“All these people dancing in the streets at Jewish cemeteries should see this movie, because if it was any other race, this wouldn’t happen,” said actor Juliana Margulies, who helped create the Holocaust Educator School Partnership. New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. “Do they not remember that the Jews fought with them and died for their cause?”
The 43-minute footage was taken from body cameras worn by Hamas attackers, dashcams, traffic cameras, closed-circuit TV and the mobile phones and social media accounts of victims, soldiers and emergency medical workers. These include disturbing scenes of people being gunned down while driving on the highway, cowering in their homes and trying to flee into the open. There are still photographs of charred bodies, bloodied teenagers piled on the backs of trucks, lifeless children in pajamas (their faces blurred to protect their identities).
Scheffler said the film can’t cover all of the horror — given the hundreds of hours of footage — and less than 10 percent of those killed were shot.
Before the screening, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, warned that it would “change the way you look at the Middle East”, featuring “barbarity and cruelty you’ve never seen before”.
While watching, the audience choked and wept. At least two people left the theater before the film ended, and when it did one shouted “Show the children! Show me the rapes!” before being safely evacuated.
Former news anchor and war correspondent Christina Bascucci was among those wiping away tears. joined the race After Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate. He said he hopes the film “encourages an understanding of the horrors of that day and an appreciation of the lives lost”.
Bascucci, 38, said she discovered her grandmother was Jewish in her 20s; Last month she joined A humanitarian mission for Israel.
“This doesn’t need to be a polarizing issue,” he said. “You can simultaneously condemn the killing of innocent Palestinians” and condemn the killing of Jews.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who starred in “Wonder Woman,” was among those encouraging people to attend, according to multiple reports. Ms Gadot did not respond to messages seeking comment and was not at the screening, although her husband Jaron Varsano was in attendance.
The event was one of two organized by Greenberg and publicist Melissa Zuckerman with support from the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. The other happened last night in New York. Zukerman confirmed that those in the auditorium in Los Angeles included Ynon Kreiz, chairman and chief executive of Mattel; David Ellison, Founder and CEO of SkyDance Media; and Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast.
Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, said in a telephone interview from Israel that he “has never been in favor of atrocity scenes,” but that “these scenes must be shown.”
Following the film A video Broadway stars sing “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables” in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Many of the attendees talked about the Holocaust and World War II. “We are the remnants of the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center, referring to Kristallnacht’s Eve, the night of broken glass in 1938 when the Nazis smashed Jewish storefronts, killing Jews and sending thousands to concentration. camps.
Many expressed regret that it seemed necessary to display and watch such distressing scenes.
“There are eyewitness accounts and funerals, there are Shivas and bereaved families,” he said. Rabbi Sharon BruceFounder and Senior Rabbi of Los Angeles Congregation Ikar. “But this is obviously not enough. So there has to be a historical record established, and these videos are part of establishing that record.