L ifestyle /C ulture
‘American Birthright’ Asks, ‘Why Be Jewish?’
FI L M
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
WHEN BECKY TAHEL
learned her younger sister Gal
was going to marry a non-Jewish
man, she began to grapple with
whether she should marry
Jewish herself.

Her new documentary,
“American Birthright,” cata-
logues her search for answers
and a greater understanding of
religion, love and identity.

“The more I learn about this,
the more I recognize I know
absolutely nothing,” she says
during the film. “How do I, as a
Jew, educate myself about what
Judaism is?”
Throughout the film, Tahel
travels across America and
Israel to consult a diverse range
of rabbis, educators, activists,
interfaith couples and children
of interfaith couples about
why the question of interfaith
marriage is so complicated, and
how it might shape her future
relationships. Tahel was born in Israel to a
Moroccan Jewish mother and
an Ashkenazi Jewish father
whose family members experi-
enced the Holocaust. As a young
child, her family immigrated to
Philadelphia, where she grew up
attending Temple Beth Hillel-
Beth El. As an adult, she moved
to Los Angeles to pursue a career
in acting and filmmaking.

Part of the documentary is
filmed in Philadelphia, where
Tahel visits her grandmother, a
Holocaust survivor, to talk about
her sister’s decision. She also
speaks with her childhood rabbi,
Neil Cooper of Beth Hillel-Beth
El, when she revisits the site of
her bat mitzvah, and he talks
to her about how intermarriage
impacts the longevity of the
Jewish tradition.

“We have to look at the critical
mass of Jews in this country and
wonder how many more genera-
tions we have,” he says.

When she travels to Grenada
to visit her sister, who is
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Becky Tahel (right) and her sister
Gal Bordo discuss relationships.

Courtesy of Becky Tahel
attending medical school there,
they discuss how Jewish identity
factors into their lives and
relationships. “It’s not like I’m going to
marry a non-Jew and abandon
all of these things, those things
are very, very important to me,”
Tahel said of her Judaism.

Baruch Rozmarin, a Grenada
rabbi, disagrees.

“And what Gal is doing is
she’s cutting this chain, and she’s
doing it after thousands of years
of her family being Jewish,” he
says in the documentary.

Other rabbis have a more
favorable outlook on inter-
marriage and emphasize the
importance of an individual’s
connection to Judaism and
supportive relationships with
partners. After speaking with a
head-spinning number of people
and arranging for Gal and her
fiance Justin to meet with an
interfaith premarital counselor,
Tahel realizes that her sister’s
decision will never give her
answers about the role she wants
religion to play in her life, or
about her relationship to Torah.

So she decides to travel to Israel
in search of answers to her
questions, which have changed
from variations of “Should
I marry Jewish?” to “Why be
Jewish?” She enrolls in an Orthodox
women’s seminary in Jerusalem,
where she continues to interview
Jewish leaders about topics like
modesty, prayer and Torah. Even
though Israel inspires her and
she immerses herself in Jewish
study, she still feels like she has
more questions than answers.

Clarity doesn’t arrive until
she visits Haifa and experiences
emotional reunions with both
sides of her family. The encoun-
ters make her realize she wants
to commit to actively carrying
on Jewish traditions, which her
relatives sacrificed so much to
pass on, and find a partner who
feels the same way.

The documentary ends by
showing Tahel celebrating
at her sister’s wedding and
flashing forward to her own
Jewish boyfriend getting down
on one knee. She says yes, and
a little more than two years
after filming, they are married
and have a 5-month-old child
together. In a separate interview, Tahel
said her experiences making the
documentary inspired her to
embrace a more observant form
of Judaism, and she now keeps
kosher, observes Jewish holidays,
and dresses more modestly than
she did in her 20s.

“That’s definitely been an
interesting thing to navigate as
a producer in the entertainment
industry,” she said. “There are
many Jews in Hollywood, but
there aren’t that many obser-
vant Jews.”
By including so many
diverse voices and celebrating
the decisions by both sisters,
the documentary refrains from
dogmatically pushing a single
message about Jewish faith
and intermarriage. Rather,
audiences see the sisters’ unique
personal journeys and are given
questions to help them reflect
on their own lives.

Tahel also wanted to make
sure the film didn’t pressure
anyone to be more observant.

“I did feel like this was the
optimal choice for me as a Jew
who wants Judaism in her life,
and I felt like I wanted that
choice to be loud and proud, but
I didn’t want it to be at odds with
celebrating my sister’s life,” Tahel
said in a separate interview. “No
one ever got closer to their faith
or their family or themselves
because they were judged.”
“American Birthright”
garnered awards at several
film festivals, including the
Audience Choice Award at the
Seattle Jewish Film Festival and
the Indie Spirit Award at the
Idyllwild International Festival
of Cinema. It will screen virtu-
ally at the Miami Jewish Film
Festival beginning on April 15. l
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