Lynn Wexler - David Magazine January 2013 Issue

Moriah’sDream

Simon Wiesental Center’s Film Company Focuses on Theodore HerzlBy Lynn Wexler-Margolies

I t is no dream if you live by the courage of your convictions and prove as good as those words. � eodor Herzl spoke them. He believed in them, and subsequently lived by them. � e once-as-

similated Viennese journalist became the unlikely founder in 1897 of the modern Zionist movement and was a main catalyst for creation of the Jewish State of Israel. His story is portrayed in the recently released Moriah Films production, It Is No Dream, � e Life of � eodor Herzl. It’s one of 10 � lms to be screened at the 2013 Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival in January, featuring Jewish drama, comedy and docu-mentary from around the world.

Herzl pioneered Zionism, a movement to restore Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel and to enable the return of the Jew-ish people to their ancestral homeland. In his book, Der Judenstaat (� e Jewish State), he went so far as to lay out a blueprint for a future Jewish state, detailing the organized transfer of Jewish communities to the new state, along with the administrative, eco-nomic and military structure of the imag-ined country.

Previously indi� erent to matters Jewish and religious, Herzl claims to have had an epiphany after reporting on the felonious vitriol of the Dreyfus A� air in 1894 Paris. He was dismayed by French outcries for Jewish blood, which led to false charges and a treason conviction of O� cer Alfred Dreyfus. Herzl understood at once that Jews were a people without a country and would remain politically powerless and unsafe as long as they had no national home. While prophetic (given what happened some 40 years hence), his e� orts

often were dismissed and criticized by European Jews.Undaunted, and over a period of some eight years, Herzl orga-

nized and in� uenced a worldwide political movement. Within 50 years, it would result in the establishment of the state of Israel in

1948. Herzl sat with kings, prime minis-ters, ambassadors, a sultan, a pope and gov-ernment ministers from Constantinople to St. Petersburg, Paris to Berlin and Vienna to Vilna in his quest to build a Jewish na-tion. He became an indefatigable force de-voted to the Zionist dream. Worn down by his e� orts, he died in 1904 at age 44, never realizing his dream. Israel’s founding lay more than four decades in the future, after two world wars and the Holocaust … but it would come.

Moriah Films founder, writer and pro-ducer, Rabbi Marvin Hier, shares simi-larities with his � lm’s subject. Like Herzl, Rabbi Hier has willed much of his own un-likely journey, wielding vision into reality. Compelled by a 1977 trip to Holocaust sites in Europe, this Talmudic scholar went from being an orthodox congregational rabbi in Vancouver, British Columbia, to founding a Yeshiva in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, he founded what now is the foremost in-ternational Jewish human rights organiza-tion – the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its education arm, the Museum of Tolerance. Under his dedication and leadership, the Center has grown to include a constituency

of more than 400,000 U.S. households, with o� ces in New York, To-ronto, Miami, Paris, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem, hosting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

Artwork for It Is No Dream, The Life of Theodore Herzl, 2012.

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Theodore Herzl on the balcony of “Les Trois Rois” Hotel in Basel, at Fifth Congress, overlooking the Rhine.

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Rabbi Hier’s mission to combat anti-Semitism, bigotry, hate and the resurgence of neo-Nazism and international terrorism, to stand with Israel, to defend the safety of Jews worldwide and to teach the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations had only just begun. �e roots that in�uenced this path took hold when he was a young teen.

He had this to say in 1999 after the Columbine massacre: “As a student in high school, a revered sage, Rabbi Joseph Kahaneman, whose students and family were wiped out in the Holocaust, ad-dressed us one day. He leaned forward, his voice barely audible. He spoke less than 30 minutes, but I never forgot his message: ‘I stand here before you,’ he began, ‘for probably the last time in my life. So please be so kind as to pay attention to these �nal remarks that I have for you.’ He went on to cite references from the Talmud regarding our responsibility to the world and to each other. It was profoundly important, sincere and honest and had a lasting impact on my life.”

