High Holidays Unbound: Watch
BimBam Videos
BimBam, a leading producer of online Jewish videos, has crafted some terrific videos to engage with during the High Holiday season. Watch them below! And if you're interested in other High Holiday videos offered by BimBam, check them out here.
Lots of us think about Yom Kippur like an annual big dark cloud of guilt, sin, and hours in synagogue. But ahoy there matey! It doesn't have to be that way. Throw your old ideas overboard. Yom Kippur is an amazing opportunity to change, grow, and connect.
JDOV Talks: High Holiday Playlist
JDOV Talks is an initiative that invites inspiring speakers to share their Jewish dream (D), observation (O), or vision (V). They've created a "playlist" of talks that encourage reflection and introspection in honor of the High Holidays. You can access the full playlist of 13 talks here, and three of our favorites from the playlist are accessible by clicking the images below.
Nu, so what exactly is a "YidLife Crisis"? Friends and philosophical rivals Jamie "Chaimie" Elman and Eli "Leizer" Batalion, co-creators of the world's first 18+ (Chai and older) Yiddish web series, discuss age-old issues of religious practice versus cultural identity with some "friendly" disagreements. Filmed live at Limmud UK 2015, Birmingham UK. (And check out an episode of YidLife Crisis in our Laugh track.)
I would rather go to Siberia than synagogue – not because I hate synagogue, but because it makes me feel more Jewish.
The Dead Sea Scrolls' whole notion of the biblical text seems to have been decidedly more flexible than ours. This idea of Scripture’s fundamental malleability was passed on to the Rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud as well as to the earliest Christians
Atonement (7-time Academy Award Nominee, Including Best Picture)
The film Atonement, which won an Oscar for Best Score and was nominated for six other Academy Awards (including Best Picture), is available for free on Netflix. For those who are not subscribed to Netflix, you can rent the film for $2.99 on Youtube by clicking the video below.
Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, this stunning epic love story stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy and is hailed by critics as "a ravishing romance." It does not directly touch on the holidays of Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, but the theme of atonement, which it shares with the High Holidays, underscores the film.
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer was the first-ever "talkie" -- a feature-length film with synchronized dialogue sequences, and its plot revolves around the observance of Yom Kippur. It is simultaneously a story about balancing Jewishness with other elements of life, an emotional look at familial relationships, and an important exploration into some of the sins of our societal past (the movie features black-face prominently). You can rent it for $2.99 on Youtube (Standard Definition) by clicking the video below. It is also available for $2.99 on iTunes and Amazon Video.
The son of a cantor must defy his father in order to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer.