I spent 11 years making videos celebrating Jewish life, ritual, and text. I avoided doing much about the dark sides of our history, apart from some awesome history videos, because I erroneously believed that this area was already “handled” by many other institutions out there that focus on educating about and fighting antisemitism. And yet in the spring of 2021, my phone started ringing off the hook with, “Can you make a video for our [faculty/students/employees/congregants] about how to understand and respond to antisemitism in the wake of [the 2016 election/the 2020 election/Gaza/Charlottesville/Pittsburgh/Poway]. When the team of Katz, Solomon and Naftalin-Kelman asked me to work with them on an initiative, I finally said yes. This was the way to go. The resulting video is a huge achievement in that it condenses much of the history and thought you need to understand into 11 minutes that are fair and accurate.
‘Berkeley Model’ for Combating Antisemitism on College Campuses Poised to Go Viral
The UC Berkeley Antisemitism video. I was the Producer/Director.
(Full story here.) An education program developed at UC Berkeley aimed at stamping out antisemitism on campus is finding a national audience, with help from a $25,000 grant and a video that strives to put a complex history into simpler terms.
The Antisemitism Education Initiative began in 2019 and is coordinated by the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Committee on Jewish Life and Campus Climate, the Center for Jewish Studies, the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, Berkeley Hillel, and the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art & Life.
The initial goal was a simple one, according to Berkeley Law Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, who started the initiative with UC Berkeley history Professor Ethan Katz and Berkeley Hillel Executive Director Adam Naftalin-Kelman: To educate students and other members of the school community about the roots of antisemitism and modern examples of anti-Jewish bias.
“UC Berkeley is rightly celebrated for its history of free expression and for being an inclusive community,” Solomon says. “I really wanted to make sure that when we consider questions of racial justice, antisemitism is a part of that discussion.”
Hillel International video excerpts
Word spread quickly on campuses about the UC Berkeley video and a new round of requests began. Could I made a University of [your state here] branded version? I was proud to partner with Hillel International to make something better: 45 minutes of content created especially for college students and the professionals who serve them. Three videos tackle the history of antisemitism, how it operates in society today and what to do about it in ways that are highly relevant for young people who may not have received any of this information but need it in order to be their full selves on campus today.
The videos are used in person and are not currently available for viewing in their entirety online. These excerpts show you what I do - I collaborated with subject matter experts (historians, rabbis and educators) on the scriptwriting, cast and directed voice talent, sourced the archival photos and videos, art directed the animation and edited the final pieces. If any groups are interested in using or working with this content, please contact Michal Dicker at Hillel International at mdicker@hillel.org.