Screening of Ron Ofer’s Film “Gevald!”
Thursday 27.11
at 20:30
As a child, Shmuel-Haim Pappenhym would cover his eyes during the Independence Day fireworks in order not to take part in the Zionist celebration. Today, he organizes mass demonstrations against the State and edits the magazine of the extreme orthodox faction that does not recognize the State of Israel.
Ultra-orthodox parliament member, Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, fought in the Lehi underground movement, served in the Israeli Army, and has been part of the Israeli mainstream for many years. A map of the world hangs in the kitchen of the Ravitz home so their 12 children and 88 grandchildren know the exact location of places like Mozambique and Ottawa. When Israel was founded, Ravitz danced in the streets. Today, he sees modern-day Israel and wants to cry.
It is an election year. While Ravitz anxiously awaits to see how many mandates his party will receive, Pappenhym checks to see how many refrained from voting. For Pappennhym, participation in the elections is a grave sin. In Pappenhym’s demonstrations, the announcer shouts “Zionists are not Jews,” and the audience responds “Gevald!” (Disaster!).
500,000 Ultra-Orthodox Jews live in Israel. Many of us regard them as a threatening block—people without faces, names, or biographies. Gevald! is the first episode in the series “Haredim” where prominent figures in Israeli ultra-orthodox society express their views on the secular state and the western-modern culture that threatens to engulf them.
