Jews of Boston [VHS]

Rich in archival photographs, this candid documentary resonates as well with the diverse voices of Boston's Jews today. Among them: Aaron Feuerstein, owner of the burned-out Malden Mills, who tells how Judaism influenced his inspirational business decision; Harvard's first Yiddish scholar, Etan Cohen, an Orthodox Jew who happens to write for The Harvard Lampoon and Beavis and Butt-Head; noted writers Ann Bernays and Justin Kaplan, to whom Judaism is "more about personal identity than religion." Through personal stories and evocative memories, many Jewish people relive their personal journey to America from Europe through Ellis Island and into the old neighborhoods of Boston.

Explore also the changing face of Boston's neighborhoods over the years, from the Jewish North End to Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan, from the West End's rise and fall, to the Jewish migration to the suburbs. "To me, being Jewish is broadly encompassing of all aspects of immigrant, religious, and American life," notes scholar Ellen Smith. "On the streets of Boston Jews worked those tensions out with as much interesting results as anywhere else in America. And in that sense, maybe they are the story of America."