(Jewish Group) Turner Classic Movies is airing a 'Jewish Experience' series of films this month

Turner Classic Movies admits that capturing the “Jewish experience” in a series of films is a daunting task, but the network is attempting to do so anyway.

Every Thursday night in January, the channel is showing movies spanning from the 1930s through the 1990s on the theme. According to an article on the TCM website, the series aims to show “how filmmakers have attempted to deal with such themes as assimilation, antisemitism, religion, family life and the Holocaust, sometimes with clarity and honesty, other times with varying degrees of distortion and caricature.”

There are a couple of films in the series set during the Holocaust, but notably none involve concentration camp settings. Instead, the general focus seems to be on portraying comedy, romance and the joy of everyday Jewish life.

Antisemitism does come up often in the Jewish experience, and that is reflected in the films, including in “Crossfire,” a film noir from 1947 about the murder of a Jewish man that helped kick off the series last week. The theme is also prominent in “Fiddler on the Roof,” which also aired on the series’ first night.

“Bye Bye Braverman” (1968), Jan. 12 at 8 p.m.
“The Angel Levine” (1970), Jan. 12 at 10 p.m.
“Annie Hall” (1977), Jan. 13 at 12 a.m.
“Soup For One” (1982), Jan. 13 at 2 a.m.
“Set Me Free” (1999), Jan. 13 at 3:45 a.m.
“Crossing Delancey” (1988), Jan. 19 at 8 p.m.
“Over the Brooklyn Bridge” (1984), Jan. 19 at 10 p.m.
“Girlfriends” (1978), Jan. 20 at 12 a.m.
“The Frisco Kid” (1979), Jan. 20 at 1:45 a.m.
“Au Revoir, Les Enfants” (1987), Jan. 20 at 4 a.m.
“Biloxi Blues” (1988), Jan. 26 at 8 p.m.
“The Chosen” (1981), Jan. 26 at 10 p.m.
“Portnoy’s Complaint” (1972), Jan. 27 at 12 a.m.
“The Last Metro” (1980), Jan. 27 at 2 a.m.
“Tevya” (1939), Jan. 27 at 4:15 a.m.

more...