Producer/director of “Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation”

By Cindy MIndell

On Tuesday, April 28, the Mandell JCC in West Hartford will screen “Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation,” as part of the 8-day Israel Festival. A comprehensive examination of the broad and deep connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, the film is produced and directed by filmmaker Gloria Z. Greenfield.

According to Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, “Gloria Greenfield’s powerful new film sets the record straight eloquently and comprehensively. It not only shows the undeniable historical connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, but also succeeds in debunking all of the propaganda, myths and misinformation that have become accepted as truth by so many.”

In addition to “Body and Soul,” which was released in 2014, Greenfield produced “The Case for Israel – Democracy’s Outpost” (2008), and she produced and directed “Unmasked Judeophobia” (2011).

Prior to founding Doc Emet Productions, where she serves as president, Greenfield was a senior executive in the publishing world; senior marketing manager in the high tech industry; strategy manager for the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education; director of the Adult Learning Collaborative for Combined Jewish Philanthropies; and executive director of The David Project, where she launched groundbreaking Israel advocacy programs for American students in Israel. In May 2005, the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Boston presented Greenfield with their Keter Torah Award for her contribution to Jewish education.

Recently, the Ledger spoke with Gloria Greenfield about her new film.

JL: What prompted you to make Body and Soul?

GG: In the past decade, the intellectual assault on the Jewish state and the Jewish people has ramped up significantly; our enemies understand the power and sustainability of the Big Lie.  They also understand the power of rewriting history and they have broadened their campaign to destroy the nation-state of the Jewish people through the erasure of Jewish history and the fabrication of a pseudo-history. For example, they are promoting claims such as “Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel prior to the Balfour Declaration,” or “there was never a Temple on the Temple Mount”, or “Jews are all Eastern European colonialists who have stolen the land from the Arabs.” They are now even claiming that “Jesus was a Palestinian preaching Islam.” Now, while any educated person with common sense would immediately recognize the absurdity of these claims, Islamist ideologues and their supporters learned from Hitler and Goebbels that the more irrational and big the lie, as long as it is repeated over and over again, it begins to stick. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that there are significantly high levels of “Jewish illiteracy” (and “Christian illiteracy”) in the world today. For Jews that means a lack of education or knowledge about Jewish history, Jewish liturgy, and Jewish texts. Without that education and knowledge, it is very difficult to understand the centrality of the Land of Israel to Jewish identity. Therefore, the vulnerability to the intellectual assault becomes very dangerous. In the same vein, there is an overall lack of understanding — as well as misunderstanding — about the mission and values of Zionism, which is the liberation movement of the Jewish people. The honor of Zionism has been dragged through the muck, and in a horrifying sense, it has been raped.

JL: What is the central message of the film?

GG: There are several messages in the film: The Jewish people are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, and our relationship with the Land of Israel is over 3,500 years old. We have been sustained as a people through a consistent and passionate longing for the land, which is demonstrated throughout our liturgy and texts. And, from a legal perspective, there is a solid legal history of Jewish rights to sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The film also addresses the contemporary intellectual assault on the Jewish people and the Jewish state, and the message with that is that Jews need to stand proud and strong as a people. We need to understand where we came from, who we are as a people, and what we aspire to be as a people. As importantly, we need to fight back when our heritage and values are assaulted.

JL: What do you hope people will walk away with after seeing the film?

GG: My intentions for the film are to remind us about the critical importance of being educated about our history and our values; to re-polish the honor of Zionism; to provide important facts regarding the legal history of Jewish rights to sovereignty in the land, and to sound the alarm about the intellectual assault on the Jewish people and Jewish state.

JL: Who is your target audience here — Israel supporters? detractors? everyone?

GG: As is the case with all of Doc Emet Productions films, the target audience is diverse: all good and decent people of all creeds and races, including policymakers, educators, students, community leaders, and your average Joe and Jane. The film was not made for haters, since haters have no interest in facts or rational thinking.

JL: How as the response been to the film thus far?

GG: Since the film had its world premiere in Jerusalem this past October, I have traveled with the film throughout Canada, the United States, South Africa and the United Kingdom to many thousands of people. The audiences have been diverse—including Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus—and their responses have been universally positive. At every screening there have been expressions of sincere gratitude for the making of this film.

“Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation” will screen as part of Hartford’s Israel Festival on Tuesday, April 28, 7:15 p.m., followed by a discussion led by filmmaker Gloria Greenfield. Admission is free. For information: (860) 727-6139, jlarocco@jewishhartford.org.