Steven Spielberg JewiSh Film ArchiveWorld Zionist OrganizationCentral Zionist Archives

Newsletter/ Winter 2010-2011

Adamah, produced by Siegfried Lehman and directed by Helmar Lerski in 1947, narrates the story of Benjamin, an adolescent Holocaust survivor, who immigrated to Palestine shortly after the end of the Second World War, during the years of struggle that led to the establishment of the Jewish State. With the help of the Ben Shemen community, Benjamin successfully copes with his past and builds a new life for himself in Eretz Yisrael. In 1960, the last known print of the film was lost as a result of a fire in Ben Shemen’s dining hall. Recently, seven out of eight reels of an additional copy were discovered in Europe. The missing first reel has been restored using existing footage from Tomorrow’s A Wonderful Day (a later version of the film) and with the aid of the original script.

Adamah was screened at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque at a special screening on October 4th 2010, with the participation of many Ben Shemen graduates who were excited to identify themselves, their friends and their teachers on the big screen. Esther Levinsohn, widow of Richard Levinsohn, attended the event with her children. Richard was a graduate of the village and worked as production assistant and stills photographer on the movie. Esther viewed the film while in a transit camp in Israel. The film convinced her to study at the youth village, which had relocated to Kfar Vitkin as a result of the War of Independence. She met Richard in Kfar Vitkin.

Yair Shapiro, first recipient of the Blumenthal Grant, presented his paper Narrative, Moving Picture And Autobiography: The film “Adamah” As The Success Story Of Siegfried Lehmann And The Ben Shemen Youth Village and screened the film at a conference on the history of education in Israel held in the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Education in June 2010. The conference was held under the auspices of the Israeli Association for the History of Education.

The Archive has produced a DVD of the preserved and restored version of Adamah. In addition, it contains a Hebrew booklet documenting the history of the film accompanied by many production stills. The DVD can be purchased from the Archive.

Adamah

Spielberg Archive on the Internet• PIlot Project wIth the center for educAtIon technology • For some time, the Archive has been looking for a way to promote its films within the Israeli educational system. Film is an excellent medium by which to teach history and social studies to students. This year, the Center for Educational Technology, which manages educational sites used by teachers in Israel,

and the Spielberg Archive have embarked on a co-operative pilot project whereby fifty films on the Archive’s site have been uploaded to the Center’s Toldot site. In addition, these films are linked to school curricula. In the future, teachers will receive curriculum plans and guidance on how to use the Archive’s films in the classroom. It is hoped that this exciting collaboration will help promote the viewing of archival films in the Israeli classroom. The site can be found at: http://toldot.cet.ac.il/cinema.aspx

• wIkIPedIA • Benny Wolff, the Archive’s Hebrew publications editor, regularly edits entries and uploads links of Archive films on the English and Hebrew Wikipedia sites. He and Wendy Luterman have written entries in Hebrew and English respectively, on the Spielberg Archive. He has also written a Hebrew entry on filmmaker Fred Dunkel. The Archive hopes to continue editing and writing entries in the coming year.

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• MIchAel • The Archive’s catalog has been registered into the Michael-Israel website managed by the Israel National Library. The site enables scholars to research the cultural

heritage of Israel and the Jewish people in fields such as archeology, art, music and history preserved in libraries, museums, archives, cultural institutions and private collections. The website is part of Project Michael, a database of cultural collections from twenty European countries.

• VIrtuAl cIneMA • The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive has uploaded 500 full videos from its collection onto You Tube. The full bilingual customized website was converted and designed by the Multimedia Center of the Hebrew University. The films are categorized into eleven broad categories and can be searched by title or by keywords using You Tube’s search engine. Since its launch in April, approximately 300700 people have viewed films. The new site encourages dynamic interaction between the viewer and the Archive as viewers comment on the moving images they have watched. Films can be easily posted to social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Archive staff regularly check the number of views in order to ascertain which films are viewed and which films need further promotion.

Weekly, the Archive showcases two films embedded on the home page. These films have images corresponding to current events, historic events, anniversaries and festivals occurring that week. Robin Zalben distributes these films via the Archive’s Twitter and Facebook sites. In addition, notices are sent to the press. As a direct result of one of these press releases, Gateway To Freedom, featuring President Shimon Peres as a young man speaking to labor youth movement campers, was screened during his 87th birthday celebrations at the President’s Residence. In addition, the Archive has earned mention in Israel Today newspaper, YNET site and Segula Magazine. The films can be viewed from: http://www.spielbergfilmarchive.org.il/newsite/index.html.

