4 New Programs to Watch on WTTW for Jewish American Heritage Month

This May, WTTW marks Jewish American Heritage Month with four new programs that explore the richness and diversity of Jewish life and culture.

Growing Up Jewish 

Sunday, May 3 at 6:00 pm on WTTW
Growing Up Jewish follows four diverse young Jewish people as they prepare to celebrate their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs during the same week. With intimate access to the private celebrations, the program reveals how these 12- and 13-year-olds prepare for the big day and explores the cultural and religious significance this milestone holds to each of them.

Iron Ladies 

Sunday, May 10 at 6:00 pm on WTTW
This documentary follows “The 35s,” a protest movement known as the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry, which was founded in London in 1971. Filmed against a backdrop of new Russian tyranny, the now elderly women tell their stories for the first time.

About Face: Jewish Refugees in the Allied Forces

Thursday, May 21 at 8:30 pm on WTTW
About Face: Jewish Refugees In The Allied Forces is a compelling and often touching film that reveals the untold story of young German-born Jewish men and women who escaped certain death at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. These brave individuals later returned to fight Hitler and his forces across Europe and North Africa.

The Ship that Turned Back 

Sunday, May 24 at 11:30 am on WTTW
This film by Allie Light recounts the dramatic escape of her late husband, Irving Saraf, from Poland to Palestine in 1940, when he was just 7 years old. The film explores Irving’s memories in parallax – through the dual lens of the 7-year-old boy who experienced it and the older man recounting his dramatic escape to his grandchildren.