The Nazis have begun their liquidation of Lvov, randomly murdering Jews for the sport of it and trucking away thousands to concentration camps. Here is a time and place of torture and death where everyone steals from everyone else to stay alive and nobody can be trusted—especially a sour and burly hamhock of a sewer worker and petty thief named Leopold Socha. Between robberies, he one day encountered some Polish Jews trying to escape from the ghetto before the Gestapo found them. For a price, he showed them how to climb down from a hole in the street into the murk and foul-smelling slime of the underground tunnels. Living with rats, eating a raw onion if they were lucky, separating from their families, giving birth to children surrounded by excrement, they miraculously survived for 14 months. When their money ran out, this accidental hero and his hardened, calloused wife above ground somehow discovered a conscience they didn’t know they had and protected their “children of war” from one near-fatal mishap after the next. In time, the lives of dependants and reluctant saviors alike intertwine with such inspired candor and force that the ensemble cast literally takes on the souls of the characters. They are so real that after a while you forget you are watching actors at all. This is especially true of Robert Wieckiewicz, an expressive and celebrated stage star in Poland who does wonders depicting the conflicting moral and religious instincts of Socha, a tough, emotionally detached sewer inspector and predatory crook whose criminal instinct for self-protection was betrayed by his new-found empathy for the disenfranchised. Only a handful of his Jews came through the ordeal alive, but the real Socha has since been honored for his humanitarian efforts, along with other brave Poles who altered human destiny by saving persecuted Jews from the gas chambers—specifically Oskar Schindler.

Warsaw-born director Holland, whose native epics about World War II, such as Europa, Europa, have always surpassed her more commercial English-speaking work (The Secret Garden, Washington Square), does such a thorough job depicting authenticity that the filth and degradation of the claustrophobic sewer eventually get to you. There’s an actual childbirth and the smothering of a baby I could not watch, as well as a deathly flood that proves to be an act of betrayal. It is to the credit of a sound screenplay by David Shamoon that the film carefully balances the fear and selfishness of the victims without sentimentality. Neither Socha nor the Jews are angels. Some of them are despicable on both sides of the equation. Without overdoing the atrocities, Ms. Holland attempts to illustrate the many cruel aspects of war’s effects on its victims as well as its perpetrators. The title is apropos, because most of the film submerges the viewer into a labyrinthine subterranean blackness that makes it difficult to share the experiences. We squint to watch them, and struggle to feel the sexual and emotional attractions that keep their minds from closing the bridge to insanity.

In Darkness is gloomy and hard to take for a running time of 145 minutes, but it’s an important film, related with deep conviction, and uncompromising in its understanding of the remarkable things members of the human race have done—to, for, and against each other—in the wilderness of war.

rreed@observer.com

IN DARKNESS

Running Time 145 minutes

Written by David F. Shamoon

Directed by Agnieszka Holland

Starring Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann and Agnieszka Grochowska

3.5/4

That’s curious, to say the least. You almost have to wonder if the candidates appreciate just how much Israel values the lives of its citizens, especially its citizen-soldiers. The Republicans almost seem to think that the deal was a sign of weakness on Israel’s part. “You can’t negotiate with terrorists, period,” said Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

No nation knows more about the effects of terrorism than Israel. But Jerusalem’s decision to trade 1,000 prisoners for a single solder was hardly a sign of weakness. It was, in fact, born of strength, solidarity and, ultimately, decency.

True, some of the Palestinians freed from prison in Israel were and remain death-worshipping fanatics who may well seize another opportunity to kill or injure Jews. Israeli families torn apart by the actions of some of these prisoners certainly were upset about the exchange, about seeing killers allowed to go free. Worse, they were accorded hero’s welcomes once they were beyond Israel’s borders.

Even still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the right decision, for the right reason. Israel cannot and should not sleep while one of its own remains in the hands of its enemies. We do not know and may never know how Mr. Shalit was treated by his captors. But the gruesome record of some Islamic terrorists would suggest that he has been liberated from a hell on earth.

And that is precisely what Mr. Netanyahu’s government achieved: liberation of a soldier, a fellow citizen, a Jew. Liberation was not without cost. But it was a cost well worth paying.

