Wrestling with Our Greatest Fear

As anti-Semitism explodes across the planet, the 500,000 Jews of France are caught in a chilling cycle of fear, hatred and violence. Physical assaults, verbal harassment and the growing social acceptability of bigotry have forced them into an impossible, if familiar, quandary: Pack up for Israel or remain to battle the rising hostility.

Using clips from her new film SPIRAL, director and veteran journalist Laura Fairrie will talk about the origins of this dilemma, the ordinary French Jews wrestling with it and answer questions about the deeper challenge of whether we can learn to live together in an increasingly fractured world of deep political, social and racial division.

The film, which premiered at DOC NYC, was produced by the Cohen Media Group (led by Charles S. Cohen, a Temple Emanu-El Trustee) and opens tonight at Quad Cinema.