A sense of mutual distrust has descended upon Amsterdam’s Muslim and Jewish communities. Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise and Jewish institutions are now guarded by police. Despite this, two activists — one Jewish, and one Muslim — have found common ground, and friendship, though not without personal cost.
The Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir is the only institutional synagogue choir in Israel. No other choir in the world is expected to do what this kind of choir does — to work all day on Yom Kippur without food or drink, and to uphold a central part of the European Jewish synagogue tradition going back to at least the 16th century.
Plenty of religions tell their members that masturbation is a sin, but few are willing to go to the lengths of ultra-Orthodox Jews to make sure the rule is followed. That struggle is the subject of a new documentary, “Sacred Sperm,” from an ultra-Orthodox filmmaker who lives that temptation.