Dear Mr. Wolloch,
thank you very much for your response. I am glad we are having a
conversation.
Again, you have my deepest respect and support for your work. I think it
is amazing, I think it is inspiring, I think it is more than important.
The Jewish cemetery in Czernowitz is an extraordinary cultural and
historical landmark and every effort to conserve and to preserve it is
priceless. Thank you for that!
I did not write my criticism lightheartedly, because I did not want to
offend anyone and I wanted to differentiate between your work and the
content of the video. And there is no doubt that I made that very clear.
Therefore I am a bit surprised and hurt by the personal and insulting
tone of your response (baklava?). I did not write - as you suggest - to
show my "erudition". I received several very positive e-mails from
people who found the video disturbing and supported my criticism. I
think you and me agree on many things and I would be happy to work
together on finding our common ground.
Although I repeat myself: As I said, I never claimed that a video like
that needs to be perfect and academically satisfying. Quite the
contrary! It should be inspiring, and Mr. Lupu's video certainly is. We
all make mistakes and that is fine. But I think we agree that there must
be a sensitive threshold of quality and this particular video crossed it.
Mr. Lupu has certainly created a good video and I praise his skills. But
what it depicts is simply misleading. The more I think about it, it is
less the historical errors, but the imagery (I speak about the film
material, not the photos): In nine minutes we see a lot of HD footage,
but only one (!) actual shot from Czernowitz (to my knowledge only the
aerial shots of the university are from the city; if there is more I am
hapy to stand corrected). The rest is a collage of imagination, which
reproduces stereotypes. Much of that is kind of fine, because HD videos
are more fun to watch than just immobile old postcards. But when not a
single other building, landscape, interior, and most importantly even
any of the gravestones were filmed in Czernowitz and the viewer is not
informed about that, this is more then problematic (again: the film
material, not the photos). Just imagine if I would produce a documentary
about the Jewish quarter in Vilnius and use primarily stock footage from
Krakow, Prague, and Stockholm. The "average viewer" would not notice,
but I find it fundamentally and ethically wrong.
Although it is just a short video, creating it comes with a certain
responsibility. After publishing it, it serves not only your cause, but
other people will learn for the first time about Czernowitz's amazing
Jewish past. They should not learn mistakes and see images of a
fictional and pieced together city that never existed. Especially in a
time, when memory fades, when historical places of worship are
desecrated and turned into cinemas, and when unique landmarks like the
cemetery crumble, even short videos like that one will raise awareness
and help to remember and preserve the Jewish community's material and
immaterial legacy. And I think we agree that this invaluable task needs
to be done as thorough as possible.
All the best,
Johannes Czakai
PS: In order to prevent a lengthy discussion in the group, I would be
happy to further discuss the issue directly (if you like).
--
Johannes Czakai
Visiting Research Fellow
Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center
Hebrew University Jerusalem
https://rosenzweig.huji.ac.il/people/johannes-czakai
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Received on 2021-03-21 12:24:18