Touches You

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There is nothing good said about the Chassidic community, that provides friendship and social support to tens of thousands of families. Community volunteers provide additional medical response units, assistance to sick and poor people, and do millions of other wonderful things. Nothing of that is in the movie. Anything about the community is over-dramatized, be it music, voices, or camera. In comparison, a service in Reform place is shown as an example of friendship. This bring to mind the usual Holly wood bias against Jewish religious life and political support to Democrats. May be this is why the van inviting people to vote for President Trump was shown with the same dramatic effect. My rating for this Propaganda piece: 1 out of 10. Because 0 is not available.

This movie follows three separate stories on the same thread, the challenges of breaking away from a self-centered community and facing the ostracism it entails.The movie is complex, in the sense that every point of view depicted can be either justified or vilified without much effort, and deals with a theme that is both delicate and universal, not fitting in. The setting is hassidic, but I consider that more of a detail, for it could be any other closed group with very high demands of its members.

One of us follows Ety, Ari and Luzer. They were born and raised in the Hasidic community (a Orthodox Jewish group). Each one decides to leave everything once sacred to them for a secular way of life. Some must cut ties with family and friends for that is what leaving entails. Throughout the film We hear their sad personal story's. Ety talks of abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. Ari of molestation in camp. They tell us how this community is cut off from the rest of the world. A little bubble that for the most part doesn't speak English or engage in secular study's. Ari says "I couldn't google how to google because i didn't know how to google. The subtext of the film paints the Hasidic community as a mindless cult that for some reason related to the holocaust wont let you leave its clutches. They make it seem as if men and woman are unhappily locked in this culture with no way out. They fail to give perspective from inside the community. They don't talk to any of the thousands living the hasidic lifestyle. Rather They only focus on three stories that manage to cast doubt and shadows over the entire community.I will try and give perspective from inside the community. They are made up of Hasidic Jews who continue to keep the religion of their fathers dating back too Moses (1391 BCE), king David, King Solomon and all the rest of Jewish ancestry. until around 250 years ago every Jew was about as religious as them. keeping to the same laws and tradition. The reform and conservative movement "reformed" Judaism and slowly did away with 99% of its laws and customs. They denied traditional Jewish beliefs and reinterpreted what being Jewish meant. This new Jewish view spread through Europe, where most Jews lived at the time. It infecting many homes and religious community's with a cynical view for religious practice and culture . There were two approaches taken by religious community's to protect themselves from the secular wave. The Hasidic community's did their best to block out secularism in all forms, since it was the breeding ground for religious and bible criticism. They stayed away from university's and continued to speak their own dialect- Yiddish. Due to this they were mostly successful at keeping out any reform to judiasim. The other approach was to embrace secular knowledge, science, and advancement but from a religious perspective each shedding light on the other. (Rabbi Samson R. Hirsh championed this second approach.) Then came the holocaust which killed 6 million Jews sending many refugees to the American shores. The secular, reform Jews spread throughout America without much need for community since religion played a small if any role in their life. The Hasidim looking to rebuild and continue their old way of life established community's with synagogues and private schools to teach their children what they held most dear; religion. They continued the outlook of let us keep away from secular knowledge and enclose our selves in community's that are guarded from the American way of life. Today there are more than 100,000 living similar to this way. They have large and extremely supportive family's. My judgement is, their happiness ratio is much higher than the rest of Americas. They have organizations in the community for just about anything you can imagine. Charity, visiting the ill, meals for new mothers and even fixing your flat tire. There is no end to the amount of kindness and support they give each other. They live good and fulfilling lives albeit not in clubs and bars. It goes without saying there are bad people in every place of the world. Being religious doesn't prevent someone from making the choice to do evil. There will always be those that steal, molest and abuse. Maybe sometimes flying under the radar into positions like teacher or principle. This documentary is about those that unfortunately fell into the hands of such people. Although they want to leave the community they weren't raised with the secular background to do so. Even though the community may understand the person has been hurt they will never condone or help one leave religion since after all God is God and no matter the circumstances they will follow his ways and teachings. When in the case of Ety, (who for the knowing viewer has just about left her religion) the community's role becomes to save the children from her bad ways and protect them from her influence. Her own mother was on the community's side. while she surely cried to sleep over her daughters plight, she had to save her grandchildren. If one takes issue with their religious way of life its because you think their religion is not true. They not only believe its true and the best for them and their children but have as a nation experienced revelation in Sinai desert in front of 3,000,000 people and have a long history of forefathers that gave their life for their faith. There is much more to be said but this must suffice. (as a side note there are numerous other Jewish community's that keep the same laws and mostly the same customs as the Hasidim. They however took a softer approach then blocking out the American/secular world. They speak English and work regular jobs but inside they are the same god fearing and religious. A example of one such community is a large part of Midwood Flatbush Brooklyn N.Y.)

I just want to say first and foremost that I am in awe of the three featured individuals. Etty, Luzer, and Arye/Ari are former members of Brooklyn's Hasidic Jewish community who, for various reasons, and out of varying degrees of excruciating horror or sadness, have chosen to leave the only community they've ever known—a community that eschews formal education, job skill-building, or co-mingling with a 21st-century secular world. In effect, by choosing to use the Internet or eat cheeseburgers or enter a public library, formerly Hasidic Jews in New York face complete isolation and ostracism.All three stories are heartbreaking in their own ways, and each person was heroic in their willingness to challenge and question a system that does not celebrate America's "rugged individualism." It's no doubt hard for many of us in the secular world to grasp just how complicated it may be to confront such a world. But the real heroism is within Etty, an extraordinarily articulate woman with such steely resolve and fierce affection for her seven children by an abusive husband she barely knew before marrying. It's a mystery how she became so strong, especially given what happens during the course of the film, but she deserves a standing ovation for never losing sight of her principles and her humanity.Beautifully shot and scored, this film is a thoughtfully constructed and deeply humane exploration of the role of the American Hasidic community in the wake of the Holocaust. I hope there is a follow-up film from the same creators.