Film: Shalom Ireland

Shalom Ireland is a fascinating documentary about Ireland's remarkable, yet little known Jewish community. The film chronicles the history of Irish Jewry while celebrating the unique culture created by blending Irish and Jewish traditions. From gun running for the Irish Republican Army during Ireland's War of Independence to smuggling Jews escaping from the Holocaust into Palestine, the film tells the story of Irish Jews involved in the creation and development of both Ireland and Israel.

Following the screening there is a discussion about Jewish Irish identity and how it is represented in James Joyce’s seminal work, Ulysses, with filmmaker Valerie Lapin Ganley and Dr. Joshua Gang, professor of English at UC Berkeley.

Valerie Lapin Ganley is an award-winning filmmaker and activist. In 1998, she founded Share Productions, an independent video production company that produces documentaries that explore class, gender and race issues, and the challenges and benefits that ethnic and religious diversity bring to society. Share Production’s first undertaking was the production of Shalom Ireland which was produced, directed and written by Ganley and is her first feature length film.

Joshua Gang is associate professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches courses on British and Irish modernism, the intersections between literature and philosophy and the history of literary criticism. His book Behaviorism, Consciousness, and the Literary Mind came out from Johns Hopkins University Press in 2021 and his work has also appeared in journals such as Critical Inquiry, ELH, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, and PMLA.

The Shalom Ireland screening and discussion is part of the library's Bloomsbay series of events celebrating the centenary of James Joyce's Ulysses. 

For a full calendar of events visit irishculturebayarea/bloomsbay

This event is co-sponsored by the Contemporary Jewish Museum.