Film Depicts Jewish Children in Cantonist/Haskala Era

A riveting new film for women by Chabad Israeli filmmaker Tali Avrahami, The Fence (HaGader) is the intense and inspiring story of a Jewish family during a critical point in history. During the 1800s, the Jewish people were experiencing the devastating Cantonist practice of the Czars–which wrenched young Jewish boys away from their families to complete their childhood and young adulthood in the brutal Russian Army–coupled with the destructive enticements of the assimilationist Haskalah intellectual movement. The film’s message is timeless, and eerily relevant to the era we live in today.

The film will be shown in Crown Heights for one night only, on the Sunday following Shabbos Bereishis, October 23rd, at the auditorium of the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva, 570 Crown St., (corner Albany Avenue; Albany Avenue entrance). There will be two viewings, at 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. sharp, open to women and older girls (bat mitzvah and above) only.

Admission is $20., with a portion of the proceeds benefitting local charities. Tickets will be available in advance during chol hamoed Sukkos at Sell-A-Bration, 382 Kingston Avenue, Crown Heights; as well as at the door starting thirty minutes before the two show times. For further information, please contact Miriam at 347-439-5144.

This full-length, professionally-produced film was made by Israeli filmmaker Tali Avrahami, whose productions are known in Israel to be among the greatest made for observant women and girls. Her recent prior film, Sarah–One Against All, the powerful real-life story of “Mumeh Sarah,” depicting Mrs. Sarah Katzenellenbogen, courageous leader of the Chassidic underground escape system for Jews in post-WWII Russia, was received by enthusiastic sellout crowds last year in Crown Heights.

The Jewish family depicted in Avrahami’s current film teeters “on the fence,” fighting nearly impossible assimilationist forces, praying and struggling to beat the odds stacked so heavily against them. In the film, we witness a brother and sister, each enmeshed in the battle for their souls, and the heroic efforts of their parents to stave off these forces threatening the fabric of Jewish life. With so many families in our modern era wary of current cultural tides invading our communities and homes, The Fence speaks to our day and age.

The Fence (HaGader) has moved and inspired Israeli women, and the same is anticipated here. Viewers proclaim the movie a “dramatically thought-provoking experience,” with “wisdom that informs our current lives.”