Three Films. One Responsibility.
- Shmuel Hoffman
- Apr 14
- 3 min read
Over the years, we’ve had the privilege—and the weight—of creating films connected to the Holocaust and its enduring echoes. Each one approaches the subject from a different angle. Each one forced us to wrestle with the same question:
How do you tell a story that has already been told—yet still must be told again?
(As a warning before you watch, this film includes disturbing real footage of a gunman as he prepares to shoot a synagogue.)
Song of Atonement
In 2019, on Yom Kippur—the holiest day in Judaism—a gunman attempted to enter a synagogue in Halle.
He failed.
Not because of chance, but because of a locked door.
That door became the thin line between life and death.
Song of Atonement is not a Holocaust film in the traditional sense. It is something more unsettling: a reminder that history is not safely behind us.
It is the story of Jeremy & Rebecca Borovitz and how they survived the Halle Yom Kippur synagogue shooting.
In telling this story, we weren’t just documenting an attack. We were capturing how one woman relived her grandmother's past, in these days, in this time.
This film was co-sponsored by The Consulate General of the German Republic, and Addlestone Hebrew Academy.
Wanderers: The History of The Jews in Europe
Displayed as part of the permanent exhibition at the Zekelman Holocaust Center, Wanderers: The History of the Jews in Europe zooms out.
Before the Holocaust, there was a world—vibrant, complex, deeply rooted. A civilization that spanned centuries, languages, cultures, and identities.
This film lives in the tension between those two truths:
-The richness of what was built
-The brutality of what was destroyed
It serves as an introduction to the exhibit, providing an understanding of what came before the biggest atrocity in history. (Hint: the history before the Holocaust was also filled with atrocoties, and we tackle that in this 7-minute film.)
But it also asks something more uncomfortable:
What does it mean that, despite everything, the Jewish people are still here?
For this film we traveled to key former Jewish hubs throughout Europe, projecting our interviews with Michigan survivors on historic buildings. We had hoped to film the desert in Jerusalem, but after October 7th, our plans changed and we filmed the desert portion in Palm Desert, CA.
The Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem — Memory as a Living Force
Our work for the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem (with OpenDor Media) brought us into a different kind of space.
Not just memory—but responsibility.
The Museum of Tolerance is a Holocaust museum in Los Angeles.
Its sister museum in Jerusalem was recently constructed,
and they wanted a film about the history, the intention, and the architecture all in one.
Jerusalem is not Europe. It is not exile. It is not aftermath.
It is presence.
In this film, the question shifts:
Not what happened—but what now?
How does memory shape identity?
How does trauma become responsibility?
How have we picked ourselves up from the ashes, and how can we create a better world, one of tolerance, and peace?
This project pushed us to think beyond documentation. While it was meant to introduce the newly constructed building, we wanted poetry and history to shape the film. This was our first collaboration with rapper and producer WestSide Gravy.
(See more of our collabs with him on IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSiQc8cj2JR/ )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why These Stories Matter Now
It’s easy to think of the Holocaust as history.
It’s harder to recognize its patterns when they reappear.
Across these three films, some truths emerge:
-The past is not past
-Identity is not guaranteed
-Memory is not passive
On Yom HaShoah, we actively remember the six million.
But remembrance alone is not enough.
We have to translate memory into something that lives—on screen, in conversation, in action.
Because if these stories stop being told, they don’t just fade.
They risk repeating.
While Jerusalemites of all backgrounds and denominations have huddled in bomb shelters this past month under threat of missiles from (mostly) Iran, we are forced again to remember that history tries to repeat itself ad nauseum, and we have no choice but to stand up and defend life in every generation.
Your productions always frustrate my attempts at criticism.