Documentary about a Neturei Karta family in Jerusalem

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I watched an interesting documentary last night, "The Anti-Zionist Jews of Jerusalem" on

(link goes Part One, others then link from the sidebar).

It's a documentary made by Israeli Channel 8, Noga TV (a documentary channel). The video is in Hebrew but has English subtitles.

It follows a family affiliated with Neturei Karta, living in Jerusalem. They are a group that doesn't believe in the legitimacy of the civil state of Israel. They lived there before the founding of the state, and feel that they are religiously forbidden to have a civil ruling state in the Land of Israel before the Messiah comes - so it's fine and good to live on the land, but not have a civil government. So, they occasionally make headlines in the foreign media for being "can you believe this? Jews that don't support Israel!!" because they will say they'd prefer to live there under an Arab or no government, but... this documentary is a more interesting look at some of what it's like to live in that community. They are, of course, VERY religious. Because this family in particular doesn't hold national ID cards, doesn't therefore belong to the national health program, and doesn't trust the various regulatory arms of the state, they have some interesting challenges to do pretty much everything DIY. The family earns money helping others use these alternative services.

The documentary talks about issues of making the various wall posters forbidding every little thing (which is interesting in itself), and arguments that happen in that medium, and also introduces another more "mainstream" haredi family (a guy who has a contract from the state to hang some posters) and follows them for a bit, also, where the two families interact. That family too is not so "pro-Zionist" (which is common) but they do partake of state services and live "like normal citizens" as the guy says. So, you can see the differences between the two families' lifestyles.

Anyway, it's an interesting film, showing people at home and they celebrate several holidays during the film, and showing the inside of the poster printing shop. The NK family followed has 8 kids (9 by the end).

Just avoid the usual horrible political flamewar in the comments section (YouTube being what it is), and it's all good :)

[Guest]

Really interesting, thanks!!

[terranova]

Wow, fascinating, thanks for the link.

Can someone explain to me the purpose of the ceremony with the old man passing out fruit at the beginning? Was he blessing it?