Annual Rabin/Brill Lecture

Annual Rabin/Brill Lecture: “From Ruins to Reels: Polish Holocaust Survivors and the Foundations of Israeli Cinema (1950s-1960s)” with Rachel Harris

 

This talk examines the formative role played by Polish Holocaust survivors in establishing the Israeli film industry during the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on archival materials, early film texts, and production histories, it traces how émigré filmmakers used their experiences and networks in Europe to create a new cinema in Israel.

 

Dr. Rachel S. Harris holds the Elaine and Herbert Gimelstob Eminent Scholar Chair inJudaic Studies and is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Florida Atlantic University, where she is also Professor of Film and Multimedia Studies.Her research focuses on Israeli cinema, literature, and culture, with particular attention to gender, national identity, and transnational film production. She is the author of AnIdeological Death: Suicide in Israeli Literature and Warriors,Witches, Whores: Women in Israeli Cinema, and co-editor of Casting a Giant Shadow: The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema.