“It’s not about comparing scars,” says Rabbi Capers Funnye, his thought completed moments later by Dr. Michael Berenbaum’s, “It doesn’t mean the Holocaust doesn’t have something to say about slavery and slavery doesn’t have something to say about the Holocaust. Both of them have something to say about suffering.” You couldn’t prove it by my Hebrew school teacher, Rabbi Sol Lerner, who, in 1966, escorted his class to Chicago’s Roosevelt Theatre — a downtown picture palace that took up an entire city block — to attend a performance of the 10-year anniversary reissue of DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. As early as age 11, my mind associated the term slavery with African-Americans, but it wasn’t until that Passover week matinee when I began to realize that Jews were once considered human chattel. “Were Jewish slaves like black slaves?” I asked Rabbi Lerner while waiting for the northbound Howard “L” train to arrive. “No!” he answered in tones that incited an instant change of subject. “We had it worse.” It had been a long time since this “L” platform pissing contest returned to mind; it might never have come back were it not for Peter Yarrow’s aide-memoire, “Pharaoh enslaved the Jews.” Writer-director Shari Rogers’ documentary takes us through a concise history of the century-old coming together of African-American and Jewish communities. The coalition came of age during the Civil Rights Movement, as many witnesses will attest, but the relationship has remained stagnant over the past 30 years. The film’s prevailing voice of reason, the one that stayed with me after the film ended, belongs to Yavilah McCoy, an African-American advocate for Jews of color. “Jews believe in meritocracy,” she asserts — the notion that people get ahead in life through demonstrated abilities and merit.” She continues, “There is no narrative that advances the story of Civil Rights... Blacks and Jews, now more than ever, need to carry each other’s story in mind, heart, and spirit.” This powerful tale acts as a reminder of a friendship that, now more than ever, must endure. (2020) — Scott Marks