Shimon Peres appears in “Gateway To Freedom”

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• fred werner And urSulA BluMenthAl grAnt • Thanks to a generous donation from the Blumenthal Grant, the Archive sent 250 U-Matic videocassettes to DB Studios for digitization to MPEG2. A further 150 U-Matic cassettes will be sent soon. Many of these cassettes are masters produced by the Jewish National Fund, the United Jewish Appeal, the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization and the Hebrew University’s Multimedia Department. Many document the arrival of Russia and Ethiopian new immigrants in the 1990s. These masters, produced between 1970 and the early 1990s suffer from dropout and are unviewable without intervention. In addition, U-Matic players are becoming increasingly difficult to service and maintain thus making the digitization of these materials even more vital.

The Archive bids farewell to Michal Goren, the second recipient of the Fred Werner and Ursula Blumenthal Grant. Michal, a MA student in literature at the Hebrew University, catalogued the Beit Berl video collection, films in German and added information to files in the Artlid database. She has written a paper titled This Is The Land: Zionism, Man and Soil – Cinemagraphic Aspects And Poetic Means In the Service of Zionism. The Archive staff wishes her well in her future endeavors. The Archive welcomes Ofer Peres, the 2010/2011 recipient of the Blumenthal Research Grant. As part of his work, he will catalog video cassettes from the Histadrut’s Lavon Institute.

• StAff • Harris Abrams, a student on the Career Israel program, volunteered at the Archive for six months. He cataloged the already scanned files of Out Of Evil, My Father’s House and First Film Of Palestine. He was supervised by librarian Robin Zalben. • This year, volunteer Miriam Ranan cataloged films produced by the Hebrew University’s Multimedia Center. Reuven Koffler, formerly head of the stills department at the Central Zionist Archives , volunteered briefly at the Spielberg Archive. He cataloged films received from the Lavon Institute. • The Archive’s Distribution Department, administered by Executive Secretary Hetzi Pinto, sold over 140 DVDs to individuals and institutions in Israel. • The Archive wishes Chaim Green mazeltov on the bar mitzvah of his son, Netanel Yitzchak.

“Out Of Evil”

news in Briefnews in Briefnews in Brief * * * * * * news in Brief• PreSentAtIon of ArchIVe holdIngS • Archive films were presented on Rino Zror’s program on Educational Television Channel 23. • The Archive participated in two programs of HaMoadon on Channel 23, including an interview with Director Deborah Steinmetz. The interview was broadcast on the 3rd June 2010. • Stills of Adolf Eichmann, copied from the Archive collection, were used in the magazine Le Monde in France. • Guy Lerrer is host of the television program Night Tube on Channel 10. As part of his program, veteran television personality Emmanuel Halperin, presents a corner called Needs Preservation, in which he presented color archival films, held by the Spielberg Archive and the Israel State Archives. The aim of the corner is to expose the general public to historical images depicting life in Eretz Yisrael before Independence and during the first years of the State. To view the corner: http://j.nana10.co.il/Section/?SectionID=11526 • Legend In The Dunes, a compilation film in honor of Tel Aviv’s centennial and co-produced by the Spielberg Archive, the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Yaakov Gross, was screened at the Jewish Motifs Festival in Poland in October 2009. • This Is The Land has been restored and preserved. The film was successfully screened at premieres in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Cinematheques. • Archive films were presented on the program Docu Shuk broadcast on Educational Television Channel 23. • The films Labour Is Our Life, Collective Adventure and A Day In Degania were screened at a conference on the Centennial of the Kibbutz Movement , at Bussel House in Kibbutz Deganya A in April 2010. • A Day In Degania (1937) was screened by the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Cinematheques in October 2010 in honor of the centennial of the Kibbutz Movement. • Several films from the Spielberg vaults were screened at the Forum for the Preservation of Audio Visual Heritage annual conference in August 2010 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. The film Kibbutzim and Pioneers: Compilation of Archival Films, in honor of the centennial of the kibbutz movement, premiered at the conference. The film, which was compilated and edited by Yaakov Gross, is a co-production between the Archive and the Jerusalem Cinematheque. • Archive films are screened annually at the Jewish Eye Film Festival in Ashkelon. A Day In Degania (1937) in honor of the centennial of the Kibbutz Movement and This Is The Land were shown in October 2010.

