For Amy Kronish, the best way to look at the modern Israeli woman is through film.
Kronish writes and lectures on contemporary Israel’s cinematic portrayal, and brought her insights to Carleton with a lecture called “Israeli Cinema: The Women of Israel.”
An author of two books, she is currently on a North American speaking tour and has lived in Jerusalem for the past 30 years.
She was welcomed by Carleton’s Zelikovitz Centre For Jewish Studies and the Temple Israel Of Ottawa on March 7, as part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa and the celebration of International Women’s Day.
Through clips of various films, which included Noodle, Time of Flavor, and Lemon Tree, Kronish gave different insights into the lives of Israeli women in the 21st century.The lecture addressed different issues such a motherhood, love, friendship, tradition, family, and womanhood, among others. The film clips showed interactions between female and child, female and male, and female and female.
“Israel is more than just politics,” said Shawna Dolansky, adjunct professor in the religion department and assistant director for the Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies.
She said the point is to raise awareness of Jewish studies and to enrich the study of Judaism, both historically and culturally.
Dolansky said that Israeli film has been making big advances in the world.
“It’s becoming more and more appreciated for its richness and depth in its perspectives that it brings to the conflicts and things that have nothing to do with the conflict, so we thought women might be an interesting angle,” she said.
“It’s not like I have a point of view to put across, but certainly the filmmakers do,” Amy Kronish said during the introduction of the lecture.
The lecture aimed to reveal what filmmakers’ viewpoints on Israel and Israeli women, and what that reflects in society.
Kronish said that it doesn’t matter what the filmmaker had to say, what matters is how the viewer sees it.
Although the event aimed to be non-political, it ended up being more political than what the organizers wanted, Dolansky admitted.
Shelli Kimmel, who is a director at Ottawa chapter and works for the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said she thought the lecture was interesting.
“I don’t think I agreed with all of it, but you know, you learn something every day,” she said.
“I think any academic dialogue is important at any time . . . there’s women in film, this is general, and then there’s women is Israeli film. I happen to be very supportive of Israel.”
Dolansky, however, thought the lecture offered a reflection of what is occuring within Israel, and within Palestine.
“[It’s] various sides within the sides. It was a very interesting lens on Israel,” she said.
She said many of us in the Western world don’t have a sense of Israel beyond war and politics.
“[It’s] a really interesting way to get a sense of what’s going on in Israel from a cultural perspective,” she said.
