A Life Apart - Hasidism in America

Director: Menachem Daum;oren Rudavsky
Actors: Leonard Nimoy, Sarah Jessica Parker
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Category: DVD

List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $15.75
You Save: $14.20 (47%)

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Rating: 20 reviews
Sales Rank: 36563

Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6

MPN: 909716
UPC: 720229909716
EAN: 0720229909716
ASIN: B00005JG6Y

Theatrical Release Date: 1997
Release Date: July 17, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Customer Reviews

   Read 15 more reviews...

3 stars out of 4    December 18, 2008
One-Line Film Reviews (Ann Arbor)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The Bottom Line:

Though conducted as a surface-level investigation, "A Life Apart" functions capably as an introduction to the lives of Hasidic Jews, and should be required counter-programming for anyone who ever had to see "A Stranger Among Us."


Informative but rather superficial    July 21, 2008
Rachel (Jerusalem, Israel)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This film is informative but rather superficial. If you know well the hassidic world or search for a deep understanding of his ways and thinking, this will be not enough for you. It gives information and (bless God!!) is sympathetic, but if the mind and professional expertise of the fim makers is there, the soul is not. And the soul, the neshameh, is an important thing in hassidism after all...


The high cost of righteousness    June 10, 2008
Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA)
The adherents of all religions seek purity of one kind or another, but only a handful of nonmonastic religious communities believe that radical separation from the world is a necessary condition for it. In the US, the Amish, the Hutterites, some of the more extreme fundamentalist Mormons, and the Hasidim are the religious groups which continue to live enclaved existences. In "A Life Apart," directors Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky explore the Hasidic community in NYC.

Most Hasidim came to the US in the wake of the holocaust. Four out of five European Hasidim were exterminated by the Nazis. After the war, the five surviving heads of Hasidic communities brought their people to the US to begin anew--not in search of the great American dream, as the film makes clear, but in search of a safe place to survive as an intact religious tradition. Accordingly, Hasidim keep to themselves, retaining their mode of worship, their distinctive garb, their community mores and norms. Their marriages continue to be arranged, their families continue to be hierarchical and patriarchal, children are educated apart from the world (and thus have many professional avenues closed to them), homes continue to lack television and computers. Goyim are shunned, as are non-Hasidic Jews. There is, as one interviewed scholar observes, a voluntary forsaking of the rich pluralism of American culture for the sake of a spiritual purity that, while rich in certain ways, can also be in-bred, sultifying for some, and arrogantly judgmental of outsiders. (But enclaves in America are hard to maintain, and more and more Hasidim are forced by economic straits to work outside of their community. The segment in the film devoted to this migration wonderfully features a klezmer rendition of "New York, New York" as background music.)

"A Life Apart" does a good job of highlighting the benefits and disadvantages of Hasidic exclusivity, and in doing so helps viewers appreciate the challenges faced by all enclaved religious communities. But the film fails to convey adequately the incredible spiritual richness of the Hasidic tradition. A few obligatory words are said about the Baal Shem Tov's focus on joy in religion, and his move away from legalistic and bookish Judaism. But nothing is said about the specifics of his teachings nor of the Hasidic rebbes whom he inspired. The upshot is that the film focuses on Hasidism primarily as a culture rather than a spiritual phenomenon.

Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker narrate the film. It's worth pointing out that Parker's annoyingly amateurish schoolgirl mode of delivery, as well as her public image from "Sex and the City" as a material girl, make her an odd and distracting choice.


A Good Introductory Look at Chasidic Life    February 11, 2008
C. Jason Landau (Pulaski, Virginia)
I ordered this DVD from TvBoxset, and have been most impressed with it. The producers have really done a fine job of showing a glimpse of Chasidic life. My wife said after viewing it for about the third time that this makes her want to be Chasidic !! A warm, positive look at a world most of us don't often see, let alone understand. It even contains some detractors such as former Chasidim amd non-Jews looking in. Very well done.


Very interesting    July 29, 2007
Flamer (Massachusetts)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I loved the documentary. I learned a lot about the Hadsidic community that I didn't know. Highly recommend it!