It certainly is possible that no U.S. politician, even the most well-meaning, can appreciate the value that Israelis traditionally place on the lives of their fellow citizens. Israel has made other, seemingly one-sided deals before to win the freedom of another Israeli. And if others fall into hostile hands, Israeli will make the same deal.

These deals don’t weaken Israel. They make Israel stronger, for they reaffirm the embattled nation’s commitment to basic human values. Those who wish to understand the Middle East should be paying close attention.

Calling Wall Street "Hitler's Bankers" is not anti-Jewish.

Despite what you might have heard from the many conservative outlets looking to discredit the movement through a couple of crazy people with "Jews = Bank Bailout" signs, the majority of Occupy Wall Street is not anti-Semitic. Because that's what we were all worried about, right?

From Jonathan Chait's piece on NYMag.com today:

When writing about the Occupy Wall Street protests, Washington Post conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin complains, "virtually nothing has been said about its anti-Semitic elements." And yes, virtually nothing has been said! Unless you count David Brooks. Or Fox News. Or The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Or Rush Limbaugh, the Weekly Standard, the Daily Caller, Commentary, Karl Rove, National Review Online, Newsmax, Reason, and toomanyblogs to name.

Not to mention this video that has been circulating:

Yikes! That's a lot of media scrutiny for hate rhetoric towards a group that held Yom Kippur services, as well as Shabbas. Someone should probably alert Jewsish Week and tell them to stop sending "their people" to Zuccotti Park...unless they want trouble.

Ceiling Tile with Female Face, from the Synagogue, Dura-Europos, ca. 245 CE

This Friday, the earliest known images of Christ, from the year 240, go on view in New York for the first time, and they aren’t where you might expect them to be. They are part of a remarkable exhibition at the relatively obscure N.Y.U. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a jewel-box of a museum on East 84th Street whose mission, according to exhibitions director Dr. Jennifer Chi, is “to break down preconceived notions of antiquity.”

“Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos” does so with a vengeance, in presenting 77 objects from an excavation in Syria that fundamentally altered the understanding of art, culture and religion in the ancient world.

The rediscovery in the 1920s of the abandoned city of Dura-Europos, which had been buried in the desert for 18 long centuries, rewrote history. Some of the excavations were co-sponsored by Yale University, which by agreement with Syria retained some of the finds; the objects in “Edge of Empires” are on loan from Yale.

Art and artifacts of stunning historical importance were uncovered. The paintings of Christ are part of a series of New Testament scenes that exhibition co-curator Dr. Peter De Staebler said are “the earliest dated Christian art in existence.” Narratives painted on the walls of Dura’s large synagogue, considered the best-preserved in the world, revealed a Jewish figural tradition that had been totally unknown—that had, in fact, been thought to be nonexistent. The rediscovery of these painted Bible stories—among them, Moses and the Burning Bush, the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Exodus from Egypt with the astounding representation of the hands of God (on display by photo and slideshow; the originals are in Damascus)—sparked a revolution in thinking about art and Jewish religious practice.

The finds at Dura also unexpectedly demonstrated that, far from being modern developments, religious coexistence and multiculturalism were thriving a couple of millennia ago on the outskirts of the Roman Empire.

The New Testament scenes were found in what is believed to be the oldest-known baptistery, which was part of a Christian “house-church” (a house that was used as a church). Dura’s house-church is considered the oldest such structure ever revealed. The Institute is showing three of the baptistery’s original wall paintings. From the city’s synagogue come 10 ceiling tiles, each elaborately painted with astrological signs, pine cones, fruit and faces; they’re being shown together for the first time. Then there are the various beliefs lumped together under the rubric “pagan,” and numerous structures were found in Dura dedicated to Greek, Roman and local gods. Some of the pagan imagery seen at the Institute is itself a blend of different pagan strains.

Not only did Christians, Jews and pagans worship side by side—the Temple of Aphrodite was located across the street from the synagogue—but the city was also inhabited by distinct populations of Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Persians. And they all apparently coexisted in harmony.

“That’s what’s so extraordinary,” said Dr. Chi. The discoveries to be made at this show are legion, but perhaps the most compelling is the fact that it presents objects of major religions and diverse populations that date from the same century and were excavated from the same site, indicating that all those groups apparently lived together peacefully.