• newS In BrIef • Archive staff manned a booth at the 36th Zionist Congress in June. The Archive screened movies and answered questions. • Chaim Green and Benny Wolff carried out an inventory of Archival prints within the Archive’s film vaults.

“Day Of Degania”

news in Briefnews in Brief news in Brief news in Brief* * * * * * • PreSentAtIonS And conferenceS • Deborah Steinmetz attended the AMIA conference in St. Louis, Missouri in November 2009. • Deborah Steinmetz attended the ASMI Day of Information Technology in Various Applications in Jerusalem. • Deborah Steinmetz lectured at the INFO2010 conference in Tel Aviv. • Wendy Luterman attended the Sixth Eva/Minerva Conference on Digitization of Cultural Heritage in Jerusalem in November 2009.

• cooPerAtIon Between ArchIVeS • Prints of Wherever The Migrant and He Who Saves A Single Life were donated to HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.• The Archive sent a 16 mm reel of Lodz Ghetto to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC for digitization. The original was returned together with Blu-ray and HD cassettes of the film.• The Archive has participated in a project to map national archive and library resources for researchers, conducted by the Haifa University. • Archive staff participated in a seminar day in honor of the 150th anniversary of Herzl’s birth. The staff visited the Herzl Museum and the Central Zionist Archives. Moti Freedman, Director of the Herzl Museum, met with Archive staff. • The Archive contributed film material to the Yitzchak Rabin Center.

• PuBlIcAtIonS • Wendy Luterman wrote an article on The Mysteries of Filmmaker Fred Dunkel for Archion: The Israeli Journal of Archives Studies and Documention, no. 16, 2010. The article covers his intriguing personal life, his professional career, the discovery of his collection and its preservation and digitization by the Spielberg Archive. Ha’aretz (25.8.2010) briefly mentioned the publication of the journal.

• unIVerSIty courSeS • The Struggle for design of memory in the Israeli media: Tamar Libes and Yehudah Kaveh

• feedBAck • David Crosby, an American musician and founding member of the rock and roll band Crosby, Stills & Nash received a DVD copy of My Father’s House. His father, Floyd Crosby, was the film’s cinematographer. • During the year, the families of Noach Zabludowicz and Dr. Aharon Beilin visited the Archive to view their testimonies given during the Eichmann Trial.

“My Father’s House”

Moshe Dayan, is seen travelling in an armored car, before the incident in which he loses an eye.

“Springtime in Galilee”

news in Briefnews in Briefnews in Brief * * * * * * news in Brief• VISItorS to the SPIelBerg ArchIVe • Rachel Levin of the Righteous People Foundation visited the Spielberg Archive. Deborah Steinmetz, the Archive’s director presented her with a detailed survey of the Archive’s plans for the coming year and of the resources needed to accomplish these plans. • The Archive was honored to welcome the family of our patron, Steven Spielberg, who visited the Archive, during Sukkot. His father Arnold and his sister Nancy Katz viewed several prominent films and met with Archive Director, Deborah Steinmetz, who told them about the Archive’s activities. • Indviduals: Michael Mail;Sonia Marschak; Composer George Dreyfus; Harris Baum; Clarice Smith; Norman Wein; Tal Gozani; Jeffery and Elizabeth Olanoff; Rene and Justin Abrams; Patricia Glaser groups: AFHU; Carmi Gillon with vice-presidents representing all Israeli universitiesProfessional: Billy Segal, archivist IBA; Liat Ben Haviv; Ronny Loewy; Guy Lerrer; Rami Shtivi, Begin Center Professional tours: Maale Film School, Emek Yizrael College

• fIlMS And collectIonS receIVed • Alan Ezequiel Jais • Arturo Mio • Batya Leshem • Central Zionist Archive • Filmoteka Narodowa • George Dreyfus • Harp and Zamir Society • Ilana Friedman • Israel Visual ForumItai Meshulam • Journey into Jewish HeritageKibbutz Degania • Kiryat Moriah • Kvutzat Kinneret • Mati Drobeles • Magnes Museum • Moti Freedman • Nathan Noach • Ohalei Hapalmach • Ora Barkai, Kibbutz Yifat • Yaacov Gross • Yossi Rabach • Zalman Shazar Center

