NEW YORK — The story of Leo Zisman almost wasn’t told. The 81-year-old Holocaust survivor and title character of a new documentary called The Lion of Judah found his way into the film by chance. Or, as he might put it, by hashgacha pratit – Divine Providence.
“I was signed up to make a film documenting the journey of a group of young adults scheduled to visit Auschwitz when one of the participants told me I needed to meet a survivor he recently met,” said Matt Mindell, the 42-year-old director of The Lion of Judah.”
“So I arranged to meet Leo in New York City, where we both live, and was stunned by this man’s magnetic personality. He’s gregarious, has a love for life, and a deep attachment to Judaism despite everything he’s been through.
“I said, ‘Leo, I’d love to interview you for this film I’m making about a first-time journey to the death camps for a bunch of young people.
And he said, ‘Interview me? Why don’t you take me with you?’”
More than a year later, Mindell can’t imagine the film without the man for whom it is named.
In The Lion of Judah, Zisman returns for his first in-depth trip to Eastern Europe since the war. (In 2005, he visited Auschwitz on the 60th anniversary of its liberation). Mindell’s camera follows Zisman as he leads three dozen young Jews on an intimate journey that retraces his tragic boyhood path from Kovno, Lithuania to the Warsaw Ghetto, where he was separated from his family and sent to the Stutthof concentration camp, and from there to Auschwitz, where he eventually survived the war.
The young adults who accompany Zisman speak of their own search for identity and answers to one of history’s darkest periods. Several are descendants of Holocaust survivors themselves.
“To anyone who sees the film, it’s obvious that Leo enjoys being around young people,” says Mindell. “And it’s equally obvious how much affection and respect they have for him.”
The Lion of Judah also features several interviews with young Poles who express ambivalence about Jews and the Holocaust. Some are sympathetic to the tragedy and modern in their views, while others cling to traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes.
After the war, Zisman settled in the U.S. and prospered as a builder and developer in New York City. He received degrees in mathematics, architecture, and engineering, but is especially proud of the rabbinic ordination he obtained from the United Lubavitch Yeshiva.
Zisman has been married to Myrna for 53 years. The couple has three children, 10 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
“Leo is the epitome of Jewish strength and survival – that’s why I call him ‘The Lion of Judah.’ He could’ve been killed numerous times during the war, but somehow he made it through and now he’s here to teach us,” says Mindell.
“Leo really believes it is his duty to pass the baton of Jewish identity to the next generation and it’s clear that the youngsters who meet him respond to his message.”
Critics, too, are responding to The Lion of Judah. The 60-minute film was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the 2012 Film Festival of Colorado and received an Award of Excellence at the 2012 Los Angeles Movie Awards in the Feature Length Documentary Category.
The Lion of Judah will run six times daily at New York City’s QUAD Cinema from August 10 to August 16.
yasher koach ytzy ,you represented me ,in 1941 i was in a concentration camp only 4 years old ,my mother told me ,it was a miracle how i survived .by the way ,leibl zisman is my dear friend, aron dalfin .
Credit must also be given to Matt Mindell, the writer & director who had the vision to make this film. Hopefully this is just the first of many future films and projects he will create. He is truly talented.
this is so sad, but interesting and i feel like I’ve been in the place i didn’t watch the video but I want to, i just don’t now where to get it.to #2 i agree
His book I Believe is very inspirational. I give them as gifts.
Look where all those anti-Semites are today. And look where Laibel is. This is what has to be stressed that anyone who starts up with G-D’s chosen nation can never win. henya
i’m one of the guys in the interview. according to the polish translator who accompanied Matt Mindel (the gentlemen conducting the interview) the polish anti-semite said “we say no to you”. btw, in all our travels around Poland, in Warsaw, Krakow, Auschwitz everyone was extremely friendly. poles came over to us all the time to help us out. if they saw us lost and looking at a map, ppl would cross the street and ask to help us. it was just random bad luck that exactly when we were being interviewed and saying how friendly ppl were, one crazy guy… Read more »
to see chabad is everywhere.
I both don’t go to movies, and live abroad on shlichus — how can we see this film?
I couldn’t understand him. And I would love to know how else would be able to watch this video.
is there any way we can watch this if we dont go to the movies?
not only has he done it, but like the trailer said, very few would go back to the place they experienced awfulness and torture and cruelty.
I guess anti-semitism lives
to go back there like that and tell about the horrors which one experienced is truly something.
can you watch this online somewhere?
wha a kiddish hashem by those two lubavitcher bochurim.
notice the set of likutei sichos and other lubavitch seforim behind him on the shelf when he talks
did you see those two lubav. bochurim being interviewed? nice. one was holding teffilin under his arm.
really powerful. you hardly get to meet a holocaust surviver let alone one who is willing to talk about his past.
I have heard him speak (totally unaware of his past) and then read his book, truly amazing story. He should have many, many healthy, long happy years