RAMIFICATIONS

A few years ago, after a screening of  my documentary Mamaliga Blues (https://www.darkhollowfilms.com/product/mamaliga-blues/), a man came to me and said that he spotted his younger self in one of the photos shown in the film. This is genealogy. Surprising, revealing, it makes us reflect, imagine, put pieces together endlessly.

A genealogical tree ramifies its branches not only into family relationships but also into actions. We can start investigating something and, without knowing where it could take us, end up in a unforeseen scenario. It's beautiful.

I'm writing this because my curiosity was triggered (it's always curiosity at the end, right?) by my own family's history, and now transcends to something else, the immigration of Jews around the globe, and mainly the Baron de Hirsch initiatives. Something that started back in 2005, now dwelves on the Jewish Colonization Association activities.

In 2015 I received a grant from Asylum Arts to produce a film that investigated the first Jewish colony in Brazil, established in 1903, A trip to Philippson (https://www.cassiotolpolar.com/projects). During the research and production process I read Baron de Hirsch's biography, The Moses of the Americas (by Dominique Frischer) and became fascinated by this complex and unique character whose endeavors affected greatly the course of History – but whose life is a bit obscure. 

Baron Maurice de Hirsch

A lesser known character in Jewish and World History, Hirsch's endeavors were highly successful. He was overshadowed by Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism and was not very fond of the creation of a unique Jewish State as he supported the assimilation and spread of Jews around the globe. Herzl thought Hirsch could be his first and great ally. Both had the energy and interest in making possible for European Jews a new kind of life, but the alliance never happened. They had very different approaches, Hirsch being much more practical and Herzl more idealistic. Nevertheless, his initiatives saved many families from death and were responsible for the creation of a stronger Diaspora, especially amongst Jews originated from the Pale of Settlement (it included Belarus, Lithuania and Moldova, much of present-day Ukraine, parts of eastern Latvia, eastern Poland, and parts of western Russia).

So what will come next? A documentary on Baron de Hirsch's life? Maybe. Let's see where genealogy might take us.