In 1981, Rabbi Hier wanted to reach the masses more e�ectively and thus willed it so. With no production or screenwriting expe-rience, he co-wrote and co-produced a documentary (Genocide) about the Holocaust. It won an Academy Award for best docu-mentary feature. It was the �rst Oscar for a documentary on the Holocaust; the �rst Oscar bestowed on a rabbi; and Hier is the �rst

THE THE THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER PRESENTS PRESENTS PRESENTS SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER PRESENTS SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER PRESENTS SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER PRESENTS SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER PRESENTS SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER PRESENTS SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTERA A A MORIAH FILMSMORIAH FILMSMORIAH FILMS PRODUCTION PRODUCTION PRODUCTION

The Jack & Pearl Resnick Film Division of the Simon Wiesenthal CenterThe Jack & Pearl Resnick Film Division of the Simon Wiesenthal CenterThe Jack & Pearl Resnick Film Division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

The story of a young activist’s relentless efforts to rescue Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust

NARR ATED BY ACADEMY AWARD™ WINNER

DUSTIN HOFFMAN

and only rabbi to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He remains eligible to cast his ballot each year for his �lm favorites.

Narrated by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles and introduced by Simon Wiesenthal, the �lm’s original music score was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein and performed by the Royal Phil-harmonic Orchestra. �e movie was co-written by British historian Martin Gilbert and Hier, and adapted for the screen and directed by Arnold Schwartzman. It was co-produced by Schwartzman and Hier and introduced by Frank Sinatra at its Kennedy Center premiere. Clearly, Genocide’s credits alone would turn any Hollywood mogul green with envy.

“All of this was accomplished on a minimal budget, as I was able to convince three of the biggest stars of the day – Taylor, Welles and Sinatra – to provide their services for free,” Hier said later.

At the awards presentation, “Jack Lemmon cracked to Walter Matthau, as I approached the stage to accept the trophy wearing my kippah, ‘In our day we had to go to acting school to win an Oscar. Now you have to go to yeshiva,’” Hier recalled.

Also in 1981, Richard Trank, a young USC graduate, joined the Wiesenthal Center sta� to inaugurate a regular radio program, which 100 stations nationwide eventually carried. After Genocide came out, Trank, “�ying by the seat of my pants,” transferred the �lm to home video, and then created his own short �lms for special Wiesenthal Center occasions.

By 1991 Trank co-produced and wrote with Hier Echoes �at Re-main about eastern European shtetl life before the Holocaust. Hier

Artwork for Winston Churchill, Walking with Destiny. 2011

Artwork for Against the Tide. 2010



realized it was time to create Moriah Films, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s documentary �lm division. He and Trank collaborated in 1994 on Moriah’s �rst production, Liberation, a World War II docu-mentary about the Allied campaign to liberate Europe, and Hitler’s genocidal campaign against the Jews.

�e Long Way Home, Moriah’s next �lm, chronicled the struggle of postwar refugees to reach Palestine. It brought the Wiesenthal Cen-ter its second Oscar (in 1997), which Hier and Trank accepted.

Marshaling experience, clout, respect and con�dence, Hier and Trank expanded the range of subjects that Moriah Films would take on. �e division has completed eight additional documentaries since 1997, and a ninth �lm, �e Prime Ministers, based on Yehuda Avner’s 2010 book on Israel’s greatest leaders, is due out this spring.

�e eight documentaries since 1997 are: In Search of Peace: 1948-1967 (on Israel’s peace e�orts); Unlikely Heroes (on Jewish resistance to the Nazis); Ever Again (on the resurgence of anti-Semitism); Beau-tiful Music (in which an American-Israeli musician teaches piano to a blind Palestinian girl); I Have Never Forgotten You: �e Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal; Against the Tide (Peter Bergson’s struggle to awaken American Jews to the Holocaust); Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny; It Is No Dream, �e Life of �eodor Herzl (narrated by Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley, with Oscar winner Chris-toph Waltz as the voice of Herzl).

“I would like us to do two or three �lms a year and end up with a library of 50 documentaries on the history and major experiences of

the Jewish people,” Hier said.Moriah Films, under Hier’s direction, also served as a consultant

for Steven Spielberg’s epic Schindler’s List, and ABC Television’s miniseries adaptation of Herman Wouk’s War and Remembrance, among others.

Newsweek described Rabbi Hier as, “… one phone call away from almost every world leader, journalist and Hollywood studio head.” Universal Studios President Ron Meyer and DreamWorks Anima-tion chief Je�rey Katzenberg are Hier’s chief tutors and sit on Mo-riah’s board of directors.

Like Herzl, Hier has dedicated his life to sustaining the Jewish people. �ey share the Zionist dream; recognize that it must be real-ized; and live by the will to pursue that end at all costs.

