Defiance Descendants to Talk at KI Movie Night

The Edward Zwick movie ‘Defiance,’ starring Daniel Craig and Leiv Schreiber as the Bielski brothers, is one of a few recent Holocaust movies that portrayed Jews as fighters, not victims. But unlike the Quenten Tarantino hit ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ a purely fictional piece of revenge fantasy, ‘Defiance’ was based on a true story. Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Synagogue on Sunset will screen ‘Defiance’ as part of its monthly Movie Night on Thursday, March 25 at 6:30 p.m. Longtime Pacific Palisades resident Chana Messer, whose parents lived through the ordeal portrayed in the film, will participate on a panel at the screening, along with ‘Defiance’ screenwriter Clayton Frohman (he co-wrote the movie with Zwick, a Rustic Canyon resident), and Sharon Rennert, granddaughter of Tuvia Bielski (portrayed by Craig in the movie). ‘This year, unlike in years past, our movie night committee (which consists of congregational lay leaders, Rabbi Jon Hanish, and me), chose to create a lineup of six films all with an interesting Jewish theme,’ says Matt Davidson?, program director at Kehillat Israel. ‘We slotted ‘Defiance’ in preparation for Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 11.’ Released in December 2008, ‘Defiance’ depicts the Bielski Brothers’ seemingly impossible task of hiding, sheltering and feeding a small village of several hundred Jews””women, children, and seniors included”while on the run, hiding in the deep forests of the German-occupied Poland and Belorussia. The group spent three years surviving horrendous weather and living conditions, ultimately concluding in a rare happy ending coming out of the Holocaust. ‘Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben was approached by the film’s screenwriter a while back to gauge whether we might be interested in doing a screening,?’ explains Davidson. In addition to Frohman, Kehillat Israel has congregational ties to Rennert and Messer, who may also bring some cousins, one of whom was 5 or 6 years old in the forests, if they are healthy enough to travel from Northern California. The Palisadian-Post caught up with Messer last Friday at her ‘office,’ the Starbucks on Swarthmore and Sunset where the local web designer can often be found working on her laptop. Among her freelance gigs: for 18 years, Messer has taught digital media to employees of Disney Feature Animation. Messer’s father, Hertzel Nohomovski, fled from a ghetto in a small town in Belorussia. ‘The town my father is from is Navaradok, my mother [Gutke] is from Korelitz,’ Messer says. ‘They are both from towns next to the Belarus forest, where the Bielskis were hiding.’ A friend insisted that Nohomovski meet his beautiful cousin. ‘My father fell in love with her, and demanded that she go with him [into the forest] or he wouldn’t go,’ Messer says. ‘They married in the forest and after the war, they [renewed] their vows with a rabbi in Israel.’ Until the movie ‘Defiance’ and the book that it was based on (Nechama Tec’s ‘Defiance: The Bielski Partisans’), many were unaware of this remarkable chapter in Holocaust history. Messer recalls that her father used to tour schools in Israel to talk about this little-known event. ‘My father was a wonderful, energetic storyteller,’ Messer says. ‘All the people depicted in the movie, they’re like my family. ‘I liked the movie a lot. For once, they told the story of Jews fighting for their lives in the Holocaust.’ Messer knew the real-life Tuvia and Zus (played by Schreiber) personally. After living in Israel, the Bielski brothers and their families (each brother had three kids with their respective wives) lived in Brooklyn, and Messer would often dined with them on the Sabbath. Messer points out the movie’s small fallacies that resulted from the story being streamlined for dramatic purposes. Contrary to the film, Tuvia’s wife did not study music, and she and Tuvia had been aware of each other before they were introduced. Tuvia and Zus did not butt heads as much in real life. ‘He was very kind, very good-looking,’ she says of Tuvia, who ‘did not get the respect [from the Jewish community]. He was a hero.’ After surviving the Holocaust, Messer’s parents moved to Gedera, Israel, then Rishon LeZion (today Israel’s third biggest city), where Messer grew up. She graduated from Tel Aviv University’s theater/fine arts department, then lived in Israel until she was 25. She resided in New York for 12 years before moving with her husband, Stephen Messer, who works in TV production, to California, where they’ve lived in Pacific Palisades since 1990. Messer and her husband have two girls: Gilli, 21, who currently attends Columbia University, and Romi, 15, a 10th-grader at Palisades High School. Gilli, who also attended PaliHi, was voted Miss Palisades in 2004. Messer says Pacific Palisades ‘is a great community and I love being an active part of it, especially with the schools. I volunteer a lot with art.’ Like clockwork during her interview with the Post, a pair of passing Palisades High teens exchange greetings with Messer, who is currently donating her artistic services to graphics for an upcoming PaliHi play. The Bielski brothers did not live to see the release of ‘Defiance.’ Tuvia died in the late 1980s and Zus passed away five years ago. But in the wake of the movie, Messer has noticed a lot of reaction and awareness to the event depicted in Zwick’s movie. ‘I got phone calls in the Palisades from friends who were not Jewish but who went to see the movie,’ Messer says. ‘They were fascinated.’ Messer’s father died in 1996, but her mother is still alive at 90. ‘She was invited to the ‘Defiance’ premiere,’ Messer says. ‘Surprisingly, she loved it. She has the DVD. ‘I joked with her and I said, One of the girls peeling the potatoes was you.’ She said, ‘Are you kidding? I’m the chef!” For information on the ‘Defiance’ screening, visit kehillatisrael.org. Visit ChanaMesser.com. Michael@palipost.com