Insightful and hilarious, When Jews were funny surveys the history of Jewish comedy, from the early days of Borsht belt to the present, ultimately exploring the entire unruly question of what it means to be Jewish.

The deep forests of Poland and Belorussia are the domain of the occuping Germans during World War II. The three Bielski brothers go into the forests and find the impossible task of foraging for food, weapons and survival, not just for themselves but for a large mass of fleeing Polish Jews from the German war machine. The brothers, living with the fear of discovery must contend with neighboring Soviet partisans and deciding whom to trust. They take...

Weaving together interviews, official photos and documents, home movies, and archival film, this 90-minute film explores the complex social and political factors that shaped America's response to the Holocaust. The story of Kurt Klein, who struggled with State Department red tape to free his parents from Europe, represents America's reaction to European Jews clamoring for rescue.

The first German feature film to explicitly address the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, Marriage in the shadows called on Germans to accept collective responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich. Stylistically, the production, in which many former Ufa artists were involved, blends classic melodrama in the Ufa style with documentary glimpses into life in Berlin under the Nazis. Shown in all four sectors of occupied Berlin and across Germany,...

With God Loves Uganda, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams (Music by Prudence) explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in fueling Uganda's terrifying turn towards biblical law and the proposed death penalty for homosexuality. Thanks to charismatic religious leaders and a well-financed campaign, these draconian new laws and the politicians that peddle them are winning over the Ugandan public. But these dangerous policies...

In the year 721, the Muslim Empire was vast. Across the empire Jews and Christians were minorities motivated by a desire to obtain the most favorable status. Their quest for an elevated status within the empire did not hinder cultural exchanges as can be determined with the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, nor prevent the occurrence in the 11th Century of the massacre of Jews in Granada and the persecution and forced conversion of Jews & Christians under...

History now takes us to Europe: the French Revolution. Nation-states. The Jews, now European citizens, became the target of a more asserted anti-Semitism. But having incorporated the new national elites, they began to take a greater interest in the fate of the Jews in the Muslim world and to play the role of their protectors. Trapped between Zionism and Arabic nationalism, Palestine — called “Southern Syria” by the Ottomans — became the object...

This documentary delves into never before seen archival footage and documents to investigate how much the Allies knew about the mass murder of Europe's Jews during World War II and why they did not do more to stop it. What the allies knew examines the immigration policy, top secret documents, personal prejudice and government policies that resulted in the deaths of millions.

Leopold Socha is a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland. One day he encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town's sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise...

A New York-based Jewish real estate tycoon is suddenly accused of being a Nazi war criminal. At his trial in Israel, he adopts a shocking defense which raises more questions than it answers. Based on Robert Shaw's book and play.