My middle son (18 yrs old) was watching Schindler's List last night as I was preparing dinner. I've seen it twice before, but found myself running into the family room every chance I could get to watch bits and pieces. I'd forgotten how compelling it was.
It was the end of the movie, the scene where Schindler is presented with a gold ring by the people he saved and he cries because he felt guilty that he didn't save more. Following that scene, the film shifts to Jewish survivors arriving in Israel after the Holocaust. Then another shift to modern times, and the real life people who Schindler saved, elderly now and accompanied by their children and grandchildren, pay hommage to Schindler through the Jewish custom of placing a rock on the headstone of his grave as the hauntingly beautiful tune, "Jerusalem of Gold" plays in the background. I found it, once again, to be incredibly moving.

My son, who is and always has been the epitome of masculine self-contained cool, and who pretends he doesn't care a whit about Judaism (but who, I notice, keeps a well-thumbed Siddur (prayerbook) on his bedside table), turned to me and said, "They ought to make that movie required viewing in high school." And surprised, I turned to him and asked, "They don't show it? How do they teach the Holocaust anyway?" And he replied that they don't do much. (Getting a lot of words out of him can be like pulling teeth. He's similar to his mother, who is unusually - for her - chatty on her blog.) No wonder Holocaust denial continues to rear its ugly head...
Whatever else Steven Spielberg does or has done in his life, Schindler's List is a great movie and a tremendously influential accomplishment. It captured the essence of the Holocaust from the irrational hatred, to the casual cruelty, to the all too rare kindness of an ordinary man like Schindler. It graphically illustrated the Talmudic saying "Saving one life is like saving the world," through its emotional portrayal of the Schindler survivors and their descendents. It clearly demonstrated why Jews treasure, need and deserve a land of their own.
But maybe its greatest gift is what it does for young Jews like my son, reminding him of the great lengths his people went through to maintain their Jewishness. I don't believe anyone can watch that movie and take their Jewish identity for granted.
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