The Twins & The Long Journey Home

the long version

The twins: Two children survive the Holocaust, but are separated: Chaim emigrates to Israel, and Brachah, his twin, is converted by the nuns who sheltered her, despite her valiant efforts to remain a believing Jew. "Years of turbulence and upheaval pass. Yet there are bonds of the spirit within them that cannot be cut." -- The long journey home: "Shlomo came from the beis midrash, a microcosm of intensive religious study; Zissel was the daughter of a wealthy assimilated lawyer. Both idealistically left Poland and joined the chalutzim [farming pioneers] on their way to rebuild Palestine. However, a tempestuous whirlwind of conflicting Zionist ideologies makes life in the Promised Land bewilderingly difficult. Few of their ideals are fulfilled, and Shlomo is bitterly disappointed. Though no longer observant, the concepts and values absorbed in the yeshivah stay rooted within him; and in an unending search for an ideal, truly just society, he leaves Palestine for the 'utopia' of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Zissel also returns to Europe, and both are caught up in the maelstrom of World War II. Subjected to intense suffering, they must each come to terms with their existence as Jews in order to find meaning in their lives.'--