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February 2, 1998

Now playing at the University Library: Groucho Marx, Barbra Streisand, and Elie Wiesel

By Margaret Gordon

What do Groucho Marx, Sid Caesar, and Mel Brooks have in common? How does Yiddish culture continue to influence contemporary Jewish life? What is the connection between romance and Jewish identity? The UCSC Library Media Center invites you to explore the answers to these and other provocative questions about the modern Jewish experience through the Jewish Heritage Video Collection, an exciting new gift to the library's media collection.

At the heart of the Jewish Heritage Video Collection (JHVC) is an incredible video library of nearly 200 titles, including feature films, children's programs, foreign and Yiddish classics, television programs, and documentaries. Tapes range from the immensely popular children's series Shalom Sesame to Steven Spielberg's acclaimed Schindler's List. All of the titles have been carefully chosen for the richness of their content and intellectual value for academic Jewish studies. The videos in the JHVC are accompanied by a series of outstanding curricular materials on a wide range of Jewish studies topics, such as the history and development of Jewish humor, the Jewish image in American film, and the Jewish American experience as reflected in the work of Jewish American directors.

The JHVC was donated to the UCSC Library through the generosity of Santa Cruz Hillel, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and the Charles H. Revson Foundation, which launched the collection's development. The JHVC was conceived and developed by the Jewish Media Fund, with the help of such Advisory Committee members as Eli Wiesel, Newton Minow, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Mazursky, and Joan Micklin Silver.

The videos and curricular materials in the JHVC are housed in the UCSC Library Media Center on the first floor of McHenry Library. Videos are available for in-house viewing and reserve or classroom use. For more information, contact Sue Chesley (chesley@cats.ucsc.edu, (408) 459-5590) or Dave Kirk (dkirk@cats.ucsc.edu, 459-2324).

To access an online catalog of the 200 titles in the Jewish Heritage Video Collection, go to the library home page at http://www.ucsc.edu/library/.


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