Excavators even found a ring in the ruins, also now on display, engraved with the Greek word “omonoia,” meaning “harmony” or “concord.” The concept referred to agreements between individuals or political entities, and, according to Dr. Chi, it also referred to a melding of cultures. (Some scholars think it’s an engagement ring.) The art, artifacts and writings found at Dura spat in the eye of those establishment scholars who over the centuries assumed inherent hostility among religions and cultures.

And there was plenty else that caused people to sit up. The Christian narratives were created before the religion was state-authorized by the Roman Emperor Constantine—i.e., before the persecution of Christians was lifted—and before any institutional Church had even decided what the narrative components of the religion were. The Jewish narratives were created before rabbis reinterpreted, about a thousand years later, what “graven images” meant.

Founded by the Greeks, Dura prospered under the Romans until 256, when it was sacked by what more recently might be called Persian armies. Everything in the exhibit is from the Roman period. According to Dr. De Staebler, Dura had a population of around 10,000. But after it was sacked, the city was virtually abandoned. It remained unknown and unexplored for 18 centuries until accidentally rediscovered in 1920 by British troops. Because the area is so dry, Dr. Chi said, the objects are in what she calls “a remarkable state of preservation.”

Situated above the Euphrates River and at the intersection of international trade routes in the region, Dura thrived as both a military garrison and an important way-station for merchant caravans traveling to and from the Mediterranean and Arabian seas. The excavations, begun in the 1920s, uncovered “a multilayered society,” said Dr. Chi. Some of that complex layering can be seen in the concurrent use of the many languages that attest to Dura’s international character—Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Parthian, Persian, Hebrew and numerous dialects from as far away as North Arabia were found, sometimes in an unexpected hodgepodge. Inscriptions on the city gates were bilingual. A donor’s name on one synagogue tile is in Aramaic, and on another tile the same name is in Greek.

This cosmopolitan city’s cultural and social fabric is briefly explored with a portrait of a Roman actuary, objects of daily life like a child’s leather shoe, locally produced green-glazed pottery, plates and bowls imported from Tunisia and the Aegean coast and military artifacts like bronze horse armor. A painted wood and rawhide shield decorated with a Roman imperial eagle at the top and a lion at the bottom is considered the best preserved of its kind.

The exhibition also features an interactive display that shows the buildings found at Dura and some of their floor plans and photographs from the initial excavations in the 1920s and 1930s.

The display is clarifying, but museum-goers may be both flummoxed and delighted by what they find at the five-year- old Institute, which puts on two exhibitions a year. At most museums, curators almost invariably display ancient art as either Egyptian, or Greek, or Roman. Each culture’s objects are arranged separately and chronologically to demonstrate a supposed stylistic development. Go across the street to the Metropolitan Museum and you’ll see a superb example of how the ancient world is conventionally organized

N.Y.U.’s Institute presents what Dr. Chi calls “alternative viewpoints of ancient culture.”  Its faculty, composed of historians, archaeologists, epigraphers, art historians and others, is, she said, “not restricted by departmental disciplines,” just as the exhibitions are not forced into a conventional intellectual straightjacket. In contrast to usual museum practice, here aesthetic value is only one consideration in deciding what to show and, she said, “it’s not what you look at first.”

The Christian wall paintings may seem crude, for example, especially when compared with some of the pagan imagery whose forms had been developed by artists over centuries. But consider the mere fact that miracles are being represented—one shows Jesus and Peter walking on water, another the Healing of the Paralytic—at a time when Christian iconography was scarcely in existence and gospel had not yet been separated from apocrypha. These paintings, part of a programmatic series of scenes about salvation, may be the earliest manifestation of the visual church.

“We are not about the greatest hits,” said Dr. Chi, “but about finding a balance between art and context.”

editorial@observer.com

It is well known that billionaire Ronald Perelman—whose elusive ties to the Chabad-Lubavitch community are as speculated upon as his relationship to his luscious ex-wife, Ellen Barkin—owns two back-to-back Upper East Side townhouses: One, where he lives, faces 62nd Street; the other, facing 63rd Street, is used as his office. Less known is the fact that Mr. Perelman has built a private synagogue, a modest, one-room brick structure, in a garden space between the two buildings.

