Doc on Black-Jewish Relations in America

The coalition between Blacks and Jews was integral to shaping 20th-century America, steering entertainment, sports and politics as two groups often “othered” within our cultural tapestry found power in unity. But where shared values and purpose led to joint fights against fascism and prejudice, events like the Crown Heights riots and the aftermath of the tragedies of October 7, 2023, exposed schisms.

The relationship has been so crucial to the identities of both groups and to our country that Henry Louis Gates Jr. produced Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History, which premiered on PBS in February of this year. It’s a great docuseries, though one that feels like it’s barely scratching the surface of this interwoven history in four hours.

It’s no surprise, then, that Lacey Schwartz Delgado’s Re/Pair, a new 101-minute documentary premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, feels important but short of essential.

If you haven’t seen the Gates series and don’t know the history of Blacks and Jews in America in any particular depth, Re/Pair offers only a faint whiff of that history, rushing through or eliding information that’s crucial to understanding and appreciating the surrounding issues. Watch the Gates doc first.

If, however, your foundational knowledge is sufficient, the conversations that Delgado stages will be a potent complement to that knowledge, illustrating the very human gaps that could be bridged if we were all smart, sensitive and forced to engage in debate in perfectly lit spaces with cameras rolling.

Delgado’s film begins with the Martin Luther King Jr. quote, “People fail to get along with each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other. They don’t know each other because they have not properly communicated with each other.”

Her approach, then, is to stage that communication with 19 paired dialogues, bringing together groups of Black and Jewish artists, pundits, spiritual leaders and more. Some of the pairs are longtime friends, some are former collaborators and others are just meeting for the first time, though I wish those parameters were more clearly acknowledged in each case.

The documentary’s title acknowledges both the format and the concept of Tikkun olam, the repairing of the world.

There are interview subjects whom everybody will know, including David Schwimmer and Harry Lennix, whose relationship dates back to their shared time at Northwestern, and many more who are generally known, including the likes of W. Kamau Bell, Robert Klein, Susan Orlean, Matisyahu and Van Jones (also an executive producer). Then there are are wide assortment of “if you know, you know” thinkers and personalities who are beloved or revered (or in a few cases, detested) in their particular spheres.

The interview environs are simple and casual — chairs in a dark room, perfectly shot, with no apparent suggested dress code. Delgado is largely unheard, so the interview prompting seems to have been minimal. I can’t say if the subjects were asked questions, given brief prompts or shown some of the documentary’s historical background footage, which is generally adequate, but probably not more than that.

The overall feeling is incredibly loose and, in some cases, almost certainly too loose. Nineteen pairings means meeting 38 subjects, making it hard to imagine achieving equal balance in less than two hours, but at least a third of the pairings are barely featured at all or are featured through only one side of the back-and-forth. I wonder if a more assertive directing hand would have led to more involvement or, in some cases, pushed the conversations into slightly more provocative territory. There are some chats in which follow-up questions might have been ideal, with at least one subject coming across as fairly antisemitic in a way that I’m not convinced they intended — but since there’s no pursuing the issue, it’s left unclear.

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Some of the conversations are complicated, but remain on safe terrain, with Matisyahu and Che “Rhymefest” Smith talking about musical appropriation and authenticity.

Some are couched in history, with several subjects discussing the impact of Jesse Jackson’s notorious “Hymietown” comments, including Rev. Jackson’s daughter Ashley.

Some struggle to reckon with decades of shifting Black allegiances and American Jewish responsibilities relating to Israel and Gaza.

Intersectionality plays a key role in many or most of the best conversations, particularly the ones with subjects who identify as both Black and Jewish.

There are definitely standout pairings, like the clergy double-bill of Rabbi Sharon Brous and Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews or the respectful debates between Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Rabbi Susan Goldberg.

Then there are the people who have nothing at all to say, some of them from that group of big names. I’m not going to call them out, but you can practically feel Delgado’s disappointment at getting nearly nothing of use from some of her subjects.

And, as befits a subject this contentious, anybody who tunes in with a deeply personal connection to either side will probably experience moments of discomfort, feel put on the spot or ignored or prioritized at different points. This was the case with An Interwoven History as well.

“Solidarity is about growing our ability to be more compassionate toward each other,” Cullors observes. Re/Pair isn’t a perfect recap of history, but it’s an effective cog in a valuable empathy machine, capturing at least the path that leads us to the path forward.