Kaddish

From an early age, Yossi Klein and the other children of Boro Park, America's largest Orthodox survivor community, were prepared for another Holocaust. Through his writing and activism, Yossi attempts to carry on the struggle passed on to him by his father, the only member of his family to escape the Nazi destruction of Hungary's Jewish population. With surprising humor and great sensitivity, a profile emerges of a young man whose world-view and personal outlook have been shaped by an overwhelming personal and historic tragedy that took place before he was born.

"A remarkable American documentary." - David Denby, New York Magazine

"KADDISH is more than the story of a Jew confronting an atrocity committed before he was born; it's about coping with an overpowering parental legacy. And it's about the passing of events from generation to generation - how the lessons of history are actually learned. Stunning... there isn't a moment that doesn't resonate." - David Edelstein, Village Voice

"One of the fines documentaries I've seen. Few films, fact or fiction, have captured the turbulence of the maturation process." - L.A. Reader

"Riveting, emotion packed. The most professional of the independent films about children of Holocaust survivors... a film about hope, not death; survival, not destruction." - Hadassah Magazine

"Remarkable for its sensitivity and immediacy." - Washington Post

"**** [4 Stars] Full of the unexpected: a sense of humor and joie de vivre, a sense not so much of bitterness and despair as of strength and love." - Los Angeles Weekly.

92 minutes / color / 1984
Sale/video: $125
Rental/video: $75

Subject areas: Death and Dying, Europe, Family Relations, Jewish Studies, Psychology

Last updated 09/01/2006