Part of Spotlight: Diversity in Israel, LGBT Jewish Films

The Quest for the Missing Piece could also be titled “the unkindest cut of all.� It’s a funny, disconcerting romp through the debate over circumcision. Using a gentle touch in a sensitive area, filmmaker Oded Lotan takes us on a bris tour: a Jewish baby, a Moslem seven-year-old, and an adult Russian-Israeli soldier. Circumcision may be a Biblical mitzvah, but many commandments are routinely ignored by most Jews. Why not this one? Lotan introduces us to his gay, goy lover (oy); to his mother, who endorses circumcision, but not gay love (oy yoy); and to a Tel Aviv anti-circumcision group dedicated to having “intact� Jewish children (oy yoy yoy!). Does secular circumcision survive because Jews are afraid their children will no longer “look like� them or because this sign carved in flesh is really what binds the tribe?

—Alan Snitow

Presented with Mom, I Didn't Kill Your Daughter

Sponsored by Frederick Hertz & Randolph Langenbach

Co-presented by LGBT Alliance, Congregation Sha'ra Zahav, Frameline and Jewish Mosaic