A 14-part film and speaker series is launching in San Jose, featuring films about the Holocaust, antisemitism and the rising tide of anti-Jewish sentiment around the world.
Titled “Never Again Is Now – Holocaust Cinema and the Fight Against Hate,” the series will run from Aug. 28 to Dec. 14 at 3Below Theaters in San Jose, and is co-sponsored by Jewish Silicon Valley and Guggenheim Family Trust.
“This is more than a film series, it’s a moral imperative,” said 3Below Theaters CEO Scott Guggenheim in a press release, adding that the series is “a cinematic call to conscience… that explores memory, resistance, complicity and intergenerational trauma — powerful reminders of what happens when hatred goes unchecked.”
The series, which began with a handful of films in June and July, launches Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. with “Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations.” The film begins with the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018 and continues with examinations of rising antisemitism in Hungary, England and France.
Sept. 4 brings “Denial,” a dramatization of the real-life courtroom trial between historian Deborah Lipstadt and a notorious Holocaust denier, and on Sept. 11, a screening of “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” Ken Burns’ documentary about America’s less-than-vigorous response to Nazi atrocities as they were happening.
Later films include “The New Jew: Days of War,” a look at how Jewish identity is evolving in Israel and the U.S. today; “The Last Laugh,” an exploration of whether it’s possible to joke about the Holocaust; and, closing out the series on Dec. 11 and 14, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece, “Schindler’s List.”
Each screening is hosted by Guggenheim and Rabbi Hugh Seid-Valencia, director of Jewish engagement at Jewish Silicon Valley, and will include post-film discussions with survivors, educators, historians and advocates.
“Never Again Is Now” is the latest in a string of Jewish-themed cultural events created and produced by Scott Guggenheim and his wife, Shannon Guggenheim, along with other family members. The couple is perhaps best known, at least locally, for their original musical “MeshugaNutcracker,” a wacky celebration of Hanukkah created in 2003. Publicity for the show claims it is “performed somewhere in the country every winter,” and it has also been made into a film.