Rating: 
Summary: A very moving documentary
Review: "Trembling Before G-d," a documentary film by Sandi Simcha Dubowski, offers a window into the world of gay/lesbian Orthodox Jews. The film profiles a number of men and women of different ages and different levels of religious expression. The stories told in the film take the viewer to the United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel.The film is mainly in English, although some is in Hebrew or Yiddish (with English subtitles). In addition to hearing from the gay men and lesbians profiled, we also hear from a number of rabbis (including one openly gay, pro-gay Orthodox rabbi). The film also offwers a rich taste of Jewish ritual, music, food, and dress. This is a powerful film. The pain of many of these people is palpable, yet the film also contains much humor and tenderness. "Trembling" is a vivid portrait of the power of religion to damage people emotionally, and to also uplift their spirits.
Rating: 
Summary: What a documentary should be
Review: Any documentary dealing with the subject of homosexuality is in danger of falling into the trap of advocacy for either side, thereby ignoring or demonizing the thinking and the experience of the opposing side. Typically, gays are portrayed as vulgar and shallow hedonists and religious people are portrayed as ignorant and intolerant rubes. This film avoids that trap entirely. It doesn't editorialize. It doesn't try to tie up loose ends. It has respect for the religious tradition that has led to the dilemna that the gay individuals are experiencing. It simply uses the camera as an objective eye into the lives of people we might never get to know. The effect of this approach is that we are allowed to see on our own the tradition and the individuals. As a result, the humanity of everyone is preserved and the value of the tradition is preserved. As a christian, I found the footage of orthodox culture fascinating. Scenes of yeshivas and orthodox weddings were totally new to me. This was a portrayal of a world I knew almost nothing about. Leave your knee-jerk reactions behind when you view this film and you will have your experience broadened.
Rating:
Summary: A Catholic NY viewer loved it
Review: As a non Jew about to marry a Jew, I suggested this film to my fiancee. It was absolutely wrenching as well as heart warming. If you want to be enlightened, see this movie! As for the guy who gave it 1 star, that guy must be smoking something or is anti-gay!
Rating:
Summary: A 'Must Have' DVD
Review: I saw this film when it was first released in cinemas and I thought it was good, perhaps warranting a 3 1/2 star rating.
The DVD experience brings this film up to 5 stars because there is SO much added material that gives one a deeper and broader understanding of the complexities of religion. Not just Judaism, I think every religion has as wide a spectrum of interpretation. There's over 3 hours of extras on the second disc, and I especially thought that the added comments by Rabbi Steve Greenberg (the openly gay orthodox Rabbi) and several of the other orthodox Rabbis featured in the film were extremely important. There is a pretty wide range of views and interpretations, which makes one realize just how cult-like orthodoxy can be in any religion if one is relying on just one particular religious leader for guidance. Most of the gay people interviewed in the film who were really suffering over how to accept who they are and still be a 'good Jew' were people who talked to Rabbis who were inflexible on accepting homosexuals. Five out of six of the rabbis interviewed on the second disc were able to understand that being gay is not a choice and therefore not a sin. They were still conservative overall, but their reasoning was very sound and certainly not some wish on their part to reconcile homosexuality with Judaism. The wonderful thing about Judaism is that the Torah is full of questioning and interpretation of God's laws. It teaches us that we have to look at the circumstances of the people who are living outside the parameter of God's law and see if they are really betraying God's law, or if they are essentially good people who are doing the best they can under the given circumstances. The DVD also has a great 35-minute follow-up documentary on the effect this film has had around the world (and some terrific Klezmer music in the end credits!), and there are lots of other odds and ends that are entertaining and/or interesting. If you are a teacher or Rabbi who is considering showing this film to your students or community, make sure you show them this DVD version with the added interviews. At the very least, it will bring up some fascinating discussion!
Rating:
Summary: A 'Must Have' DVD
Review: I saw this film when it was first released in cinemas and I thought it was good, perhaps warranting a 3 1/2 star rating.
The DVD experience brings this film up to 5 stars because there is SO much added material that gives one a deeper and broader understanding of the complexities of religion. Not just Judaism, I think every religion has as wide a spectrum of interpretation. There's over 3 hours of extras on the second disc, and I especially thought that the added comments by Rabbi Steve Greenberg (the openly gay orthodox Rabbi) and several of the other orthodox Rabbis featured in the film were extremely important. There is a pretty wide range of views and interpretations, which makes one realize just how cult-like orthodoxy can be in any religion if one is relying on just one particular religious leader for guidance. Most of the gay people interviewed in the film who were really suffering over how to accept who they are and still be a 'good Jew' were people who talked to Rabbis who were inflexible on accepting homosexuals. Five out of six of the rabbis interviewed on the second disc were able to understand that being gay is not a choice and therefore not a sin. They were still conservative overall, but their reasoning was very sound and certainly not some wish on their part to reconcile homosexuality with Judaism. The wonderful thing about Judaism is that the Torah is full of questioning and interpretation of God's laws. It teaches us that we have to look at the circumstances of the people who are living outside the parameter of God's law and see if they are really betraying God's law, or if they are essentially good people who are doing the best they can under the given circumstances. The DVD also has a great 35-minute follow-up documentary on the effect this film has had around the world (and some terrific Klezmer music in the end credits!), and there are lots of other odds and ends that are entertaining and/or interesting. If you are a teacher or Rabbi who is considering showing this film to your students or community, make sure you show them this DVD version with the added interviews. At the very least, it will bring up some fascinating discussion!
