The Return of Israel’s Most Controversial Filmmaker

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Crossposted from Haaretz
After a long cinematic silence, Assi Dayan is back, directing a black comedy about a psychiatrist who rents out his apartment to patients who want to commit suicide. On the set, one of the most important Israeli filmmakers, the hero of whose new film is a very intelligent individual, describes a story of missed opportunity.
Dr. Pomerantz hangs up the telephone. He has called the police to the Tel Aviv street where he lives. Someone has jumped from his apartment, on the 12th floor, and his corpse is lying on the sidewalk. The balcony of the apartment is seen behind him. The doorbell rings. Pomerantz, his shock of hair disheveled and wearing a faded, buttoned shirt that does not manage to conceal a sloping potbelly, hastens to the front door and opens it wide.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
