LAID TO REST

Yiddish archives expert Zachary Baker reads from Yiddish actor Menashe Skulnik’s memoir about his visit 1928 memorable visit to Buenos Aires.

I couldn’t have thought of a better place to present and talk about my film Laid to Rest than to a full house at the B’nai Jeshurun synagogue in Manhattan, New York. And, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to connect the dots between two Jewish communities through the legacy of the late Rabbi Marshall Meyer . The strong ties to Rabbi Marshall Meyer and to his legacy of social consciousness, are at the core of this documentary. Internationally recognized as a human rights activist, Rabbi Meyer worked in Argentina from 1958 to 1984 where he founded the Conservative Jewish movement at Templo Libertad. After two decades of civil rights and community work in Argentina during the “Dirty War”, Rabbi Meyer returned to the US to lead the B’nai Jeshurun community. When interviewed for the film, Rabbi Sergio Bergman praised Rabbi Marshall’s for his many contributions to the Argentinean Jewish community.

ReTweeting:

Trafficking Victims Held, Exploited in Sweatshops https://t.co/Qyfo6Q8mvk #Argentina pic.twitter.com/WobSKvEW1P

— Global Press Journal (@globalpress) November 11, 2015

Nepalese Women, Seeking Work, Are Exploited Abroad https://t.co/tF63dEL0aO #endit #makeitzero #globalpress pic.twitter.com/6GhVtqqjWq

— Global Press Journal (@globalpress) November 9, 2015

Dreaming of a better life in Argentina, the “Goldene Medinah”, a loving wife in Poland writes to her husband, asking that he hurry up and mail the necessary travel documents for her and their young children.

Letter and translation: Nora Glickman

Voice over: Annette Liberman Miller

Sound recording: Phil Skokos

With: Getz Media Lab, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and Brandeis-Women’s Studies Research Center/SSP program

Excellent program and engaging speakers and panelists at the UJA Federation of NY’s “We Were Slaves: the Jewish Community Unites Against Sex Trafficking” conference. A packed two-day event exploring the Jewish history and Jewish obligation to combat sex trafficking, the program provided essential information about modern day slavery and what can be done to stop it. A presentation and clips from the documentary-in-progress Laid to Rest: Buried Stories of the Jewish Sex Trade offered gripping historical perspectives on a shameful “buried” chapter of Jewish history and its unique characteristics, bringing to focus community action and cultural fight from within against the sex traders.

#wewereslaves

Thanks! @BGlickstein: @tinromedia @UJAfedNY We Were Slaves conf shows Laid to Rest her doc abt Jews involved in White Sex Trade #trafficking

— Ornit Barkai (@tinromedia) April 22, 2013

Presented by UJA-Federation of New York’s Task Force on Family Violence

Organized with:
AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps
Equality Now
FEGS Health and Human Services
Footsteps
Jewish Child Care Association of New York (JCCA)
The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan; Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (SAVI)
National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)
New York Board of Rabbis
New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)
New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition
Project Kesher
Sanctuary for Families
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Uri L’Tzedek

When in Buenos Aires talk like a porteño… especially when stuck in traffic. Gustavo, a Buenos Aires native and Laid to Rest’s location producer explains:

The tango was born in the brothels at the port cities along the rio de la plata and therefore is synonymous with prostitution:

(From an interview with José Judkowski, author of El tango, una historia con judíos. Dance footage courtesy of El Viejo Almacen, Buenos Aires, 2010)

From the Netherlands, Moldova and Romania to Sudan, South Africa and India, award winning investigative journalist and author Benjamin Skinner has been face-to-face with modern-day slavery. A fellow at Brandeis University’s Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, he has been a long-time anti-slavery advocate.

Through his work Skinner was able to infiltrate – often undercover – the underworld of global trafficking in order to bear witness and give a voice to the unheard victims of one of the worst crimes against humanity.

In his recent interview, Skinner discussed his book A Crime So Monstrous (Free Press, 2008), providing his unique account and contemporary perspectives on sex trafficking. Here’s an excerpt:

Discussing modern-day trafficking and the millions of sex slaves and others in bondage worldwide (also here on CNN’s Larry King Live, directed for National Geographic by Nico Sabenorio), Skinner emphasizes that “today, slavery is more profligate than ever before in human history.”

In order to turn the corner against trafficking and slavery he suggests greater focus on targeted development program as well as better funding allocation by governments.  But he also strongly believes that true change can come as a result of governments acting together and of the general community “getting involved directly, and there a number of very good organizations that work on this: the Polaris Project here in the US, which seeks to identify and aid trafficking victims across the country, Free the Slaves that work internationally – and these are organizations that can always use help. I think that any time you can transform outrage into action – you are making a change, as a documentarian or as a journalist.”

Buried Stories of the Jewish Sex Trade

Location Producer/Videographer: Gustavo Hazan
Consulting Producer: Jonathan Barkan
Fine cut: Loren Miller
Assistant Editor: Leah Bartels
Composer: Ari Frankel
Sound mix: Bill Cavanaugh
Translation Assistant: Margo Kolenda
Title design: Ronni Komarow 

With generous support from: