Menachem Daum

Menachem Daum is an Orthodox Jews and a documentary film-maker. Born in displaced persons camp in Germany, to refugees from Poland who had survied the Holocaust.^[1] Being Jewish, many of his relatives perished in Nazi Germany's genocide. Professionally a gerontologist, he is based today in Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York.^[2]

He has created two documentary films, A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, (1997) on Hasidim in Brooklyn, and Hiding and Seeking, (2003) a film on Polish gentiles that sheltered Jews during World War II. Through his efforts, he secured the Yad Vashem award for the family that sheltered his wife's family. He partnered on the films with Oren Rudavsky.^[3] As of 2008, he was working on a film, Common Ground, which will address the work of non-Jews in working to maintain Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

His 2004 film, Hiding and Seeking, began as a search to reconnect with the Poles that sheltered his family. The Jewish Week wrote of Daum's work on this film, "The film speaks more deeply to how religious intolerance is insidious no matter who is practicing it, and upbraids Holocaust survivors who broke all ties with their rescuers, despite wartime promises to stay in touch forever.

"'I believe in the importance of self-criticism for all communities, Jewish, non-Jewish Islamic, Christian,' says Daum. 'We do ourselves a disservice when we can see faults in others but not see our own shortcomings.'"

Notes

1. ^ Dave Kehr, "FILM IN REVIEW; 'Hiding and Seeking' -- 'Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust,'" "New York Times," February 6, 2004, http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9803E5DD113BF935A35751C0A9629C8B63
2. ^ http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c237_a14347/Special_Sections/Directions.html
3. ^ Carolyn Slutsky, "Close-up On The Jewish Community" "The Jewish Week," December 17, 2008, http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c237_a14347/Special_Sections/Directions.html

External links

• page at Internet Movie Database
• Professional portrait in The Jewish Week

Persondata
Name	Daum, Menachem
Alternative names
Short description	Holocaust survivor and documentary filmmaker
Date of birth
Place of birth	Germany
Date of death
Place of death