Rating:
Summary: Moving, Touching, Thought Provoking, 2 THUMBS UP!
Review: I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to view this film at my school. Although I am not homosexual, this film moved me and touched my heart. It is just such an experience to see these good people who are very devoted to their faith be made to feel like "less important Jews" just because of the sexual orientation they have. If you are interested in people, enjoy learning, or are gay yourself, this is a great film to watch! Sandi Dubowski does a great job and this film has helped many people who struggle with the same burden.
Rating:
Summary: An electric documentary from Sandi Simcha Dubowski
Review: In 'Trembling Before God,' director Sandi Simcha Dubowski has compiled an emotional series of interviews and vignettes featuring Orthodox Jews - unwilling to renounce their religion (indeed, in some cases reaffirming their faith) in the face of harsh and unrelenting negative treatment of their sexuality. First and foremost, you have to credit the bravery of the people willing to appear in the film. Although some of them have come out, it's obvious in a couple of cases that their families will find out only with the release of the film. The first of two standouts is David - a professional 30-to-40 something from California. He's back to re-connect with his rabbi, who years back had prescribed an odd treatment of snapping a rubber band snapping on his wrist (and other trite measures) to ward away his deviant thoughts. Well, David says, they didn't work. Now what? Hoping to hear his rabbi offer some degreee of acceptance (and on the whole the rabbi is presented by Dubowski as a reasonable man), instead he gets more of the same: there's no room for this behavior in our religion basically. The real tears the follow from David provide the movie's most seminal moment. The second standout is 58-year-old Israel, living monogamously with his long-time partner. Israel has been estranged from his 98 (!) year-old father for decades. In the movie, we see Israel calling his Dad on the phone, having a conversation in Yiddish, trying to reach out to him. Still, 98 and holding firm. Israel and his partner shake their heads with disappointment. Thanks Sandi Simcha Dubowski, for your great perseverance in getting these electric moments on film.
Rating:
Summary: Documentary as Tikkun Olam
Review: No one has yet commented on the groundbreaking aspects of this film as a contribution to the documentary genre. Perhaps the subject matter was so compelling that people forgot that its rhetorical and structural elements were not invented ab nihilo, but are part of a very long and esteemed tradition. This film added extensively to the tradition that believes documentaries can change the world, not just bear witness to it.
I would also hope that viewers realize that this is not the last or only film on this topic, but one of the first, and that a flawed film is better by far than no film at all. It didn't have a Hollywood Ending especially for the individuals it portrayed who hoped it might be a catalyst for such an outcome - especially David. It may not satisfy everyone because it wasn't "fair and balanced", because it didn't attempt to be encyclopedic, because it couldn't hope to be unbiased except with respect to the empathy and sincerity it treated the people who appeared in it. There is no shanda (shame) in having a point of view. Yet how can you offer your work as Tikkun Olam when a community doesn't think there's anything in their life on the issue of sexuality and sexual identity that needs repairing? The isolated negative reactions of the conservative voices in the film and beyond are predictable because someone outside of their recognized authority structure is setting the agenda, exposing a neglected and painful issue, and they are forced to react. What is truly amazing is how the orthodox community's curiosity and sense of support for viewing the film and discussing it overcame their natural reticence and shame, and their leaders' sense that the time had come to make this very private issue a topic of public debate.
What is interesting is that it sought to give a voice to the individuals whose lives were as indelibly bound up in Jewish identity as they were without advocates, if not discreet acceptance, within that community. The true duress ("ones") was not what nature gave them to be - gays or lesbians - but how their families and communities of origin abandoned them, and in so doing, took away from themselves a part of G-d's creation.
I found the DVD's supplementary materials, especially the "road show" segment and the interviews with the rabbis to be extremely riveting. The rabbis were able in large part to tell personal stories of their experience with homosexuality in their communities and personal lives in a way that went beyond halachic and religious posturing.
Rating:
Summary: Finding Room
Review: Sandi Simcha Dubowski has made a splendid, thoughtful documentary that captures perfectly the varying responses of individuals caught between the orientation they feel naturally aligned with and the belief system that omits or even condemns them: what is it like to be gay or lesbian who is an Orthodox or Hasidic Jew? Is there room for them in their own religion? No single point of view is proffered as the correct one; instead each person's particular difficulties are laid out for our consideration. Some remain sympathetic to their faith; some have all but abandoned it. As a former fundamentalist Christian, I identified with the inner struggle these people endured - the sometimes awful tension between what one has been raised to believe and what one's heart has come to intrinsically feel. And having known a few gays within fundamentalism, too, I have to wonder, how do they stay? What must their struggle be like? Congratulations Mr. Dubowski on a fine and worthy effort.
Rating:
Summary: This is more than a social analysis
Review: Someone from NC wrote that he doesn't see what's new in this movie, and that it was simply depressing. I think he may have missed the whole point of the movie, which is sad. The depth of the movie is in combining two intense experiences, sexuality and spirituality and to show how the protagonists' spiritual experience rooted in personal integrity and responsibility within a religious moral system engenders conflicts with their sexual orientation, conflicts that are not simply social or familial (or "coping" issues) but deep-seated emotional and spiritual struggles. For these young men are not just acting like puppets in their religious acts, and it is not just a belief, a dogma that they abide to. No, they experience their spirituality in their mind and their heart, and the way they struggle to resolve the conflict between their sexuality and their spirituality without compromising either is what makes this movie so interesting and moving.
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