‘Re/Pair’ Pairs Black and Jewish Artists in a Toronto Talk Show About Their Fraying Coalition

The Toronto International Film Festival has welcomed a new documentary from director Lacey Schwartz Delgado. The film, titled Re/Pair, takes on the form of a talk show while aiming to teach viewers about history. Schwartz Delgado gathers 19 pairs of Black and Jewish artists, pundits and spiritual leaders to explore the shared troubled past of their two communities. The film runs 101 minutes.

The film’s central idea comes from Martin Luther King Jr.: “People fail to get along with each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other. They don’t know each other because they have not properly communicated with each other.” Delgado’s answer is to force that communication on screen, pairing people across racial lines and letting the cameras roll.

The Format

Each of the 19 pairings gets its own conversation, conducted in a dark room with chairs and no dress code. Delgado stays mostly unheard, and The Hollywood Reporter’s review notes that the prompting appears minimal — questions, brief prompts or historical background footage, but not much more. The conversations range from warm to tense, and some barely register at all.

The name points toward Tikkun olam, a Jewish idea about fixing the world. The arrangement of the conversation is the remedy: two people who do not know each other take a seat and converse.

Who Shows Up

This cast draws on the familiar faces of two late-night talk shows. It pairs David Schwimmer with Harry Lennix, who share a history together at Northwestern. The rest of the roster includes W. Kamau Bell, Robert Klein, Susan Orlean and Matisyahu, with Van Jones stepping into the role of executive producer.

Some thinkers and personalities carry devoted followings within their own fields, even when they remain little known beyond them. A few are actually despised rather than celebrated. The review points out that Delgado found almost nothing of value in some of her subjects, and that her disappointment is plain to see.

The Conversations That Work

Some of the pairings fall short, while others stick. The review points to a select few that work.

• The clergy double-bill of Rabbi Sharon Brous and Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews
• The respectful debates between Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Rabbi Susan Goldberg

The standout exchanges trace the strain that threads through the most engaging discussions. A number of the strongest pairings feature subjects who identify as both Black and Jewish, moving between two identities.

The Conversations That Don’t

Some conversations stay on safe terrain. Matisyahu and Che “Rhymefest” Smith talk about musical appropriation and authenticity. Others are couched in history, with several subjects discussing the impact of Jesse Jackson’s notorious “Hymietown” comments, including Rev. Jackson’s daughter Ashley.

Many find it difficult to make sense of the decades of changing loyalties among African Americans and the obligations felt by Jewish Americans toward Israel and Gaza. A review points out that several conversations could have used more probing questions, including one where a participant appears fairly hostile toward Jews in a way the reviewer doubts was their genuine intent.

Why It Matters

At this point in time, relations between Black and Jewish communities have grown strained. The Crown Heights riots, along with the aftermath of the tragedies of October 7, 2023, have revealed fissures that had remained concealed under a long-standing alliance.

That coalition was integral to shaping 20th-century America. Black and Jewish groups, often “othered” within our cultural tapestry, found power in unity. They fought fascism and prejudice together, steering entertainment, sports and politics along the way.

The bond between these two groups has been so central to their identities and to our nation that it spurred further creative effort. Henry Louis Gates Jr. made Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History, which first aired on PBS in February of this year. The review describes the series as a fine docuseries, even if it only grazes the surface of this shared history across its four-hour span.

The Limits of the Project

Re/Pair is important but short of essential. If you haven’t seen the Gates series and don’t know the history of Blacks and Jews in America in any particular depth, this film offers only a faint whiff of that history, rushing through or eliding information that’s crucial to understanding the surrounding issues. The review recommends watching the Gates doc first.

A solid foundation does not make up for the film’s lack of control. Meeting 38 subjects across nineteen pairings raises the question of how anyone managed to achieve equal balance in under two hours. Roughly a third of those pairings get barely any attention or are shown through only one side of the back-and-forth.

A firmer director’s touch might have brought about more engagement or steered the conversations into somewhat more provocative ground. As it stands, without that intervention, some topics remain untouched, and some troubling remarks are left unexamined.

What It Captures

“Solidarity is about growing our ability to be more compassionate toward each other.”

The reviewer describes Re/Pair as an effective cog in a valuable empathy machine, and the film itself captures at least the path that leads us to the path forward — those are the words of Patrisse Cullors, speaking in the film.

The film isn’t a perfect recap of history. It is, in the reviewer’s words, “an effective cog in a valuable empathy machine,” capturing at least the path that leads us to the path forward.

The Bottom Line

Re/Pair is a sincere, sometimes awkward attempt at dialogue. It recognizes its own limits and embraces the messy reality of conversation. The review calls it a fair, sometimes uncomfortable contribution to a national conversation that desperately needs one.

The film doesn’t settle anything. It doesn’t need to. It simply puts two people in a room and lets them talk.

Black-Jewish relations · Documentary · film review · Toronto Film Festival · Van Jones