Unlike
most tourists traveling to Israel, security issues are the least of their worries.
This group of eighty and ninety-some year-old Jewish retirees and their
caretakers have more mundane health concerns to focus on as they prepare for
their journey. It will be the trip of their lifetimes coming late in life for
the subjects of David Gaynes’ Next Year
Jerusalem (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.
You
know every last resident of the Jewish Home for the Elderly in Fairfield votes
in each election, so it is no surprise to find the state’s senior senator
glad-handing the residents. He should remember they clearly support the State
of Israel—and therefore probably do not consider it a potential apartheid state,
unlike our current Secretary of State. Gaynes scrupulously avoids such
political controversies, preferring to focus on the religious and spiritual
significance of their pilgrimage instead.
Religion
and spirituality can indeed be dramatic, but they never get overly messy in NYJ. Easily, the most intense scene captures
their visit to Yad Vesham, where a Survivor in the Connecticut group meets a fellow
Belgian Hidden Child, who will serve as their tour guide for the day. There is
also a pleasant sequence at the Western Wall, where some local Rabbis take a
shine to ninety-seven year old Bill Wein.
It
is just great that these ten seniors were able to make this trip and get so
much out of it—and that’s about all we’ve got here. This would make a good
feature story for the Fairfield paper or even a spirited little short doc, but
as a feature it is maybe just two or three steps above home travelogue
(although technically, it looks completely professional). Christopher Garofalo’s
performance of his elegant Suite for
Flute, Violin, Cello, and Piano and Sonata
for Flute and Piano also adds a note of class, while struggling to create a
mood of wistful contemplation that never quite takes hold.
