News
October 6, 2016Schenectady JCC’s Jewish Film Festival: Raise the Roof
The Gwoździec synagogue and bimah reconstructions are now the centerpiece of the core exhibition of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland.
On Sunday, October 9 at 7:00 PM, the second film of Schenectady JCC’s 2016-2017 Jewish Film Festival series will be shown at the Robert and Dorothy Ludwig JCC of Schenectady on the Golub Family Campus at 2565 Balltown Road, Niskayuna.
Raise the Roof (2015, 85 minutes, English and Polish with English subtitles) tells the story of an international team that sets out to reconstruct one of the magnificent lost wooden synagogues of Poland.
“This film will be of interest to architects, historians, artists, people who like to travel, people who like mysteries…there is something for everyone,” said Judy Ben-Ami, Schenectady JCC Director of Jewish Cultural & Adult Programming. “The film is visually stunning and the traditional klezmer melodies provide a beautiful background for this inspiring story of how the combination of art and science brought a lost edifice back to life.”
This film captures the journey of Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio and their team of more than 300 students and professionals from 16 countries as they reconstruct the elaborate roof and painted ceiling of the Gwoździec synagogue. This briskly paced detective tale examines how the synagogue was built, who built it, and why.
At one time, there were some 200 elaborately decorated wooden synagogues across the Polish-Lithuanian countryside. None survived destruction during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
Filmmakers Yari Wolinsky and Cary Wolinsky, also an award-winning National Geographic photographer, go behind the scenes to reveal the Browns’ decade-long endeavor to recreate a nearly lost piece of Polish Jewish history.
Raise the Roof documents the challenges faced by the Browns and the Handshouse Studio team as they begin building the new Gwoździec roof in Poland. The crew has six weeks to hew, saw, and carve 200 freshly logged trees and assemble the structure with period hand tools and paints while working against deadlines, torrential downpours and exhaustion. The magnificent, hand-made, nearly full-scale replica of the Gwoździec roof was unveiled in 2014 as the centerpiece of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
Following the film, there will be a discussion led by Professor Stephen Berk, professor of history at Union College and holder of the Henry and Sally Schaffer Chair of Holocaust and Jewish Studies. Professor Berk is the recipient of the Florence B. Sherwood Chair in History and Culture and a consultant to the Wiesenthal Holocaust Center. A gifted presenter, Professor Berk has lectured on the Holocaust at distinguished higher education institutions and he has lectured extensively in the former Soviet Union, Israel, and Poland. Professor Berk is the author of Year of Crisis, Year of Hope: Russian Jewry and the Pogroms of 1881-1882 and numerous articles on Russian history, Russian-Jewish history, anti-Semitism, and American policy in the Middle East. A native of New York City, Professor Berk received his B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania, his Master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Stephen Berk is a member of Congregation Agudat Achim.
Admission includes film, discussion, and light refreshments. Festival passes are $35 for Schenectady JCC members and $70 for community members. Individual films are $5 per person for Schenectady JCC members and $10 per person for community members. Admission is free for students with school ID.
In addition to the film, an exhibition titled “Raise the Roof” will contain stills from the movie and will be on display at the Schenectady JCC from October 5 through October 28. This exhibit program was made possible through the generous support of the Epstein Jewish Cultural Fund, Meyer & Mary Kurland/Gebell Fund, and Jonas & Edith Fleminberg Jewish Cultural Fund.
The Schenectady JCC’s 2016-2017 Jewish Film Festival is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY. This program was made possible through the generous support of the Epstein Jewish Cultural Fund, Meyer & Mary Kurland/Gebell Fund, Jonas and Edith Flemiberg Jewish Cultural Fund, Schenectady JCC Friends of the Arts, and in part by a grant from the Schenectady County Legislature through its County Initiative Program.
For more information and to register, call Judy Ben-Ami at 518-377-8803.
