Labor of Thy Hands (1950)

★★★★ · New Hope in Israel (for a Little While, at Least) · Christine Hennig · 2005-09-25

This 50s film, made by Hadassa, the womens Zionist organization, tells us about the various vocational training programs the organization funds in Israel, and how they are bringing new hope to young people who previously had none. The Holocaust casts a long shadow on this film, though it is never explicitly mentioned. But there are all kinds of hints that the young people we see learning various job skills are mostly concentration camp survivors who not long ago had no reason to believe they would have any future at all. This lends the film a hopeful quality, as we see them given help to…

★★★★ · Israel and America: a match made by films like this · K.P. Lee · 2003-08-20

"You'll meet Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. I repeat. Of America. Remember that." "Labor of Thy Hands" details and promotes Hadassah-backed vocational education projects in Israel. This film is a truly fascinating historical document. Over and over again, this film tries to link Israel with American ideals. Nearly every hackneyed American cliche can be seen here (the pioneer, "Life, Libery, and the Pursuit of Happiness," and even gender stereotypes). There a slight hints of Cold War rhetoric, as the narrator talks about the "free world" and "democracy." We can see the…

★★★ · Labor of Thy Hands · Big Boomer · 2008-04-20

Clearly an early propaganda film designed to promote closer ties between the Zionist State and the U.S. at a time when the Arabs and Egyptians were "barking at the gates." It does not, however, appear very different from similar films made in the early 21st century designed to cast the Zionist State in a favorable light in American eyes. Taken as an example of cold war era propaganda, it is a good film of the genre.