Daughters Story

Daughters captures the struggle of faith and identity amidst three generations of Jewish women in my wife’s family. Her grandparents' journey took them from a small village in Romania to the Cuban Jewish community in Havana, then to the ethnic neighborhoods of Queens, NY and finally to a suburb of Tel-Aviv, Israel. If still alive, they might be shocked to know their own granddaughter unequivocally married a Muslim man from Indonesia--myself. Provocative and socially challenging, Daughters--a film by myself and about the life of my wife, Meital Rusdia--"the granddaughter," is a story about maintaining one’s individuality and the human right to find one’s own path while reconciling with and paying homage to a history encompassing one Diaspora after the next, in which starting over again from nothing was a way of life.

My wife’s grandparents lived a life with much suffering. They experienced war in Europe, political turmoil in Cuba, the immigrant struggle in the United States, until they finally achieved peace of mind and happiness during their final years in Israel. With their incredible life experiences came physical danger, persecution, poverty, hunger, illness, and the loss of a child. Yet they maintained a certain resilience throughout it all, which perhaps came from the strength of their Jewish identity. Likewise, my mother in-law, Cecille Hershkovitz, who was born shortly after her grandparents arrived in Cuba by boat, lived an idyllic childhood immersed in the tropical island culture of Havana. Today, she still remembers the warmth of the people and the rich Jewish community where she lived. Yet she also recalls the fear that spread during the Cuban Revolution--army planes flying overhead, military searches in her house, hiding under the bed or in the closets--and then ultimately getting on a plane to the United States at the age of eight unaccompanied by her parents. She was part of "Operation Peter Pan," an underground effort to rescue thousands of children during the uncertain times of Cuba's political transition. As a result, my mother in law and her sisters endured four years of separation from their parents, living in a foster home in the United States. It wasn't until she too discovered Israel as a young adult that she found her peace and happiness.

And there my wife emerged, the daughter of an Israeli father and a Cuban Jewish mother who was herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors. But would this birth identity she inherited pre-determine her destiny or would she be free to live her life without pre-conceived limitations on the choice of her future mate or the level of her religious observance? Could she maintain her allegiance to Israel and her faith while also embracing the beauty and differences of her husband's world, my world? Yes, she could.

Through artistic and thoughtful storytelling, Daughters explores an important universal conflict faced by the third generation of many ethnic communities within the context of the filmmaker's wife’s multi-national Jewish lineage. Asserting the right to be your own person without disrespecting the heritage of your ancestors can be one of life's most deeply-felt challenges.