• clIentS • Scheinfeld Productions – Exodus 1947 • Re’i Productions – I Was There In ColorTrabelski Productions – Jaffa: The Story Of A Brand Name • IBA Channel One –Haim Yavin: True Story • Harp and Zamir Society – 50th Anniversary of International Harp Contest in IsraelJewish • Judisches Museum Hohenems, Austria – One time screening in the Musuem • Eran Riklis Productions – Miral • Ouri and Rami Nechustan Museum – Exhibition Song of the Lake • Zen Productions – Izmir • Realworks HD – OlmertDok Film – Transit Berlin • Jaffa Port Authority – Jaffa Port Visitors Center • Orange House (Dan

and Nurit Geva) – Chaim Weizmann • TVSchoenfilm – Eichmann Trial • Sudwestrundfunk (SWR)– Wenn Ihr Wollt Istes Kein Marchen Rachek Dror Baut Brucken • Michael Yosef – 100 Marks • BBC – Panorama: A Walk In The Park • Eretz Israel Museum – Exhibition Alterman In His City • Keshet Broadcasting Ltd – A Beautiful Country (Eretz Nehederet) • Museum of Jewish Heritage – Screening of film as part of exhibition Traces Of Memory • Nugus/Martin Productions – Eichmann Trial • TSR– Program for TSR • Yael Leibowitz – Schund • Meiden-Forum Heidelberg - Symposium Quiet Movie

• Connect 100 (Rafik Halabi) – Viewing, Search and Copyrights • Aish.com – Rabbi Nehemiah Coppersmith • Bet Ariela – One time screening for Israel’s Independence Day• ZDF – Eichmann Trial • The Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish • Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem Ltd. – Audiovisual presentation for the Hurva Synagogue • Hessischer Rundfunk - Martin Buber • Hadassah Levitt – Home Movie • NKPF – Copyrights • Israel Channel 10 – The Third Temple • Compugraphic Solutions Media – Mateh Binyamin Regional Council Visitors Center • Jerusalem Capital Studios – Ashdod Port Visitors Center

The family of Archive patron Steven Spielberg visit the Archive.

Wendy Luterman with Yaakov Gross upon his receipt of the new Adamah DVD

news in Briefnews in Brief news in Brief news in Brief* * * * * * coming SoonDuring this coming year, the Archive will be restoring the film My People’s Dream (1934). The film features world famous Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt singing at sites around Eretz Yisrael. On the last day of filming, he suffered a fatal heart attack. The film incorporates his funeral in Jerusalem, which was conducted by Chief Rabbi Kook. The 35 mm print held by the Spielberg Archive is in urgent need of restoration. The Archive plans to re-edit the Hebrew version of the film according to its original order.

“Ohalei Palmach Series”

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt stars in “Dream of My People”

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The American Friends of the Hebrew University and Jewish Life TV will be producing a weekly one-hour Sunday television program, Jewish Perspectives, based on material from the Spielberg Archive.

The Archive has received permission to add English subtitles to films produced by Ohalei Palmach. The non-profit organization, headed by Chaim Hefer and Dana Cogan, produces films about the history of the Palmach. The Spielberg Archive will distribute these films in English.

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• conference on jewISh MAterIAl clAIMS AgAInSt gerMAny grAnt • The Archive received a generous grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Over fifty movies were digitized by Yad Vashem onto MPEG2. The external hard drive is stored in the Archive’s vaults.

From the book – Ayin LeZion ZofiaNews flash

• AyIn leZIon ZofIA • The Archive is pleased to announce the publication of Ayin LeZion Zofia, published by Bialik Publishing House. The book is the Hebrew edition of Hillel Tryster’s book Israel Before Israel published in 1995 by the Spielberg Archive. The book surveys the history of silent cinema before the Declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. It examines the attempts to create a new industry, the personalities of the filmmaker pioneers making the films and the motives of the producing Zionist organizations who used these films for hasbara. Ayin LeZion Zofia, is not merely a translation of the English edition, it is a revised and updated version containing new information which came to light after the publication of the English edition. An interview with the author, Hillel Tryster, appeared in the book section of Ha’aretz on September 1st 2010 in the books section.

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