In Search of the Jewish Secret

An experimental, humoristic MTV-style documentary about the meaning of being a Jew, as seen by Dutch Jews – and non-Jews.

Ten years after the creation of Stichting Rainbow – for the realization of the TV documentary Summer, Autumn, WAR, Spring – came the idea to make an experimental, funny documentary.

By then we had done a string of TV documentaries:

• Israel – the Other Reality
• Israel – the Changing of the Minds
• ISRAEL ROCKS!
• The Bund – Utopia for Real
• Simply Human
• We Have No War Songs
• Arsenal-8 – Football for the Soul. Their stories will follow here, too!

Stichting Rainbow is celebrating 25 years of social and cultural activity, twenty-five years of making a difference… and its still going strong!
Here we share all the unknown stories about our projects – and the impact they created on people’s lives.

Who Is a Jew?

The question ‘Who Is a Jew’ was burning ever since the biblical ‘Covenant of the pieces’ without a satisfactory answer. So we thought of tackling it in an MTV-style experimental documentary. The challenge was to make a fast-paced documentary, like a music-clip, and to tackle philosophical and moral questions on the way.

The process was very simple: we set about talking to as many Dutch Jews and non-Jews as possible and pose to each one of them four questions only: What’s your name? What’s your religion? Are you proud of being (your religion)? What are Jewish values?

For nearly one year we visited all sorts of Jewish events: holidays, theatre productions, sport events, in private homes, and public places, synagogues, political gatherings, choir competitions and more and more…

By the end of the filming process, I had the feeling that I met ALL the Jews, and Israelis in the Netherlands – and I wasn’t very far from the truth…

The editing process was a fun challenge. Indeed, combining humor, music, philosophy, and morality into one mix of a dancing ‘talking-heads’ was not easy. Well, the result is here for you to judge.

Let me know what you think? Do you agree with our findings and conclusion…? You can now watch it for free, here In Search of the Jewish Secret.

Thank you for participating in our celebration and if you have any question, I’ll be happy to answer them, and tell you more.

Next time about Simply Human – Hans Snoek, Lifelong Dancing, Lifetime Giving. You can watch it already now, just follow the link.

PS –

Maybe you are in In Search of the Jewish Secret, the doc from 2006? Your friends? Family?

We talked to:

Raanan Nir, André Agsteribbe, Bloeme Evers-Emden, Avivit van Ouwekerk-Ben Moshe, Joshua Fes, Mieke van Praag, Shir Balev Chior, Matan Gov-Ari, Fred Zwaaf, Ziv Shalom, Aboed Shabi, Micha Menko, Jehudith Gartenberg, Judith Wermenbol, Hanna Luden, Dr. Yaniv Hagbi, Maria-Elena Cuertas, Erwin Brugmans, Rabbi Raphael Evers, Etty Elbaz-Grifjoen, Vered Raz, Tzippi Harmsen-Seffy, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, Philip Getzkin, Frank Cohn, Albert Ringer, Chris Kooyman, Rabijn Eliza Klapheck, Steve Schwartz, Anja Shalom, Lisalette Dijkers, Rob Hijmans, Raphael Saidoff, Wolf Stein, Mirjam Ohringer, Tom Fürstenberg, Jessica Durlacher, Juul Beerda, Job Cohen, Edward van Voolen, Ronny Naftaniël, Bert Smits, Cor van Sint Anneland, Leo Barbiers, Simon van Hoorn, Gerard Heseding, Dagmar Wermenbol, Shulamit, Amichai Alon, Avram Vega, Orly van den Hooff – Ginossar, Avishag Freen, Izzy Abrahami, Norbert Elbar, Shimi Beck, Rob Voet, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Rob Nunes Vaz, Simon Berkhout, Ben Manassen, Michel Waterman, Leni Duyzend, Mirjam Durlacher, Peter van der Velden, Renée Citroen, Fabiola, Fred de Graaf, Jossi Gal, Miri Groenewoud.

And the celebration continues! 

Stichting Rainbow is now headed by a board of three Israeli’s who live in the Netherlands:
Nir Geva, Gilad Nezer and Yankale Bader, and our activities focus on Israeli cultural and societal activities for the Israeli, Dutch Jews, and the general Dutch public.

In the coming weeks, I will reveal more background stories of our projects, here at De Vrijdagavond. In the meantime, you can read all about the foundation, its mission, and projects, at our website Stichting Rainbow.