In an interview with the principals of the documentary �lm, Be-tween Two Worlds, Hier said, “Jewish life had its renaissance because Israel was born.” Hier, like Herzl, believes the State of Israel is the center of Jewish identity and survival.

“Did you know that after the Second World War nobody wanted to look at Jews?” he said. “�ey said, ‘Jews, these are the victims. Who wants to be associated with them?’ But when Israel thrived, Jewish life in the Diaspora thrived. We’re intertwined. With no Israel, all of us who walk around here … in Beverly Hills, in New York City walk-ing up Fifth Avenue, thinking we’re big machers (a high-powered leader) … that would all go down the drain if there wasn’t a State of Israel. Every Jew should know that.”

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Sir Ben Kingsley and Richard Trank, working on the soundtrack of It Is No Dream, The Life of Theodore Herzl.

JANUARY 2013 DAVID 51


Candy Schneider, EducatorVice President of Education and Outreach, The Smith Center

“Education is in our DNA,” Smith Center President/CEO Myron Martin says. “It’s been that way since day one. Candy joined us � ve years before the � rst shovel ever hit the ground.

Her journey began however, 33 years ago as a visual arts teacher for the Clark County School District. Later, she did a stint as an administrator in visual arts curriculum development, and was an assistant director in the School-Community Partnership Program.

Her appointments include the National Art Educators Association, Getty Center for Arts Education, National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada State Education Curriculum Standards, Las Vegas Centennial City of 100 Murals, Lied Discovery Children’s Museum, VSA Nevada, the Nevada Alliance for Arts Education, the Las Vegas Arts Commission, Metro Arts Council of Southern Nevada and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Partners in Education program.

She served on the Board of the Nevada Arts Council from 1995 through June 2007 and in 2007, received � e National Art Education Association’s Nevada Art Educator of the Year Award. A year later, she was honored at the Governor’s Arts Awards for Distinguished Service in the Arts.

Candy is practically a native Nevadan. She and her family moved from Florida to Las Vegas when she was 6 months old. She and her husband, recently retired Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Clark County, have a son and granddaughter.

DAVID: When did your passion for education take root?

SCHNEIDER: I remember clearly my seventh-grade teacher. I wanted to be like her. She had a wonderful and sensitive personality, and she inspired me to dream big. She was able to relate to kids in a way that other teachers could not.

DAVID: Why arts education in particular?

SCHNEIDER: � e arts are part of basic education. � ey develop the whole child. Arts reach into literary skills, social development, self-con� dence, imagination, creativity and problem-solving. Exposure to the arts has proven to enhance a child’s mental and cognitive abilities, increase their cultural understanding, improve performance across

all curriculum areas and develop social skills.

DAVID: How do you compete with movies, television and video games to attract young people to the Smith Center?

SCHNEIDER: � e idea is not to compete but to o� er diverse opportunities. Children are naturally drawn to the arts. � ey automatically respond to rhythm, music, colors and live visual imagery. � e proof is in the outcome. � ere’s the sheer joy of unloading buses and listening to the kids after a performance they’ve been to. Some of them haven’t been out of their neighborhoods. � ey come here and see sculpture, architecture and then that sea of upholstered seats. When the lights dim they see things on stage that they haven’t seen before. � ey didn’t know where music came from. � ey’re energized. � ey’re learning.

DAVID: What are some of the programs and partnerships you’ve developed thus far to realize the value of arts education and outreach?

SCHNEIDER: As part of their appearance at � e Smith Center, we’ve partnered with the internationally renowned Wolf Trap Institute in Virginia to train our preschool teachers in using the arts to enhance preschoolers’ learning. We’ve partnered with the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to provide professional development training for K-eighth-grade teachers on how to use the arts to increase learning in all subjects. Camp Broadway, out of New York, brings kids to the Smith Center for a week over the summer for performance training. And the new Smith Center High School Musical � eater Awards debuts this summer with a community-wide competition that culminates in an event at � e Smith Center. It will raise the pro� le of theater students, educators and local high school arts programs.

DAVID: Why has it taken � e Smith Center to open our eyes to culture in Las Vegas?

SCHNEIDER: Las Vegas has always had a ton of arts, but people typically have not gone out of their way to � nd it. � e philharmonic is not going to send a van to your front door. � e Smith Center has increased visibility. However, it’s up to our residents to engage. I, frankly, can’t think of a more exciting place to be.

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Lynn Wexler - David Magazine January 2013 Issue

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