'Ever Again' looks at rising anti-Semitism

The film "Ever Again" was intended to be a wake-up call. "Ever Again" was not made in order to bring about solutions to anti-Semitism, Rabbi Aron Hier explained in a phone interview from his California home. Rabbi Hier is director of campus outreach at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the funding agency for Moriah Films.

"Ever Again," of course, is a reference to the Holocaust and to the vow made by people of all faiths, in many parts of the world, "Never Again." We will never again stand by and let entire groups be systematically destroyed.

And yet, the point of the film is that Jews are once again seeing their synagogues attacked, are being personally threatened and beaten in Europe by Muslims and by neo-Nazis while liberals stand by.

Rabbi Hier comes to Utah this week to be present on the campus of four different universities as this film is shown. He says he's already been present at more than 30 screenings and, he says, the film perhaps falls a little short by not offering hope of a solution.

The 75-minute film is about hatred, he notes. "About letting each person decide how they can contribute to getting rid of hatred. So, I'll be honest: It is polarizing. It doesn't send a fluffy positive message."

The film shows German youths at rock concerts where they listen to songs that call for the stabbing of Jews. High school teachers in Belgium say many of their peers are afraid to teach the true history of the Second World War, afraid of offending the Muslim students in their classrooms who insist the Holocaust never happened.

The film shows an interview with a Frenchman who was wearing his skull cap when he was beaten on the streets. His pregnant wife was shoved, violently. He weeps when he recounts the incident, saying, "My wife is afraid, now."

Moderate European Muslims are shown as victims as well. Rabbi Hier says they too are afraid and have, thus far, been unable to stand up to the radical imams.

Rabbi Hier enjoys traveling in Europe. He loves being surrounded by all that history. And yet, he says, he is careful. The last time he was in Amsterdam, he was told he would not be safe if he wore his skullcap, and so he didn't wear it.

With the exception of the U.K., he says, Europeans seem to favor diplomacy and appeasement. "America doesn't like to appease terrorists," he notes. The movie features several Holocaust survivors who think Europe is starting to feel the way it did when they were young.

If you go

What: "Ever Again," a screening of the 2006 film

Where: Vieve Gore Concert Hall, Westminster College, 1840 S. 1300 East

When: Thursday, 7 p.m.

How much: free

Phone: 746-7000

Web: www.slcfilmcenter.org

Also: The film will be shown Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Shepherd Union Wildcat Theatre at Weber State University in Ogden and at 2 p.m. at Taggart Hall at Utah State University in Logan. It also screens Thursday at 3 p.m. in the Union Theatre, Union Building, University of Utah.

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E-mail: susan@desnews.com