There are those old-fashioned Jews who consider shul a central part of life; the first few minutes of The Women’s Balcony, a tremendously enjoyable Israeli film screening next week at the JCC in Manhattan and starting its theatrical run shortly thereafter, will give you as much of a rush as anything involving Vin Diesel. Here, the fast and the furious aren’t driving but marching down a narrow Jerusalem street, dressed in their finest and carrying refreshments. They’re headed to shul, to a bar mitzvah that’s so joyous you’d be tempted to write a check. As you watch them celebrate, you can’t help but think that here, at last, is religion the way you’d always imagined it should be practiced—together, loudly, and with love.
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