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.
