Boston’s Jewish Young Professionals have a new summer hobby – the smash-hit Israeli TV series Srugim! The kickoff of AZM’s summer movie night series sold out Tuesday night, July 6, with the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA brimming with enthusiastic Jewish twenty-to-thirty-somethings.
Named Best Drama (2009) by the Israeli Film and Television Academy, Srugim explores the world of young professional singles in the Modern Orthodox community of Jerusalem. Screening the series is a project of the American Zionist Movement (AZM), which seeks to bring a taste of Israel to the Boston community. “My friends have seen and loved the show, but it was especially cool to watch in a theater with people who share my interest in Israel” said Rachel Silverman, who was at Tuesday’s screening.
Literally meaning “knitted” for the knitted skullcaps worn by its characters, Srugim is a light drama that displays the unique circumstances of single men and women in their thirties. They live in rented apartments in the “Jerusalem Swamp”, some have prestigious jobs, but they are all seeking love and an escape from the situation in which they have been entrapped – a temporary waiting period “until marriage” which has turned into a seemingly permanent situation. The show follows them in their attempts to live normal lives within the tight constraints that religion and tradition place upon them and in their quest to find what everyone seeks – warmth and love.
The program is supported in part by a Young Adult Community Grant from Combined Jewish Philanthropies and is sponsored also by GesherCity, the Consulate General of Israel to New England, and Yavneh Olami.
For more information about the screening series or to purchase tickets visit: http://www.azm.org/srugim
Ohad Knoller, Karmit Arbel
