Bitter Herbs and Honey

Australian documentary focuses on the lives of European Jews who settled in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton in the 1940s, fleeing World War II atrocities and post-War conditions. Interestingly the Jews from Eastern Europe clashed with Anglo-Jews, settled in the nineteenth century, who identified as British rather than Jewish and disapproved of the too obvious presence of Sephardic Jews, with whom they feared association. Despite these and other difficulties, social groups thrived in the suburb, where people shared life, food, religion and a common experience. Local residents from the period, many recalling their childhood, discuss a marvellously rich and joyous, if impoverished, family life; others talk about the racism suffered at school and in the street; several recount the pain of being a Holocaust survivor and the trials of assimilation. Includes archival footage from the era interspersed with recreations and a slew of interviews that include: Pinchus Ringelblum, Hilary Rubinstein, Bernard Rechter, Solomon Pose, Victor Smorgon, Arnord Zable, Jean Holkner, June Factor, Freydi Mrocki, Sam Lipski, Amirah Inglis, Rachel Levita and Miriam Kuna. Features some marvellous Yiddish songs and several interviewees discuss their parents yearning to sustain the use of Yiddish language. With occasional English subtitles.