Flory's personal journey began in a small town called Vlasenica outside Sarajevo in Bosnia. When she was a child, she moved to Zagreb, Croatia, where she and her parents stayed until they were forced to flee during World War II - first to Split along Croatia's coast, then to the island of Korcula in the Adriatic Sea, and finally to Bari, Italy, where Flory met a US Master Sergeant in the Army Air Force who would become her husband, Harry Jagoda.

JEMGLO videotaping in Korcula

To re-create imagery from Flory's life 70 years ago, JEMGLO personnel videotaped in June at relevant locations, hoping to convey snippets of her experiences through the camera lens via the eyes of the photographer, Curt Fissel.

Significantly, despite tragedies Flory has faced, she has spent her life looking forward with a positive perspective, composing, performing, and teaching the music that she learned from her Nona (grandmother), who was taught by her Nona, who was taught by her Nona, all the way back to pre-Inquisition Spain. Flory's story is one of hope and affirmation expressed through very distinct and breathtaking melodies.

The video edit of Flory's Flame is now complete, and it enters the audio mixing and sweetening stage on June 21st for the next couple of weeks. The documentary will be finished by mid-August, ready to begin its film festival journey!

Marie Lippman, now a New Yorker who is originally from Elbeuf, decided to do something about the stars. About a week after the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of France (D-Day) ceremonies, Marie - with the help of Elbeuf's Mayor Djoud� Merabet and others in France - organized an event to preserve the yellow stars and install an adjacent plaque that reads:

The yellow stars painted on this wall during the "Occupation" (1940-1944) represent the Anti-Semitic hatred of the Nazis. They have been protected to remember forever the deadly dangers of racism.

Several hundred people showed up for the event, including Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld. Beate and her husband Serge were responsible for finding Klaus Barbie, known as the "Butcher of Lyon, " who brutally tortured French prisoners of the Gestapo. With respect to the Elbeuf installation, she told JEMGLO in an exclusive interview:

It's very important to have this here. If you have the plaque, the people look at it and know this is a synagogue and these yellow stars were put on it at this time, so the teachers of Elbeuf show the synagogue, the plaque, and then start to tell the whole story of the Shoah in France.

Marie Lippman, second to left, flanked by US Consul Robert Tate and Jewish community member Michelle Sultan. On far right is Beate Klarsfeld.

Since Elbeuf is located in the same province as Omaha Beach (the site of the invasion landings of Normandy) and since the plaque installation and the 70^th anniversary of D-Day events are both rooted in World War II, the Yellow Stars of Tolerance documentary is mindful of their interrelationship. Consequently, the JEMGLO crew members were given press passes to videotape at the American cemetery during the Official Ceremonies on the Occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation. With Presidents Obama and Hollande on the stage in front of the cameras, surrounded by 15,000 veterans and their families sitting on the cemetery grounds where more than 9,000 US soldiers are buried, it was a very powerful day. As President Obama stated:

Here, we don't just commemorate victory, as proud of that victory as we are.  We don't just honor sacrifice, as grateful as the world is.  We come to remember why America and our allies gave so much for the survival of liberty at its moment of maximum peril. We come to tell the story of the men and women who did it so that it remains seared into the memory of a future world.

Pres. Obama at 70th Anniversary of D-Day

Stay tuned!

Yellow Stars of Tolerance is now beginning post-production and is slated to be completed by the end of 2014.

The Ballad of Polish Jewish Poets

Between video shoots in Europe, JEMGLO's principals Ellen and Curt stopped in Wroclaw, Poland one weekend to attend the wedding of Polish American Jewish filmmaking friends Katka Reszke and Slawomir Grunberg. Katka and Slawek were married outside the Pod Bialym Bocianem synagogue, where JEMGLO's Ellen and Curt were married in 2000. Staying with our close friends in Wroclaw, the Krieger family, we learned about a wonderful project that musician/composer/businessman Romek Krieger is spearheading. Romek recently discovered a book of poetry written by Polish Jews before World War II expressing their love for their homeland of Poland, where Jews had lived for 800 years. Romek found some of the poems particularly powerful, and he decided to compose music to the lyrics. He brought his professional musician friend Jacek Telus onto the project, resulting in the recording of a very moving CD. Romek and Jacek performed for our JEMGLO cameras and talked in interviews about the meaning of these songs to them.  

 With the musicians already taking their compositions to various venues in Poland, JEMGLO intends to make a short documentary around a single, particularly impactful song as seen through the eyes of these two individuals who have breathed new life into heartfelt poetry that otherwise would have been forever lost on back shelves of a few Polish libraries.