boston | In the poignant opening frames of the new film “Hineini,” Shulamit Izen thumbs through stacks of books at her local library, searching for an answer to the following question: “Is it possible to be Jewish and a lesbian?”
In the hourlong documentary, filmmaker Irena Fayngold looks back at Izen’s quest to reconcile these tensions while seeking acceptance as a religious Jewish lesbian at Gann Academy, a Jewish high school in Waltham, Mass.
The film includes plenty of tug-at-your-heartstrings moments, including a school assembly where Izen, known as Shula by her family and friends, and several teachers and students come out openly as gays and lesbians.
Ultimately, Izen’s courageous organizing efforts result in the formation of Open House, a support and educational group, named after the Israeli gay/lesbian organization with the same name.
With hindsight, Fayngold’s film reveals both the pathos and humor involved in the soul-searching that Izen and Gann Academy experience as they grapple with the issues of tolerance raised by Izen and her supporters.
Izen, who is now a 21-year-old junior at Brown University, is the clear heroine of the film.
But the unexpected second star of the film is Gann Academy.
“This is not the story of one girl’s activism. It’s a story about a pluralistic community struggling with contemporary American life,” Fayngold says.
At the heart of the issue for traditional Jews is a passage in Leviticus that states the traditional Jewish position clearly: “It is an abomination for a man to lie with a man as he lies with a woman.”
But others have argued that this is only one biblical passage and that Judaism should show flexibility and accept gays and lesbians.
Unlike denominational Jewish day schools, Gann Academy intentionally draws its students from all strands of Judaism and a wide variety of Jewish practice.
Rabbi Daniel Lehmann, Gann’s charismatic and popular headmaster, openly admits in the film and in an interview from Israel where he is on sabbatical, that Izen tested the school’s moral foundation.
“The school’s commitment to pluralism requires us to meet the challenges of a diverse Jewish community and she was pushing us” to create an environment where “diversity would have an opportunity to be explored,” Lehmann explains.
It took three and a half years to make the film, explains Fayngold, whose day job is as a producer for public television.
There were bumps along the way. After originally turning her down, the school eventually allowed Fayngold access to its archival material and headmaster and permitted teachers from the school to speak openly in the film.
After seeing the film, Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University historian who is one of the pre-eminent scholars of American Judaism, said the movie was an eye-opening experience.
“Whether or not one agrees with the approach taken by the film, or the approach taken by Gann Academy, confronting the issue of gay and lesbian students through the eyes of students is what day schools have to do,” Sarna, who is on JTA’s board of directors, wrote in an e-mail.
“Hineini’ will be showing across the United States in the coming months.