JEMGLO partners with Czech producer to get his documentary aired in the US 

JEMGLO is proud to announce that we are serving as a liaison between the talented Czech documentary filmmakers Martin Smok and Petr Bok (VERAfilm) and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), the latter of which has agreed to distribute his documentary Father of the Refugees to public broadcasting audiences in the US.

Highlighted in a front-page article of the April 22, 2004 issue of The Forward, Father of the Refugees uncovers the story behind the mysterious 1967 murder in Prague of Charles Jordan, an executive at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Smok’s documentary, which premiered on Czech television in October 2003, describes Jordan’s entanglement in a game of espionage with tentacles reaching into Israel, several Arab nations, the US, and Czech. The case has been under official investigation since 1990 by the Czech Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism.

The documentary is actually the third in a three-part series entitled Between a Star and a Crescent, all the episodes of which focus on the historical role of Communist Czechoslovakia in the Middle East. Part I, Bricha, explores the early post-war years of friendship between Czechoslovakia and the Zionist movement. The second part, examining the period of the deadly hunt for real or imagined Zionists, is called Trials. 

When JEMGLO personnel reviewed the documentary, we were extremely impressed with the depth of its coverage, the extent of archival footage, and the flow of the story-telling, filled with mystery and intrigue. When we presented it to NETA, they agreed with our assessment, deciding to offer it to their 100 plus public broadcasting and educational cable member stations nationwide.

Since its initial broadcast in Czech, Smok has confronted a new slew of enigmatic hurdles: When an anonymous source revealed some additional information Smok shared its substance with the Czech police. Refusing, however, to reveal the source of the information, Smok was interrogated, fined, and charged as an accomplice to the murder - which took place five years before his birth - for not reporting this crime to the authorities! The story continues to grow on multiple levels of government and across national borders, all of which should further stir interest in his excellent documentary with which JEMGLO is proud to be partnered.

JEMGLO begins work on educational CD-Rom about the Jews of 
Czestochowa, Poland in the past and present

In April 2004, JEMGLO personnel were privileged to take part in a series of events over a three-day period in Czestochowa, Poland paying tribute to the former Jewish community and providing the opportunity to heal personal wounds and cultural divides inflicted by the conspirators of World War II and the Holocaust. The events were organized by two sponsors from the US, one named Sigmund Rolat who was born in Czestochowa and his first cousin Alan Silberstein whose parents also survived the war in the city, as well as officials from the city of Czestochowa and members of the local Jewish community. Additional attendees included government officials from the US, Israel, and Poland; Christian and Jewish religious leaders; Jews from several countries around the world whose roots stemmed from Czestochowa; and other interested individuals.

Czestochowa is the pilgrimage city for Polish Catholics -- the city of the Black Madonna at the Jasna Gora Monastery -- where seas of thousands collect daily for mass. Yet despite its Catholic religious significance, Czestochowa was for centuries home to a sizeable Jewish community. Prior to the war some 40,000 Jews, one third of the city’s population, resided there. 

The Holocaust eradicated the Jewish culture that had once flourished in Czestochowa. Of the few who survived, a handful returned to their native city, but the majority emigrated to Israel, the US, and other places in the world where immigration doors were opened. Today 37 Jews live in the city. 

The series of events collectively called Days of Remembrance: The Jews of Czestochowa that took place in April 2004 included an extensive photography and art exhibit detailing Jewish life in Czestochowa before the war; an academic symposium entitled “Coexistence, Holocaust, Memory”; and a ceremony in the newly cleaned Jewish cemetery officially memorializing the city’s Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

Significantly, what differentiated this series of events from many other educational and memorial-oriented Jewish-sponsored events in Poland was that the Days of Remembrance were conceptualized and actualized in a joint effort with Poles, Jews from abroad, the local Polish Jewish community, and diverse religious and governmental leaders. The very nature of the process of creating these events was predicated on inclusiveness. The ultimate goal that these events shared with so many efforts in the field of Holocaust education – i.e., building bridges of tolerance and acceptance based on dialogue and open-mindedness – was paved by a process that mirrored its intended results. 

JEMGLO will be working with Silberstein and Rolat to create an educational multimedia presentation for schoolchildren incorporating elements of the events in Czestochowa. 

Fifty Years Later: The Jewish Exodus to Germany:  
JEMGLO has videotaped introductory footage for a documentary on current German Jewish life. The production takes a look at the Jews who have settled in Germany since the end of the war until today, exploring the reasons why Jews choose to live there (often rejecting Israel in favor of Germany), their feelings about and experiences within the country, and the potential of the community to, as in pre-war times, exhibit leadership in the European Jewish world. The documentary will include an interview with Ignatz Bubis, the former head of the Jewish community of Germany, who passed away in August 1999. 

Your Stories: The range of JEM/GLO productions are limited only by the intangible imagination and by very concrete funding. Proposals have been written for an interesting array of potential projects in Prague, Vienna, Siberia, China, and other locales. We are also open to any suggestions and ideas of our members! Please let us know your thoughts.