Ashkenaz
The story of Israel's "white folks"
Ashkenazim-Jews of European origin-are Israel's "white folks." Like most white folks in a multicultural society, they don't think of themselves in racial or ethnic terms because by now, "aren't we all Israeli?" Yiddish has been replaced with Hebrew, religion with secularism, exile with occupation, the shtetl with the kibbbutz, old-fashioned irony with post-modern cynicism and pale girls with dark curls by bleached blonds with a suntan. But the paradox of whiteness in Israel is that Ashkenazim aren't exactly "white folks" historically.
A story that begins in the Rhineland and ends in the holy land (or is it the other way around?), ASHKENAZ looks at whiteness in Israel and wonders: How did the "Others" of Europe become the "Europe" of the others?
A film by Rachel Leah Jones
Osnat Trabelsi // producer
Graduate of the Department of Film and Television at the Tel Aviv University. Chairwomen of the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers' Forum. Owner of Trabelsi Productions, which produces political and social films. Among the films she produced are international award winning films such as Arna's Children (director: Juliano Mer Khamis), Strawberry Fields, Ashkenaz, Pizza in Auschwitz, Jaffa, the orange's clockwork and the original ground breaking webdoc “Gaza-Sderot”. She initiated and directed the first International Human Rights Film Festival in Tel Aviv and Ramallah. In 2007 she was chosen by The Marker as one of 40 women who make change in society.
