Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post (11/1/2000) wrote:Discover Jerusalem, Its History & People, a CD-ROM in English, by Torah Educational Software (www.jewishsoftware.com) and Donchin Studios, requires Windows 95 or higher and Pentium 133 or better phone orders in Israel 1-800-212626 and in the US 1-800-925-6853, for all ages. Rating: **** 1/2 Four and one half stars Israel needs all the help it can get when it comes to explaining its cause to the world. The Foreign Ministry seemed to wake up a bit late when the Aksa uprising broke out on Rosh Hashana and Israel needed to counter pro-Palestinian propaganda; in addition, there were and still are too few government spokesmen blessed with fluent English, a persuasive manner and a keen understanding of the foreign media. Torah Educational Software, a Jerusalem-based developer and distributor of high-quality Jewish software for children and adults, saw the crying need some time ago for better information about the Israeli case for a united Jerusalem. TES president Emanuel Fishman approached Nachum Duchin, a former US video filmmaker now living in Beit Shemesh who has worked for ABC TVıs Good Morning America and other US programs. When I saw that every CD-ROM or video on Jerusalem was apologetic for our Jewish presence in Jerusalem, I decided to make a disk about the Old City that speaks for us, without insulting anybody else,² says Fishman. They then converted the video of several hourıs length into an hour-long CD-ROM, losing a bit of resolution on the screen for the sake of the material and without cutting any of the narration. Why make a disk for a personal computer when you have a video cassette? Fishman explains that many in the haredi audience are forbidden by their rabbis to have a TV screen and video cassette recorder at home, but a computer and CD-ROM disk drive are regarded as kosher. Just insert the disk into your drive, and the film immediately comes up without installation. Highly professional, the film offers magnificent birdıs-eye-view scenes and modern editing techniques. Although the name of the disk refers to Jerusalem, the disk focuses on the Old City and its environs; ³Old City² is mentioned in red only at the bottom of the cover of the box. The content puts much emphasis on the gates of the Old City walls, built under the direction of the Ottoman ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent, in the 16th century. The disk focuses on a varied selection of important people who have been buried on the Mount of Olives opposite the Golden Gate: Rabbi Ovadia Bartenura (the Italian-born sage who wrote a commentary on the Mishna); chief rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, prime minister Menachem Begin, chief rabbi Shlomo Goren. Oscar Schindler, the Righteous Gentile who saved so many Jews from death during the Holocaust and was buried in a Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion, is also given prominence. Each of the five (no prominent women are so honored) is portrayed with narration and a series of historical photographs. The archeological finds, the history of the gates, the bold but hopeless struggle of the last Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter to hold it in May 1948, the destruction of synagogues from then until the Old Cityıs recapture in 1967 and the quarterıs subsequent reconstruction since are all depicted with moving scenes and words. But the needs of the potential audiences sometimes conflict. There isnıt a single glimpse of an Arab until the filmıs midpoint and then itıs only an elderly Moslem praying alone in the El Aksa mosque. There are a few scenes of the Arab market and tourists in the Moslem Quarter, but the Christian Quarter gets short shrift, with only 22 seconds dedicated to it. Thus the disk is for people who donıt know much about Israelıs case for a unified Jerusalem, such as fundamentalist Christians, but have a potential for giving warm support or for observant Jews who know quite a lot but need to have it reinforced. Duchin appears at the end of the film, saying he hopes that those who have visited Jerusalem before will regard the program as a souvenir to remember their trip, while those who have never made the trip will be inspired to do so for the first time. Some Christians might be offended by the minimal material about their holy sites; haredim would have objected to any mention of Jesus, and his name is missing from the narrative). On the other hand, viewers who have blind sympathy solely for the Palestinian cause would dismiss the disk as a piece of Jewish propaganda. Fishman explains: ³We screened this movie a number of times to groups of Christian pilgrims, and they really liked it. They say they are very interested in hearing the Orthodox Jewish perspective because it helps them understand the roots of their religion.² The disk elicited a positive responses from the Hillel Foundation (which promotes Judaism on US college campuses), Birthright (which offers young Diaspora Jews free visits to Israel) and the Jewish Continuity Foundation, which bought 50,000 copies and made the disk available for the low $9.95 price (it goes in ordinary stores for $29). The disk would have been even better if it had some interactive features, such as a quiz at the end with questions about Jerusalem, based on its content.
T-DJW
