Israeli comedian Guri Alfi stands in Union Square in New York City. At his feet, “Free Palestine” is chalked on the pavement.
“If anyone asks, we’re from Italy, OK?” he quips to his crew in Hebrew.
Alfi hosted a four-part documentary series released in Israel four years ago called “The New Jew,” which sought to explain American Jews to Israelis. Now he’s back with a documentary film, “The New Jew: Days of War,” which seeks to understand post-Oct.-7 America.
The documentary will premiere in the U.S. at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto on Sunday, March 30. The JCC screening, presented by the Z3 Project and the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival, will be followed by a Q&A with creator Moshe Samuels and activists who appear in the film.
Local voices in the documentary include Viviane Safrin of San Francisco, a critic of how San Francisco public schools have handled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Ilana Pearlman, a counterpart in Berkeley. The series also uses footage from a 2024 Berkeley City Council meeting to underline how ugly the rhetoric against Israel can get.
Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC and founder of the Z3 Project, also appears in the documentary.
“The New Jew: Days of War” was produced for Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation and aired on the Kan 11 network.
Rabbi Amitai Fraiman, director of the Z3 Project, said that last year the filmmakers asked Z3 to participate.
“We immediately knew that we wanted to be part of the film as its primary goal was to make the stories of North American Jews accessible to the Israeli audience,” he told J. “Especially in a moment where it is natural and easy to focus on the immediate surroundings, helping tell a broader story of peoplehood was urgent.”
While much of what “The New Jew” shows will be familiar to Bay Area residents, Alfi’s take as an Israeli sets the storyline apart.
He seeks to understand not only how liberal Jewish Americans feel betrayed by progressive allies, but also why some Jews are protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. He also emphasizes that as different as Israeli and American Jews can be, they have deep ties.
“Perhaps from this shared trauma,” Alfi says in the trailer, “we can find common ground.”