Some of My Best Friends
- Westminster
- 1969
A Bad Day for Levinsky
When a Jewish man mistakenly puts a sovereign in a slot machine, he goes to extraordinary lengths to try to retrieve it.
The earliest depictions of Jewish characters in British cinema tended to fall back on negative stereotypes. This Edwardian slapstick short employs the stock - and grossly antisemitic - caricature of the avaricious Jew: realising he put the wrong coin in a train station slot-machine, Levinsky tampers with the machine to retrieve it and is thrown out of the station by the guards. Taking the situation into his own hands, he runs through the streets carrying the cumbersome machine with the police in hot pursuit.
Tags
Jewish Britain
Jewish life on screen: a century of insights and hidden histories
This collection uncovers insights, injustices and hidden histories across a century of Jewish life on British screens. It brings together documentary and first-person accounts of Jewish life in the UK, alongside historical dramas and artists’ work exploring the 20th century Jewish experience. The earliest surviving depictions of Jewish characters in British cinema offer a troubling insight into antisemitic representation, yet prejudice was later tackled head-on, with newsreels documenting the anti-fascist movement of the 1930s.
Drop in on joyous family weddings and community gatherings, and see the ways in which UK Jewry supported Jews young and old, and those fleeing persecution, in a selection of fascinating films from the 1900s to the 1980s.
This collection is generously supported by the Neil Kreitman Foundation, Shoresh Charitable Trust, John S Cohen Foundation, and Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation.
53 videos in this collection
1
Some of My Best Friends
2
Chief Rabbi's Emergency Council
3
Jewish Pensioners' Controversial Pools Win
4
Just One Kid
5
Simcha
6
Mr. Emmanuel
7
The Barber of Stamford Hill
8
Autumn in Delamere
9
Maureen Lipman
10
The Vanishing Street
11
North London Liberal Jewish Group
12
The Vanishing Street (Material)
13
100 Year Old Coach Topical Budget 800-1
14
Marriage of Miss Rose Carmel and Mr. Solly Gershcowit
15
The Wedding of Thelma and Danny, 11th August 1946
16
The Marriage of Miss Rossalyn Weinbaum to Mr A. Goide
17
The Wedding of Mr Laurence Marks to Miss Lily Balon
18
Jew Süss
19
General Post
20
Cast Us Not Out
21
Motherland
22
Kidstakes
23
The Robber and the Jew
24
A Bad Day for Levinsky
25
The Antique Vase
26
The Challenge
27
Impressions of Disraeli
28
William Frankel
29
British Paramount News No 251
30
The Battle of Cable Street
31
Fascists Defeated at Cable Street
32
British Paramount News No 1532
33
British Paramount News No.588 [Production Material]
34
Harold Defries Bar Mitzvah
35
Eisner Personal Film - Family Compilation Derby C.1938
36
Shavuot Celebration at King David Infant School, Cheetham Hill
37
The Jewish Community in Ulster
38
Mr. Bernhard Baron
39
Soup Kitchen
40
Cohen Personal Film: Ed Cohen at Oval Nets, 1939
41
Chief Rabbi Visits Birmingham
42
The Big Board at Newquay
43
Surfing Scenes
44
Cornwall
45
Camping in Guernsey 1932
46
Beach Scenes
47
The Big House and Camp
48
Holiday in Catalonia and Beach Scenes
49
Dinard
50
Guernsey Again - Trying Our Hand at Farming
51
Religion and the People
52
The Wicked One - What Does He Say?
53