gaucheness to her part (“I was surprised to learn that lesbians accessorised; I didn’t know that”), although her best scene is a touching heart-to-heart with her mother (Tovah Feldshuh), where the latter gently spares her the ordeal of coming out. The film ultimately belongs to Juergensen, who embraces her newfound sexuality with abandon and refuses to compromise.
Eyes Wide Open (2009)
Director: Haim Tabakman
Eyes Wide Open (2009)
A married orthodox Jewish father and a male Yeshiva student fall in love, to the horror of the community in Jerusalem, in Haim Tabakman’s searing drama about love and religious repression. Most contemporary reviews drew lazy comparisons with Brokeback Mountain (2005), despite the emphasis on religion and, crucially, the modern setting of the Israeli film. While western viewers are used to seeing the more extreme followers of Christianity and Islam on the big screen, the negative representation of oppressive Orthodox Jewish characters, such as the prurience of the ‘modesty squads’, is far rarer.
Tabakman infuses the scenes of the men together with great sensuality, such as their fated meeting for a ritual bath, contrasting with the drabness of their everyday lives. The conflict between homosexuality and Orthodox Judaism has been explored in a number of excellent documentaries, including Trembling Before G-d (2001), Keep Not Silent (2005) and Jerusalem Is Proud to Present (2008).
Yossi (2012)
Director: Eytan Fox
Yossi (2012)
Eytan Fox is one of Israel’s foremost directors, and all of his films focus on gay characters, often using homosexuality to comment on a wider theme, such as self-realisation in Mossad thriller Walk on Water (2004) or the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in The Bubble (2006). Yossi is a follow-up to Yossi & Jagger (2002), a romantic drama about the love between two Israeli soldiers. Yossi is now older, plumper, single, depressed and in the closet. When he encounters Jagger’s mother at the hospital where he works, he drives her home, seeking redemption. However, it is when he gives a lift to some young soldiers that a chance for happiness opens.
Where Amos Guttman wallowed in the sadness of gay lives, working as he was in an era of fear and prejudice during the AIDS crisis, Fox’s films are more optimistic and celebratory, if occasionally bittersweet. Yossi is his finest work yet, with beautifully written, likeable characters, an unexpectedly moving scene of nudity and one of the most perfect endings in recent Israeli cinema.
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? (2016)
Directors: Tomer Heymann and Barak Heymann
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? (2016)
After a year on the festival circuit, where it won the documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival and the audience award at the UK International Jewish Film Festival, Barak and Tomer Heymann’s feature about the life of Saar Maoz, an HIV positive gay man living in London after being rejected by his Israeli family and driven away from his Kibbutz, is finally getting a short cinema release in April 2017. Saar finds acceptance in the welcoming arms of the London Gay Men’s Chorus, but the need to heal the rift between him and his family leads him to contemplate returning to Israel for good.
It’s one the most compelling and beautifully structured films of 2016, with confessionals and difficult family conversations interspersed with beautiful a cappella numbers courtesy of the Chorus (their signature rendition of ‘Only You’ is a treat). A moment when a grimly orthodox wife, towards the end of the film, finally opens her mouth and defends Saar had the audience cheering at the screening I attended. As for Saar, his progress from a vulnerable man fearing yet further rejection to a confident and defiant AIDS activist ready to tackle prejudice is utterly inspiring.
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? is backed with National Lottery funding through the BFI Film Fund. It screens at cinemas nationwide on 2 April 2017, and there’s a special preview as part of GayW3.
Source https://animalia.bio/european-rabbit
Source https://orachchaim.org/about-us
Source https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-jewish-gay-lesbian-films
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