Where is home?

Voyage Journal 2-Harry

Harry Finkbeiner, a Christian German, came to Israel over thirty years ago and decided to bind his fate to the Jewish people in Israel. He is one of some young Germans who came during the decades to Israel in order to atone for the sins of their parents’ generation during WW2. Harry is a holistic naturopath mainly works with gentle chiropractic and lives in Kibbutz Harduf in the lower Galilee. Here he met a beautiful Jewish woman named Hannah and married her.

Harry and I met for the first time in the middle of the second Intifada. At the time Harry asked me to join and film “quiet peace walks”, a group of men and women who are following the method of the spiritual Buddhist and peace activist “Thich Nhat Hanh”. The group of Arabs and Jews attempted to bring more understanding and tolerance between Israelis and Palestinians in the thorn field of the conflict. I filmed the group’s activities. Later on Harry and I started our own visits to the combat zones in the West Bank and Gaza. He would take me to Palestinian families that he is in contact with and I would film and interview them about their lives under the occupation. Even today, despite the prohibition of the Israeli crossing the lines, Harry goes out weekly, usually alone, to visit his Palestinians friends and patients in the territories. They receive him with love mixed with admiration and even consider him a holy man. In these trips across the borders he brings food and gifts for adults and children. Continuously he’d say: “All that I do I do for you, Israeli Jews”.

In the coming year I plan to travel with Harry in Germany. My intention is to try to find out more about the foundation of both our families and the thin line that distinguishes between being here, in Israel and there, Germany.

For the last 12 years I've been working on a long documentary film that is very precious to me. "Where is home" deals with the relation between our private home and homeland in its various implications... Learn More