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Doing Jewish A Story From Ghana Documentary Movie Trailer HD - Plot synopsis: A volunteer worker in Ghana finds herself the lone Jewish person there until she ends up in the remote village of Sefwi Wiawso. There she discovers a devout group practicing Jewish rites and dietary laws for centuries, who only recently discovered they’re part of a worldwide religion with millions of followers.

Director : Gabrielle Zilkha

Cast: Gabrielle Zilkha
Transcript
00:00 You know those people looking for meaning in their lives so they get up
00:04 and go volunteer in Africa? I'm Gabrielle, one of those people. So I'm living my
00:13 life in Ghana but then I realized the Jewish New Year is just around the
00:17 corner and well the thought of finding another Jew seems impossible.
00:25 Yo, Shalom! In the beginning I don't know that there are Jewish people even outside.
00:33 Now I have been introduced to the world. My dream is to become a full rabbi to my
00:42 community. My dream is to study Judaism, teach my people so that they cannot
00:49 forget our tradition, our Judaism and to better people's life.
00:57 Nobody knows Judaism. So how did Jewish customs make their way here
01:06 without the Jewish name? I believe the Jews in Ghana are the lost ten tribes of Israel.
01:12 You have one of these lost tribes. I think the word "lost" is the key to it.
01:17 That you have a break in the chain and that makes it difficult to authenticate
01:21 the Jewishness. We are claiming that we are Jewish people and Jewish people you
01:26 cannot be here alone in Ghana and say we are Jewish people unless you look for
01:30 your brothers and sisters who are outside there. It's very hard for people to believe that
01:35 true indeed we are Jew. Judaism is somehow not black. Last I checked no one has like a
01:41 genealogy book in their back pocket like tracing all the way back like one of the
01:45 twelve tribes. No one has that. You're such a small percentage of the population and it's hard to do it on your own.
01:52 You're going against everybody and everything out there so you need other people.
01:57 I think we were here alone but now we are all coming together as one people.
02:08 Seeing them understand the Torah and sense of appreciating and Judaism feeling
02:15 it's such a privilege and something that they had to work so hard to get
02:18 whereas in this country so many of us have such access and don't even care.
02:24 There is that feeling of responsibility for other Jews regardless of labels.
02:32 So the notion that there might be somebody in Ghana who's doing Jewish that's
02:35 very moving to me and I care about them. No matter how many bagels and cream
02:40 cheese you eat, quorum parties you attend, if you don't live the life it's very
02:46 very difficult to pass it on to the next generation.
02:50 you
02:52 you
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02:57 you
02:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]