menashe

Cinema Wednesdays - Loris S. Musumeci

«Do rabbis have a say in everything?»

Menashe looks lost. He's walking around his neighborhood without seeming to know where he's going. Yet he's late, as usual. No sooner has he arrived at the kosher where he works, he receives a remark from his superior. Menashe has also been widowed for a year. Custody of his only son, Rieven, has been entrusted to his late wife's brother, until he finds himself a new wife. But he's not keen on getting married. What matters to him is his son. Mercifully, the rabbi allows him to take Rieven home for a week. The father will go to great lengths to prove that he and the child can be happy.

A touching story

Joshua Z. Weinstein has delved into his own Jewishness to give an insight into life in a Jewish neighborhood. If Brooklyn Yiddish perfectly captures the atmosphere of Brooklyn's Hasidic community, it actually offers much more. The story tells of a father's love for his son, which is as banal as it is immense. The father may be clumsy, but the boy has eyes only for him.