Wrestling Jerusalem

Wrestling Jerusalem is a

San Francisco, California.^[2]^[3] The play was made into a feature film, directed by Dylan Kussman, and staring Mr. Davidman and premiered at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco as a featured film in the 2017 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. It is streaming on Prime Video, APPLE TV+, GooglePlay

and other platforms.

Background and performances

Aaron Davidman is a Jewish-American actor who identifies as a socio-political "progressive", and he drew upon the occurrences during the many trips that he'd personally taken to Israel over the years. Wrestling Jerusalem takes inspiration from his attempt to emotionally comprehend the multiple perspectives that he's encountered, many of them filled with anxiety and sorrow about traumatic experiences. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict weighs heavily on the contents of the drama.^[1]^[2]

The

Islamic prayer.^[1]^[2]

In one particular moment, the performer takes the role of an

Israeli doctor commenting on the various sufferings that the character has witnessed. The doctor displays a disinterest in weighing what particular group of people has endured more, remarking that "I do not compare levels of trauma". Davidman declares, "It is irrelevant. Trauma is trauma."^[1]

The play had an '

Vimeo.com that year as well, highlighting the play's lighting and use of music.^[3]

Reviews

Wrestling Jerusalem has received a mixed yet supportive review from Laura Collins-Hughes of The New York Times. She labelled the production a "smartly written solo show" that "trusts in the power of the human voice and the capacity of the human heart." While stating that the characterization becomes "intensely frustrating", with the individuals profiled needing "far more room to breathe than they're allowed", she cited how the drama "believes that listening to one another's stories can change the way we move through the world."^[1]

The San Francisco Chronicle

has published a laudatory review by Robert Hurwitt, who wrote:

"No answers are forthcoming. We could hardly expect any. Davidman's quest is rooted in the importance of listening to each other to seek understanding. His portraits are riveting, and the varieties of intransigence revealed are disturbing. But for anyone who's been paying attention, they're also painfully familiar."^[2]