By Melanie Roth Gorelick, CRC Director

Over the past few years there has been a sharp increase in global anti-Semitism, causing great alarm throughout the Jewish community. In an EU poll from 2013, one in five Jews reported being a victim of anti-Semitism in the previous 12 months. More than 70 years after the mass murder of 6 million Jews, Jewish leaders in Europe are once again facing growing insecurity and thoughts of immediate immigration. And The Jewish Agency for Israel reports that 3,288 French Jews left for Israel in 2013, a 72 percent rise over the previous year, and those numbers continue to climb.

To explore this disturbing situation, Federation is co-sponsoring a program on November 4 which includes a screening of the mesmerizing one-hour-long documentary film Hate: A Journey to the Dark Heart of Racism followed by a discussion with the director Nadal Eyal, the acclaimed Israeli journalist. Eyal won the B'nai B'rith 2015 Diaspora Journalism Award for the film. He serves as Channel 10's Chief International Correspondent where he reports extensively on Israel’s international relations and US-Israel discussions. His writing has appeared regularly in Maariv Daily, Al Monitor, Liberal Magazine, Haaretz and Foreign Affairs. Throughout his career Eyal has covered Israel’s turbulent political arena, lead political desks during three general elections, and served as Ma’ariv’s Daily Newspaper senior political analyst.

In Hate, filmed on location in Germany, England, and Greece, Eyal tries to understand how the virus of anti-Semitism survives and continues to infect societies throughout Europe. By including rare interviews with Neo-Nazis, experts, and victims of anti-Semitic acts, the film generates a credible and frightening document. It explains some reasons for anti-Semitism’s resilience and supplies a variety of dramatic encounters and confrontations with the perpetrators of racism.

Symbolically, this unique event takes place the day before the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the massive Nazi government pogrom against European Jews in 1938. The program is being sponsored by Israeli-American Council, The New Jersey Film Festival, Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, the Anti-Defamation League – NJ Region, AJC/NJ, The Israeli Ofek School, and Hadassah.

The event will be held on November 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC in West Orange. To purchase tickets, click here.