December 17, 2008
20th of Kislev, 5769
This is an email announcement regarding the documentary film, Lonely Man of Faith: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Welcome to the 115 people who joined the list since the last mailing.
Tomorrow (Thursday) night, December 18 (22nd night of Kislev) at
7:45 PM will be the
Great Neck, NY Premiere at
Great Neck Synagogue,
26 Old Mill Rd. The screening is co-sponsored by
Young Israel of Great Neck.
Rabbi Dale Polakoff of GNS and
Rabbi Yaakov Lerner of YIGN will share their thoughts as well. The Facebook event
is here.
Saturday night, December 20 (24th night of Kislev) at
7:30 PM the film will screen in
Silver Spring at
The Kemp Mill Synagogue,
11910 Kemp Mill Road. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring
myself,
Rabbi Jack Bieler, and KMS members
Ari Tuchman and
Zev Eleff. The Facebook event
is here.
Tuesday, December 23 (27th night of Kislev), on the third night of Chanukah, the film will screen at
Ohab Zedek of Belle Harbor,
134-01 Rockaway Beach Blvd., Belle Harbor, NY, as the Henry Kaye Memorial Lecture. The screening will begin at
7:30 PM., and
I will be participating in a
Q/A session afterwards. The Facebook event
is here.
NEW: January 3, 2009 (8th night of Tevet) at
8:00 PM the film will screen on the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan, in conjunction with the Moshe Roshwalb Memorial Lecture Series of the
Young Israel of Manhattan. The screening will actually take place at the
Orenstein Building, 15-17 Willet St. (Bialystoker Place) between Grand & Broome Streets.
Rabbi Yeshaya Siff of Y.I. will share some remarks. Reception to follow. The Facebook event
is here.
January 6 (11th night of Tevet) at
7:30 PM the film will screen at the
JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at West 76th Street.
January 10 (15th night of Tevet) at
7:00 PM will be the
Riverdale Premiere at the
Riverdale Jewish Center. More details to follow.
NEW: January 11 (Tevet 15) at
4:30 PM the film will screen in
Manhattan at the
Brotherhood Synagogue,
28 Gramercy Park South.
I will be there to introduce the film and answer questions.
January 14 (19th night of Tevet) will be the Detroit Premiere, in conjunction with the Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival. The screening will take place at the West Bloomfield JCC, 6600 West Maple Rd. and it will start at 7:30 PM. I will be participating in Q/A after the screening.
January 17 (29th night of Tevet) there will be a return engagement at
The Maimonides School, 34 Philbrick Road, Brookline, MA. Note the change of date.
February 1 (8th night of Sh'vat) will be the
Las Vegas Premiere at the
Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival. The screening will begin at
7 PM, and it will be held at
Congregation Shaarei Tefilla.
Once again, I'd appreciate it if you could forward this email to anyone else who might be interested in this information. And here's a link to the Facebook group for the film.
If you're interested in reading Rabbi Soloveitchik's insights on Chanukah, you might be interested in the recent
Days of Deliverance, published last year by the Torat HaRov Foundation. You can buy a copy at
Amazon or your local Jewish bookstore.
December 9 (13th night of Kislev) was the long-awaited
U.K. Premiere. There was a tremendous turnout at
St. Johns Wood Synagogue in
London.
While 140 seats or so were reserved in advance, there ended up being
between 275 and 300 people at the screening! Afterwards, there was a
terrific panel discussion moderated by
Dayan Ivan Binstock and featuring
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the U.K.,
Dayan Lichtenstein, Rosh Beth Din of the Federation of Synagogues, and
myself.
Rabbi Sacks, in particular, was very impressed with the film -- so much
so that although he was pressed for time, he extended his stay by at
least half an hour. The Chief Rabbi told an entertaining story about
his first meeting with R. Soloveitchik, when R. Sacks was a philosophy
student, and how the Rav emphasized the centrality of Halakhah to an
understanding of Jewish thought. Dayan Lichtenstein spoke about
growing up in Boston and attending the Rav's shiur (lecture) in the
weekends and summers. He also mentioned a conversation he had with the
Rav when he asked him how he got into the University of Berlin without
having gone to high school. The answer: He took entrance [or
proficiency?] exams after being tutored by his mother, and passed with perfect scores.
I'm happy to say that we have had around 300 people (or more) at the last five screenings! Hopefully, we can keep up those numbers.
If you have an interesting experience or story connected to the film, please don't hesitate to share them with me. You can simply reply to this email (don't worry, it will only go to me).
Happy Chanukah,
Ethan Isenberg