CBN Films Releases New Documentary

THE GENIUS OF ISRAEL

“All of Israel is responsible for one another.” – Talmud Savuot 39a
 
At a time of global challenges and personal stress, Israel consistently ranks high in metrics of life satisfaction.  The United Nations’ “World Happiness Report” in March 2023 surprisingly listed Israel at number four.  A year later, even though the nation was embroiled in a war for its existence, Israel dropped only one spot (by contrast, the United States of America fell from 15 to 23 in that same time frame).
 
The Jewish state also scored high in a number of other metrics.  It has the world’s ninth-highest life expectancy (the average Israeli will live four years longer than the average American).  The country shows fewer signs of social decay, with the lowest rates of suicide and drug overdoses, and the third-lowest for alcohol consumption.  Teen suicide rates in Israel is 75 percent lower than in the United States.  Loneliness, while reaching epidemic proportions in the West, has actually fallen by twenty percent in Israel.
 
So what is their secret?  Why are Israelis so happy?  The Genius of Israel, based on the book of the same name by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, explores this answer.
 
CONNECTIONS       

“[Judaism] managed the delicate balance between both giving equal weight to individual rights and collective responsibility.” – Paul Johnson, British historian
 
According to author Saul Singer, Israelis are happy because of two main factors: the first is a connection to family and community; the second is a sense of meaning and purpose. 
 
Typically, as countries get richer, the people have fewer children.  This leads to an aging populace, and many nations have fallen below the replacement level of fertility.  Israel, however, has dodged this trend.  They are, in essence, enjoying a “seventy-year baby boom.”
 
Part of this is due to the government’s promotion of pro-family policies such as paid maternity leave and free daycare.  Part of it comes naturally: companies themselves are flexible to their employees’ family needs, and so people don’t have to choose between children and a career.  Israeli communities as a whole also play a major role in the development of children.  Strangers look out for children in public, and it’s natural for Israelis to be heavily involved in the lives of their grandchildren and other members of their extended families.
 
This sense of community is on display every Friday night, when the Jewish people stop to share the three thousand-year-old ritual of Shabbat.  This observance is understood to be spent with family and friends.  And rather than treating it as a day of restrictions, Israelis use it as a day of rest.  Jonathan Medved, an Israeli entrepreneur, says it’s a time to have fun, eat, drink, read a book, go to the park, etc.  Most importantly, it is a time to reflect on something bigger than yourself.  That is a message taught to Israelis from the cradle to the grave: it’s not all about you.  Each and every person gets the sense that they are part of a larger purpose.
 

THE WAR AGAINST HAMAS         

“As I go around Israel, I see a country that has taken every curse thrown against it and turned it into a blessing.” – Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
 
One of the reasons why Israelis have major senses of community, unity, and shared purpose is through military service, which has become a great equalizer in the nation.  “You have the son of a billionaire, and the son of a cab driver... they’re sitting in the hull of a tank together,” says Dan Senor.  “When you’re in this experience together, it makes it harder to look at different people in your society as ‘the other.’  They’re like crucible experiences where they look at one another and say “that person is my fellow citizen.”
 
Israel also does a great job a maximizing its human potential.  Women play major roles in military combat.  A program called “Roim Rachok” helps train autistic students to be able to use their unique skills to make a contribution to the war effort.  These students – normally overlooked – are often later recruited by tech giants such as Intel and Microsoft.  Saul Singer says “We have a better job of understanding what everybody can do and giving a sense to everyone that they are necessary.”
 
After the October 7th attacks, many Israelis volunteered for service.  As one Israeli soldier said, “They understood that the country’s calling.  And when the country calls, you show up.  Period.”  These volunteers went far beyond helping in just a military capacity.  Ordinary citizens, who may have aged out of fighting, dropped everything to assist their fellow Israelis.  Some grilled food for IDF soldiers.  Others went to agricultural settlements to pick oranges, milk cows, and harvest crops.  Because they had a sense of purpose, they were quick to serve.
 
This unity-in-the-face-of-adversity has made for a stronger nation.  Singer adds, “I think Israel may be the most resilient country in the world.  Because we’ve had so many shocks over so many years and because we build resistance into the way we raise our children and we grow up,” says Saul Singer.  “We talk about post-traumatic stress, but there’s also something called post-traumatic growth, which is that you don’t just bounce back.  Resilience is when you bounce back to where you were before.  Post-traumatic growth is when you bounce back to something better than you were before.”
 
TIKKUN OLAM

“Repairing the World”
 
This sense of a “larger purpose” extends beyond their borders, as seen in their commitment to “Tikkun Olam,” or “repairing the world.”  According to Jonathan Medved, they see it as their duty as global citizens to do just that: “Israeli is supposed to be a country of blessing.  A country where we are basically leading and challenging humanity to make things right, to do what’s called ‘Tikkun Olam’ to fix the world.”  They demonstrate this by providing life-saving medical care for children from Gaza, West Bank, Syria – places they are technically at war with – as well as helping refugees and other victims from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Turkey.

Indirectly, Israeli advances in agriculture and water conservation have helped other countries find solutions to food and water shortages.  Israeli-made technology include the flash drive, wireless printer, and the chips that power many smart devices.  Other breakthroughs include new methods of cancer detection and treatment, a way to help paraplegics walk, stents for cardiac patients, and more.
 
THE ORACLES OF GOD
 
After the completion of The Genius of Israel, Erin Zimmerman resumed work on The Oracles of God, a series of feature-length docudramas about the creation and canonization of the Bible.  The first installment, The Story of the Old Testament, was released in Spring 2023.  She is currently working on The New Testament (scheduled release 2025), which has been filming on location in Israel. 
 

For more information on The Genius of Israel or other CBN Films, Click the links! The Genius of Israel  CBN Films

CREDITS

Writer / Producer / Director of CBN Films; selected credits include Emmy-nominated documentaries Made in Israel (2014, Outstanding Special Class Writing) and To Life: How Israeli Volunteers are Changing the World (2018, Outstanding Special Class Series & Outstanding Writing Special Class), plus docudrama The Hope: The Rebirth of Israel (2016, Outstanding Writing Special Class).  In Our Hands: The Battle for Jerusalem (2017) debuted in U.S. theaters as one of the highest-grossing documentaries of the year.