Mr. Perelman, who keeps a Kosher home, likes to be equipped and ready for prayer at all times. "He takes nine Jewish men with him wherever he goes, the French Riviera or East Hampton," said a source. (Mr. Perelman graciously puts members of the New York Chabad community in a nearby hotel on Friday evenings so they won't have to violate the Sabbath by taking the subway in from Crown Heights.)

Mr. Perelman does all of this even though he's two blocks away from the Fifth Avenue Synagogue—called a "who's who of world Jewry" by congregation member and author Herman Wouk. That congregation's other members include billionaire Ira Rennert, Nobel Peace Prizer Elie Wiesel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (when he is in town).

While Mr. Perelman's is the newest of the private synagogues on New York's Upper East Side, he's not alone! The Edmond Safra Synagogue, spectacularly designed by celebrity architect Thierry Despont, opened its doors on 63rd Street in 2003, having been envisioned as a specifically Sephardic refuge by the late Syrian billionaire mysteriously murdered in his Monaco estate in 1999 and completed under the guidance of his socialite widow, Lily Safra.

Further east, between Lexington and Third avenues, the old-guard Park East Synagogue welcomes non-Jewish guests such as Pope Benedict XVI along with Mayor Koch. "We're celebrating our 120th birthday this year!" Rabbi Arthur Schneier told the Transom eagerly, "One hundred twenty years young! And a few weeks ago, Bono came to services here."

And the star-studded, Reform Temple Emanu-El at 65th Street on Fifth Avenue boasts congregation members Mayor Bloomberg and former governor Eliot Spitzer; business bigwigs Leon Black, Irving and Herbert Lehman and Alan "Ace" Greenberg; and comedian Joan Rivers.

"It wasn't personal," Yehuda Ceitlin, a journalist and occasional member of Mr. Perelman's posse, said of the billionaire's private worship. "He just wanted the opportunity to daven in his own home."

"Synagogues are much a part of his life," added Lubavitch Rabbi Abraham Shemtow, a friend and spiritual leader of the cigar-smoking tycoon. "He wanted to have one right in his quarters; it is a personal and private place of worship. Members of the minyan know ahead of time if the services are going to take place according to schedule; like this weekend they are not happening because he will be in Florida."

cmalle@observer.com

Launched in late January, the site was cooked up by Sam Hoffman, a New York-based shorts director who's also served as an assistant director to Wes Anderson, Woody Allen, Tim Robbins, Brian DePalma and others. It is exactly what you’d think it is: online videos of 60-plus-year-old Jews telling their best jokes. The short portraits are shot in a New Jersey studio and posted every Tuesday and Thursday.

As Mr. Hoffman explained in a Jan. 22 blog post:

Check out knee slappers from Larry "Moose" Donsky, who was a catcher for a Coney Island League baseball team and worked in the garment district. Or Louis Goldstein, a U.S. Marine who served in the 1950s and "still looks like he could kick your ass." Mr. Hoffman’s mom drops the F-bomb in the most recent video, posted above.

The videos are produced by Jetpack Media, an Internet content production company under Greene Street Films, a New York-based independent TV and film production and finance company with credits including Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, and Invisible Woman from Cloverfield’s director Matt Reeves.

Jetpack Media’s president and digital media guru Eric Spiegelman is a producer on the videos and told The Observer in an email that there will be a second "season" of Old Jews Telling Jokes once all of Mr. Hoffman’s dad’s friends deliver their punchlines. He said they hope to feature “old Jews” from New York, Los Angeles and “probably somewhere in Florida too,” he wrote. “My dad keeps asking me, when does he get to do it.”

"We hoped this would appeal to the 68 million+ baby boomers online, but we've been getting a lot of links from sites associated with a much younger demographic," Mr. Spiegelman wrote, including Boing Boing and several Tumblr blog links.

So will Old Jews Telling Jokes eventually become a TV series or film? "Our primary focus is putting these online and finding a sponsor," he went on. "If someone wants to license them for television or release a DVD compilation, they should drop me an email!"