This spring, the University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies is hosting a Symposium on Judaism and Film. This global celebration of Jewish cinema is inspired by the new Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film, edited by Olga Gershenson, Co-Head Fellow for the 2025-26 Frankel Institute “Jews and Media” theme year. The event reimagines Jewish film as a vibrant, multi-layered phenomenon, stretching beyond Hollywood and Europe to encompass India, Ethiopia, Turkey, Mexico, and beyond. The public is invited to join us for free screenings of Sabbath Queen (2024) and My One and Only (2025), at 6:30 PM on April 20th and 21st, respectively, in the Rackham Amphitheater. We caught up with Gershenson to learn more about the two feature films and her larger vision for the symposium.
The upcoming symposium centers on your edited volume, The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film, which promises a bold rethinking of Jewish cinema. What are some new directions or unexpected geographies audiences can expect to see explored at the event?
Both the book and symposium aim to move away from the idea that Jewish films are limited to Hollywood or Holocaust narratives. Audiences will encounter Jewish film cultures that are rarely discussed, and sometimes entirely unknown. We travel a global map: Jewish stars in early Indian cinema, contemporary Malayalam stories, Ethiopian narratives, Jewish actors in Egyptian films, Jewish-Muslim romances and “bromances” in Moroccan, British, and French movies, plus Jewish detectives in Soviet TV series. These aren’t just curiosities—they fundamentally change our understanding of Jewish themes and their interactions with various national cinemas. We also highlight a variety of genres and styles—horror, Gothic, television, animation—as well as developments like Jewish film festivals worldwide, which became new secular synagogues. Finally, we examine Judaism as a religion, on-screen and behind the camera, including films produced by Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) filmmakers for their communities.'
The symposium features evening screenings of two strikingly different films—Sabbath Queen and My One and Only. What drew you to select works for the program, and how do they connect to the symposium’s broader themes?
I chose these two films for a few reasons. They sit at opposite ends of the Jewish cinematic spectrum—and yet they’re in deep conversation with each other and with the book.
Sabbath Queen is exuberant, public, and performative. It follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie as he reimagines Jewish ritual through queerness, drag, art, and radical politics. What drew me to it is how unapologetically it treats Judaism as something alive, flexible, and contested—a set of practices you can argue with, remix, and reinvent. Significantly, the film brings together two conversations rarely discussed in the same place: Judaism and gender expression, Judaism with its laws and traditions, and queerness, which subverts or reimagines them. Unsurprisingly, both religion and gender are also important themes in the Handbook.
My One and Only, by contrast, is quiet, eerie, and intimate. Set in a Haredi world, it asks whether a woman’s sense that her husband has been “replaced” is psychological, spiritual, or something darker. This film reflects the Handbook’s turn toward genre, especially horror, and its insistence that onscreen representations don’t have to be realistic or historical to be taken seriously. Together, these films embody the symposium’s core idea—that Judaism on screen is not one story, one tone, or one geography, but a rich field of possibilities.
What kinds of conversations are you hoping to spark after these films, and what makes the post-screening dialogues different from typical Q&As?
What I’m really hoping for after these films is not a “Did you like it?” conversation, but a deeper, more generative interpretation. We hope for deeply informed, theme-driven conversations that invite the audience into serious and engaging thinking.
After Sabbath Queen, scholars of queer Jewish ritual in film and media will dig into questions such as: What happens when ritual is updated to reflect new meanings? How does queerness reshape religious authority? What kinds of Jewish futures are being imagined here?
The discussion following My One and Only brings together scholars of Jewish horror, Haredi film, and Jewish religious cultures. Together, we can unpack how fear, belief, gender, and authority intersect in this film.
Why do you think it’s important to experience these films as part of a symposium, rather than just watching them on their own?
Both films are new and only available at festivals or special events (like our symposium), so watching them on your own is not yet an option. Not to mention it’s free!
Watching these films at this symposium will allow audiences to connect with people who’ve spent years thinking about ritual, belief, gender, authority, queerness, and fear. Jewish culture values collective interpretation: watching, arguing, and questioning together. In a symposium setting, films become launching pads for conversation, disagreement, and discovery.
RSVP to attend the Sabbath Queen and/or My One and Only Film Screenings HERE.
