VisionTV specials

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

In honor of the High Holidays, VisionTV is broadcasting two special documentaries this month. Rosh Hashanah: The Day of Judgment gives an overview of the holiday and its rituals, while To Forgive ... Divine has a broader scope, not just focusing on Yom Kippur, but encompassing views about forgiveness from several religions.

Hosted by award-winning journalist Ralph Benmergui, Rosh Hashanah would be most educational for non-practising Jews or viewers not of the Jewish faith. However, it does feature interviews with some real characters; notably, Ami Hassan of Winnipeg’s Falafel Place, who punctuates his flamboyancy with moments of profundity. Of the many interviewees, he most succinctly sums up what should comprise a Jewish life: Torah, avodah and ma’asim tovim. If everyone was only a little religious, worked a bit and donated a little, he says, the world would be a much better place.

More traditionally educated Jewish practitioners are interviewed, of course, and they all do a good job at explaining the meaning and significance of the Jewish New Year according to religious sources, as well as for themselves personally. The production mainly takes place in Winnipeg, so people with continued ties to the city will enjoy seeing several of their friends either in action, i.e. sharing their thoughts with Benmergui or blowing the shofar, or as part of the Shaarey Zedek congregation when the camera pans the sanctuary.

Included in the interviews are also some members of the Ottawa Jewish community and, for some reason, a rabbi from Sedona, Ariz. What she has to say is interesting – her congregants create their own book of life each year, in order to evaluate their progress to becoming the people they would like to be – but it feels out of place.

Rosh Hashanah: The Day of Judgment is a well-compiled documentary that offers a range of beliefs on various concepts within Judaism, such as what it means to repair the world or to judge behavior, and its message is incredibly positive about Judaism and being Jewish. To Forgive ... Divine will leave viewers with more to consider in that it raises many questions, but doesn’t arrive at solid conclusions.

As the promotional material states, To Forgive ... Divine explores “forgiveness in a variety of human situations – from the deep personal wounds of intra-family betrayal, to individual acts of crime and violence, to the wider cruelties of racial hatred and international hostility. The witness[ing] of extraordinary individuals who have found the power and the grace to truly forgive will, through their example, provide some of the guideposts to understanding the concept of forgiveness.”

In this documentary, members of the B.C. community are the spokespeople for Judaism’s perspectives. Featured in interviews are Rabbi Harry Brechner of Congregation Emanu-El, a few Emanu-El congregants and Rabbi Meir Kaplan of Chabad of Vancouver Island; Rabbi Philip Bregman of Temple Sholom is heard from the pulpit, with music from fellow clergy Rabbi Daniel Mikelberg and Naomi Taussig, accompanied off-camera by Joyce Cherry; and Wendy Bross Stuart directs (from off-camera) Beth Israel Cantor Michael Zoosman and his choir.

Filmmaker Hilary Pryor also speaks to priests, academics, psychologists and an imam, as well as Holocaust survivors, people who’ve experienced the murder of a family member, victims of sexual abuse and even a perpetrator of abuse. Some of the interviews are heart-wrenching, and some truly are inspirational. For example, Reena Virk’s parents, Manjit and Suman, discuss how they have been able to begin healing after their daughter’s murder, in part because of what they feel is genuine regret and acceptance of responsibility by Warren Glowatski, who was sentenced to a life term for helping beat Reena and watching as she was drowned in the Gorge Waterway near Victoria.

Some of the questions viewers are left to ponder are what role religion plays in forgiveness, whether rituals like confession and Yom Kippur let offenders off too easily, if forgiving means condoning the offending actions, and whether forgiveness entails reconciliation.

Rosh Hashanah airs on Tuesday, Sept 7, at 7 p.m., and To Forgive on Monday, Sept. 13, at 7 p.m., and Sept. 14 at noon.

^TOP