OJM Cinema: Refusenik

 

Wednesday, July 24, 12:00 noon and 7:00pm

General Public: $10;

OJM Members: $8;

Students w/ID: $5

For Tickets Click Here or Call 503-226-3600

TRAILER

REFUSENIK is the first retrospective documentary to chronicle the thirty-year movement to free Soviet Jews. It shows how a small grassroots effort bold enough to take on a Cold War superpower blossomed into an international human rights campaign that engaged the disempowered and world leaders alike.

 

This film, directed and produced by Laura Bialis, illustrates how individuals can utilize the power inherent in a tolerant democracy and literally change the world.
One of the proudest chapters in Jewish history, the story of the refuseniks demonstrates the need for Jewish solidarity, the importance of the State of Israel, and the responsibilities we face as individuals living in a democracy.
Much of the material used in REFUSENIK is unique and exclusive to this film. Interviews with key leaders in the movement are some of the first ever to be recorded. Many of the photographs and covert film footage – some of it smuggled out of the Soviet Union – have never been seen before by a large audience, and help make REFUSENIK a unique portrait of this amazing story.

 

Professor Marat Grinberg of Reed College will introduce the film and lead a Question & Answer session afterwards. 

 

Marat Grinberg, Assistant Professor of Russian and Humanities, has been teaching at Reed since 2006. He holds a BA in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University in New York. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago in 2006. Professor Grinberg specializes in Russian Jewish literature and culture, Russian and European Modernism, Soviet literature, poetics and cinema studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OJM Cinema Screenings

 

400 Miles to Freedom Thursday, May 23, 12:00 noon and 7:00pm General Public: $10; OJM Members: $8; Students w/ID: $5 For Tickets Click Here or Call 503-226-3600 TRAILER In 1984, the Beta Israel, a secluded 2,500-year-old community of observant Jews in the northern Ethiopian mountains, fled a dictatorship and began a secret and dangerous journey of escape.  Co-director Avishai Mekonen, then a 10 year old boy, was among them.  400 MILES TO FREEDOM follows his story as he breaks the 20 year silence around the brutal kidnapping he endured as a child in Sudan during his community's exodus out of Africa, and in so doing explores issues of immigration and racial diversity in Judaism.   Directed and Produced by Avishai Yeganyahu Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb Mekonen.. USA, 2012   The evening screening will be followed by a discussion led by Ethiopian born and local business owner Solomon Ezra, who currently works tirelessly for the release of Jews from Ethiopia.   Solomon Ezra was born in 1960 in the Jewish village of Ambober in the Gondar province of Ethiopia.  When he was 12 years old he was chosen by the government to enter an elite Technical school in Addis Ababa. During the next few years Solomon became involved in the movement to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In Addis Ababa he worked closely with Israel and his leadership developed a Jewish student underground secretly preparing for aliyah. In 1976, When Solomon was 16 years old; the Ethiopians imprisoned him and charged him with being a spy and a Zionist conspirator. Solomon was finally released after six months of torture and was told that he had 24 hours to get out of the country. Solomon arrived in Israel without having time to contact his family who thought that he had been killed.   Upon arriving in Israel, Solomon went to Kibbutz Berot Yitzchak where he learned Hebrew. He then studied at Tel Aviv’s Technical College until he was drafted into the Israeli Air Force. He spent 6 years in the Air Force and was twice commended by the president of Israel for outstanding serves to his country.   During these years Solomon was a leader within the Ethiopian community in Israel and served as an advisor to the Israeli government on their behalf. His expertise, along with others, enabled the Israeli government to effectively accomplish the Operation Moses rescue in 19984. Solomon has also served as a liaison between the Ethiopian Jewish community and the American Jewish community. He was spoken throughout the United States.   Solomon has served on the board of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ) since 19982 and since then has represented NACOEJ in the most important and sensitive rescue efforts in Ethiopia and other African countries.   Solomon spent the last years in Ethiopia and Israel working on what was to become  “Operation Solomon”.  In Ethiopia Mr. Ezra ran a social work clinic, which handled 40 - 80 families per day who had emergency problems. Jews who were leaving their Village in the North to go to Addis Ababa were directed to go to “Solomon’s embassy”. Mr. Ezra played an integral role in all aspects of “Operation Solomon”. Solomon Ezra flew out of Addis Ababa on the last plane. While in Israel he served to organize many aspects of the absorption. Prime minister Shamir presented Solomon and two Israeli officials with a citation noting that their work had saved tens of thousands of lives. Solomon moved by Intel to Oregon June 1994, and he still continues to work endlessly for the release of those Jews remaining in Ethiopia.   OJM Cinema in partnership with Institute for Judaic Studies