Virtual Screening Details: Local Connections

Streaming Timeframe: Mon. March 8, 7pm - Thurs. March 11, 7pm (sales end 2 hrs before; no grace period after 72-hour timeframe expires)
Available for Viewing in WA, OR, CA, MT, ID
Zoom Conversation: Wed. March 10, 7:30pm with Joe Schocken and Barbara Lahav, who will share stories about their uncle Salman Schocken with Director Noemi Schory (link emailed 1 hour before)
How to Watch? Read our Streaming FAQ Page | How to Join the Zoom? Details to come

About The Film

Before WWII, Salman Schocken was known as the king of department stores in Germany, owning 22 locations and employing 6,000 people. But the businessman and philanthropist was also a man of letters: he owned a unique collection of 60,000 rare books in German and Hebrew, and in 1931 founded a modern publishing house committed to publishing Judaica and Jewish authors such as Franz Kafka, Martin Buber, and Elie Wiesel. A lifelong supporter of the Nobel laureate S.Y. Agnon, a central figure of modern Hebrew fiction, Schocken also bought the Haaretz newspaper and standardized Hebrew font type. Ahead of his time, Schocken was a maverick modernist in love with tradition. His secular humanist worldview embraced the belief that democracy meant cultural access and aesthetics for all. In that vein, the filmmakers and editors have done an incredible job aesthetically, transitioning from black-and-white footage with narration to colorful scenes from the present day, and they use animation to fill up the empty Schocken stores and structures once inhabited by splendid objects and people.

Guest Bios

	Director Noemi Schory has produced and edited more than 100 documentaries including A FILM UNFINISHED (SJFF 2014), THE INNER TOUR, SOS-ISRAEL'S GENERAL, and the historic films of Yad Vashem museum and directed among others THE STATE OF ISRAEL VS. JOHN IVAN DEMJANUK, and TRANSPORT 222.
	Special Guest: Barbara Lahav grew up in Mount Baker and Seward Park and moved to Israel the summer after graduating from Franklin High School. She attended The Hebrew University and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. While living in Israel, Barbara worked professionally at the Israel Museum in the Exhibit Design Department. Following this position Barbara worked for the Schocken Family, including local Managing Editor of Kol Ha'Ir, the Ha'aretz affiliated Jerusalem weekly and representing Schocken Publishing at the annual book fair in Jerusalem and distribution of the Schocken English publications. Barbara moved back to Seattle in 1986 with husband Eli, another Bezalel alum and sons, Ben and Adam. In Seattle she worked for the local Jewish newspaper, The Transcript, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and worked as the Program Director of Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation. Before retiring Barbara served as the Pacific Northwest Finance Director for J Street.
	Special Guest: Joseph L. Schocken is founder and Chairman of Broadmark Realty Capital (BRMK, NYSE) and President of Tranceka Capital LLC. He was an Obama appointee to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and has testified on capital formation before committees at both the U.S. House and Senate. Mr. Schocken is recognized as one of the driving forces behind the 2011 JOBS Act and initiated the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2017 to combat anti-Semitism. He is the local AIPAC Chair, serves on the AIPAC National Council, the DNC National Finance Committee, and previously on the Seattle Affordable Middle Income Housing Council.

 Sponsors:

• The Schocken Family | Barbara and Eli Lahav, Alan and Jane Schocken, Judy and Joe Schocken, Joy and Chai Mann
• Nancy and Paul Etsekson
• Rosanne Fleischmann Lapan
• Community Partners:
  • Goethe Pop Up Seattle
  • Herzl-ner Tamid Conservative Congregation
  • Washington State Jewish Historical Society