Virtual Class: Will the Real Ari Ben-Canaan Please Stand Up
Facilitated by Riva Gambert
Monday, June 8, 2020
2:00PM - 3:00PM
Location: Virtual Class via Zoom
For many movie-goers…the character of Ari Ben-Canaan will always be that of Paul Newman—rising at night from the Mediterranean Sea, masquerading as a British officer who fools a haughty (and bigoted) Peter Lawford, and standing at the helm of the refugee ship Exodus as it attempts to transport thousands of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine.
The truth is that Ben-Canaan’s character is a combination of real-life heroes, who tried to bring Jews out of Nazi-occupied Europe to British-controlled Palestine before, during and after WWII. The true story of the Exodus—and yes there was a ship Exodus that sailed from a southern French port in July 1947—reveals the heroism of the Palestinian Jews and American volunteers who refused to be bystanders and took action. The tale of the Exodus is just one of many sailings in what history would call aliyah bet—a second (illegal to the British) type of immigration. This course will show why such clandestine rescue attempts were necessary through the heroic true story of Exodus 1947.
Teacher: Riva Gambert is the program director of the CCJCC project Under One Tent and the director of the EBIJFF. She has taught for HaMaqom (formerly Lehrhaus Judaica) as well as other Jewish institutions.
Contra Costa JCC, Congregation B’nai Shalom, Diablo Valley Hadassah & the EBIJFF will present this free, three-part, online course that explores the British policy on Palestine prior to Israeli independence and the hundreds of “illegal” ships run by the Haganah and Irgun. Coming your way thru ZOOM.
To get the ZOOM link, visit: www.underonetent.org or email rivagambert@gmail.com