Hashmatsa

The persuasive power of most documentaries lies in their one-sidedness. This is not like most documentaries.

The filmmaker has a point of view, but he does not jam it down your throat. He humanizes the people he disagrees with, while exposing the flaws of those he does agree with. He presents the issue of perceived anti-semitism in all it's complexity but still draws the viewer to a real conclusion.

I thought the narration was a bit distracting because the filmer has a strong Israeli accent. Also, it was difficult to understand a few of the exchanges between he and his interviewees.

Still, it was fine work.

Thought this movie did a good job a laying out some basic issues surrounding questions of anti-Semitism, support and criticism of Israel, and the role of the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S.

The movie benefited from the personal reflections of the director on the movie's subject, but on the other hand I often felt the movie relied too much on colorful depictions of individuals and groups and too little on a more "objective" and data-based examination of the question of whether and how much actual (and not just imagined) anti-Semitism results in harm to people around the world.

A longer, more carefully researched film could probably have matched the depictions offered in this film with data about and the testimony of people who have been the brunt of truly injurious anti-Semitic prejudice.

That said, I do feel the attitudes and beliefs illustrated by the individuals and groups depicted in this film are--as the film suggests--probably very often more at the root of concern about anti-Semitism than any real incidence of the latter.

But, still, that's a very sweeping generalization and would need to be "documented"--something this documentary doesn't seem to do a great deal of.

However, this was a very interesting and colorful film about a number of issues central to Jewish identity (especially the identity of "secular" Jews), and could be very valuable in sparking sharper thought and discussion about those issues. And also in encouraging more research on the actual extent, or lack thereof, of anti-Semitism around the world.

This film really hits the mark with regards to anti-semitism. For all intents and purposes, it does not exist. Racism against Jews is nothing compared to racism against blacks, Latinos or Arabs.

The Anti-Defamation League really show their true selves in this video and do not even seem to notice. Complaints sent to them seem to be largely about Jewish folks not getting days off for holidays. That is not anti-Semitism. That is a work policy.

Interestingly, Norman Finkelstein is shown raw here, too. Finkelstein is a great scholar and critic of the Jewish lobby. Here is shown making statements that do not present him in a favorable light. While his underlying point is correct, he comes off like a ranting lunatic, which hardly helps his cause.

'Hashmatsa' ('Defamation') by Israeli director Yoav Shamir dares to attack one of the sacred cows of Israel and of the Jewish people thinking - how it reacts to antisemitism around the world, how it looks at the evil of the Holocaust, and how young generations are being educated in Israel with respect to these painful and fundamental issues.

The result is mixed I must say. Without emulating completely the Moore style (he appears seldom on screen for example) Shamir uses the same approach - picks a number of characters and interviews them longly until they lower guard and reveal their weaknesses, which then are used as part of the demonstration of the thesis.

There are actually two slightly different themes in the film, although they are related and interleaved in the presentation. The first deals with the definition of antisemitism and the question whether real antisemitism exists in the world today at the scale claimed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and some of the Israeli and Jewish press. Here the director presents two leading characters, one on each side of the dispute - Abraham Foxman, one of the leaders of the ADL and Norman Finkelstein, Jewish thinker, author of a book that argues against the exaggerated usage of the Holocaust on political purposes by Israel and Jewish people. None of the two get a very clean image in the film, both have arguments that sound valid at some point, but show weaknesses and ideological bias in other moments. The weakest part of the argumentation is however the one that tries to argue that antisemitism does not exist, and the method used by the film is flawn, as the issue of antisemitism is not acute at all in the US where the director investigated most of the time, but has deep and specific aspects in many countries in Europe for example.

I did like more the approach being taken by the film relative to the education in Israel of the young generations about the Holocaust, about antisemitism and how to cope with these phenomena. Here the film does succeed to raise valid questions and the success of this part is due mainly to the fact that he lets the images and situations on screen speak more for themselves. The questions asked in the final sequence of the film - 'does this type of auto-victimization, of fear and lack of trust for anything that is foreign educate well the younger generations, or even give them the right approach to address real antisemitism and to cope with the horror of the Holocaust?' 'is this type of education better fit for the past or for the present and future?'- these are indeed valid questions which I would love to see being addressed in a public debate at prime time, not at late hours as the ones this documentary was broadcast by Israeli Channel 2 yesterday.

my daughter and I just watched this movie today on cable, without the benefit of any context. while it was clear that the filmmaker sided with the Mearsheimer-Walt types, I still thought it was worth watching.

to me, any time Norman Finkelstein is allowed to go on camera and give his noxious views, that's a good thing. in fact, the whole movie affirmed the idea that "anti-Zionism" is just an excuse for anti-Semitism. I think this is the opposite of what the filmmaker wanted to prove, but there it is.

if you do see this film, please remember to take it with a grain of salt. example: Finkelstein says that there is no American anti-Semitism but there IS anti-Muslim feeling. according to FBI statistics, anti-Jewish hate crimes occur 8 TIMES AS OFTEN as anti-Muslim crimes. but Finkelstein doesn't back up his assertions with facts, since he wouldn't be able to.

the problem of anti-Semitism has been with us for thousands of years, and it isn't going away any time soon. this movie contributes to the conversation if watched with an open but skeptical mind.