c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Everybody loves movies. Indeed, because filmmakers reach large audiences, they have become the world’s master storytellers as they entertain and inspire, enlighten and thrill.

Today there are more than 60 Jewish film festivals in the United States and Canada that present an extraordinary collection of movies from many countries. The oldest festival began in San Francisco 25 years ago.

But in just five years the Atlanta festival has emerged as a major showcase for noteworthy films. Sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and supported by a host of generous corporations and individuals, this year’s festival attracted more than 250 entries. But after viewing all the films, the selection committee of 60 bleary-eyed judges chose only 33 to be shown during the six-day festival held in late January.

Of course, an always intriguing question permeates such festivals: What makes a movie “Jewish?” Clearly, a film devoted to Israel, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, or Judaism qualifies, but for many other movies the criteria are murkier, less clear.

Does every silver screen biblical epic meet the requirement? Not necessarily. Nor does a movie with a World War II theme always make the grade. Having a Jewish director, screenwriter, or star does not automatically qualify a film for a Jewish film festival. These kinds of questions make the selection committee’s work interesting and challenging.

There is agreement that attending a film festival has the potential to introduce alienated or unaffiliated Jews to the larger Jewish community. In addition, many in the festival’s audience are not Jews, but movies with Jewish themes provide an exciting introduction to religious and cultural pluralism.

Three years ago not a single Israeli film was shown at the Atlanta festival. However, this year one-third of the movies came from the Jewish state’s rapidly expanding cinema industry. The other countries represented were the United States, Britain, Russia, Canada, Argentina, France, Germany and Spain. The 2005 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is proud that it showcases only new films, some of them seen for the first time in the Southeast or the United States.

In the past, most Israeli films focused on the conflict with the Palestinians and the ongoing tensions in the Middle East. But the 2005 Atlanta festival reflected a significant shift in Israeli movies as they moved toward human-interest films featuring families, romances, spy thrillers or every day life in modern Israel.

“Walk on Water,” the Israeli film I saw in Atlanta, is part of that change. Directed by Eytan Fox (remember his name), it is a glossy “road movie” in Hebrew, English and German that takes place in Israel, Turkey and Germany, and features a surprise ending. “Walk on Water” has Mossad agents, young Germans, a love story, spectacular Israeli scenery, 21st century Berlin, the music of Bruce Springsteen, and the search for an aging Nazi war criminal _ the very stuff that Hollywood does so well.

A far more somber and engrossing film was “The Ninth Day,” directed by Volker Schlondorff whose most famous work was the 1979 Oscar-winner, “The Tin Drum.” “The Ninth Day” explores the controversy about the Catholic Church’s actions during World War II.

Based on a real-life story, the film deals with an anti-Nazi priest who in early 1942 is temporarily released from the Dachau concentration camp and allowed to return to his Luxembourg home and family. But during those nine days, a theologically sophisticated SS officer who once studied for the priesthood constantly pressures the physically and psychologically battered priest to cooperate with the Nazis. Like the devil, the Nazi also quotes Scripture.

If the priest attempts to escape during the nine days, his family and fellow priests in Dachau will be killed. The wily SS officer wants the priest to obtain the Luxembourg bishop’s written affirmation that Nazism and Catholicism are compatible and not adversaries.

Centuries-old Christian anti-Semitism, the World War II role of Pope Pius XII, and the Nazi effort to explain away the historical fact that Jesus was a Jew are key parts of “The Ninth Day.”

The film reminded me that many clergy did merge their Christian beliefs with anti-Jewish Nazi ideology. Some pastors and priests even wore swastikas on their ecclesiastical robes and employed the stiff-armed Nazi salute.

As “The Ninth Day” ended, I reminded the Atlanta audience that the overwhelming majority of Christian clergy during World War II were neither like the film’s spiritual hero nor Nazi collaborators. They were simply passive onlookers as the Nazis carried out the mass murder of millions, the slaughter of innocents.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)

MO/KRE/JL END RUDIN