Endowment gift from Frank and Louise Ring P ’07 Supports Film Festival and Other Israeli Cultural Programs

The 2006 Ring Family Israeli Film Festival inaugurated a continuing series of programs on Israeli life and culture made possible by an endowment gift from Frank and Louise Ring P ’07. Future programs will include residencies by musicians, artists, and writers, including the novelist and playwright A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israel's most celebrated authors.

While featured programs may touch on political life in Israel and the Middle East, the primary focus will be on “the Israel many people never encounter,” said Professor Jeremy Zwelling, director of the Jewish and Israel Studies Program. Of the six productions shown at the Film Festival, three were totally apolitical. Broken Wings, for example, tells the story of an Israeli family coping with the emotional and economic crises brought on by the sudden death of the patriarch.

&ldquoThe story could have taken place anywhere,” said Frank. “People can get so wrapped up in politics that they forget that Israel is a country with individuals living normal lives, whose focus is not on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but on issues on a more human scale, such as how to deal with family members and problems.”

Adjunct Instructor of Religion Dalit Katz planned and coordinated the festival, with assistance from Professor Zwelling, Film Studies Chair Jeanine Basinger, and Assistant Professor of Film Studies Lisa Dombroski. Each showing attracted about 125 to 150 people, who came not only from Middletown, but from New Haven, Hartford, and many other areas in Connecticut.

“One such visitor told me: “I have only one complaint, and that is that the Film Festival didn’t go on longer,&lrquo;“ said Professor Zwelling. Frank Ring echoed that spirit of enthusiasm, saying that the Festival organizers “put together a fabulous program.”

Excitement is already building for next year’s program, which will be dedicated to Israeli music. Plans call for a two- to three-week visit to campus by Edwin Seroussi, the Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology and the director of the Jewish Music Research Center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Professor Seroussi is a leading scholar of Jewish music and ethnomusicology and the author of various books, articles, and monographs on Jewish music.

“The Rings have provided us not only the financial means to be able to sponsor such events, but they have also been encouraging and inspiring and very supportive,” said Professor Zwelling.