Eric A. Goldman, Ph.D

Website: www.ergomedia.com/ericgoldman.htm
Residence : Teaneck, NJ

Biographical information

ERIC A. GOLDMAN is founder and president of Ergo Media, a New Jersey-based video publishing company specializing in Jewish and Israeli video. He teaches film at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Queens College. He is also a film reviewer for Northern New Jersey's The Jewish Standard.

Dr. Goldman is a known expert and lecturer on Yiddish, Israeli and Jewish film. He presently curates and moderates the film program for the YIVO Institute at the Center for Jewish History in New York and is artistic director of the Jack Wolgin Jewish Film Festival, held each summer in Philadelphia.

Dr. Goldman received a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and was a fellow of the Max Weinreich Center for Advanced Jewish Studies. He also holds graduate degrees in Contemporary Jewish Studies and Theater Arts from Brandeis University. In 2000-2001, he was an adjunct fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Visions, Images and Dreams: Yiddish Film Past and Present, scheduled to be reprinted by Holmes & Meier Publishers in fall, 2004. He is currently writing a book on the American Jewish experience through film.

Discussion topics

• Lecture one:
  LOOKING AT OURSELVES:
  THE AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE ON FILM
  As a mirror of society, films often reflect the times during which they are created. An examination of the Jew as creator, producer and subject of film provides a most unusual perspective on the American Jew- the way the Jew sees him/herself and how others perceive Jews. The predominance of Jews in the film industry provides other insights into contemporary Jewry. Through film clips and discussion, we will learn how filmmakers created and packaged their own unique concept of the Jew- as filtered through their own consciousness.
  
• Lecture two:
  A LENS ON ISRAEL:
  A SOCIETY THROUGH ITS CINEM
  Israeli movies provide an intimate insight into Israel's birth, growth and development as a country. The cinema provides an ideal "lens" by which we gain a greater understanding of Israel's history, culture and the challenges to its existence. This lecture examines the changing nature of Israeli society as reflected through its cinema.
  
• Lecture Three:
  THE JEWISH WOODY ALLEN: GAINING INSIGHT THROUGH THE GENIUS OF A CONTROVERSIAL PHILOSOPHER
  A study of the evolving work of Woody Allen from his early films through today. The lecture examines how Allen has struggled with his own Jewishness over the last four decades and how he has used the cinema to cope with his own ambivalence as a Jew.
  
• Lecture Four:
  CINEMA AS HAGADDAH FOR THE HOLOCAUST
  A study at how the Holocaust has been dealt with in film around the world. There was a need in Eastern Europe immediately following the War to question and delve into the issues, while the Western Europe and America waited several decades. Most notably, the French seemed to fear subject matter related to the subject and only began looking at their role after 1972. Israel, interestingly enough, failed to touch on the issue at all until 1979. Most recently, such films as THE PIANIST, GREY ZONE and AMEN show that this film genre remains a powerful means for expression.
  
• Lecture Five:
  THE YIDDISH CINEMA: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LIFE
  Yiddish cinema was the product of a changing world and a desire to hold onto traditions and ideals that were being questioned by the majority of Jews. While Hollywood's filmmakers presented a picture of the American 'melting pot' and their own desire to assimilate into American society, Yiddish filmmakers celebrated the beauty and particularity of Jewish life and culture. The lecture will trace the history of Yiddish cinema from its early years as a showcase for Yiddish theater in Eastern Europe through its Golden Age in both Poland and the United States in the 1930's through today's renewed interest.
  
• Lecture Six:
  THE CULTURE OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN CINEMA
  Since the 1940's, the issue of anti-Semitism as subject for cinema has been hotly contested. Some were fearful that raising the issue might cause greater harm than good. Most recently concern has been raised about the power of cinema to create an anti-Semitic atmosphere. A study of the films is quite revealing.

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