As victims of genocide, as a people truly understanding what it means to be marked for death based on who you are and not what you have done, we have no other rational choice but to educate ourselves on these issues and at the expense of extreme hypocrisy cry out against it, wherever and to whomever it occurs.

Ten years ago nearly one million men, women and children were murdered in such a gruesome way that a gas chamber would have been viewed as a luxury. After political strife in Rwanda, Africa, the Hutu tribe rose above the Tutsi tribe and for reasons involving tribal differences and embedded jealousies Hutu gangs proceeded to literally hack Tutsi families with machetes as they screamed and pleaded, sobbed and begged, and copiously bled on roads, and in fields, and in kitchens. No mass graves or body burning ovens – just thousands upon thousands of bodies littering the earth like dried leaves in November. Hotel Rwanda, about these massacres and an Oskar Schindler type Hutu (played by the always involving Don Cheadle) housing Tutsi refugees in his hotel, is not a great film by any means, but its cinematic infractions are arguably outweighed by its importance.

For the first time in my life I questioned our Yom HaShoah mantra “Never Again”. Do we merely mean never again to Jews or is it the more humanistic “Never Again” - Not to us, not to anyone? I really don’t know. Yes, instinct dictates that we need care for our own, but to ignore (or undervalue) the suffering of innocent other as long as my shul is not burning just reeks of a deplorable insensitivity. Regardless of this separate discussion, Hotel Rwanda has the ability to open your eyes, if not just to remind of how cruel and petrifying (and alive) mindless hatred is, but to promote further recognition of the universality of genocide. Sometime, I believe, that Jews wrongly view themselves as the only relevant victim in history.

As mentioned earlier, the film as a film is not expertly crafted. Although it is based on true events and characters, in direct contrast to Spielberg’s devastatingly real Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda represents itself unabashedly as a movie. This is not a good thing when such serious facts are being portrayed  and it’s not a terrible thing either, but why not do the subject matter justice. Director Terry George, an Irishman making his feature film debut after some TV work,  continuously sets up fleeting “dramatic” scenarios that end up detracting from the emotional content as opposed to enhancing it. The biggest and most amateurish offense is the last five minutes of the film, complete with stereotypical African chant music and a frozen hero shot  with a cheesy line thrown in as the credits role. An ending so uninspired that it taints the entire picture. Cameo appearances by the inexplicably cast Joaquin Phoenix and a comically stoic Nick Nolte highlight the lack of quality editing and decision making.

Don Cheadle will be discussed come awards season, and not undeservedly, for his difficult impacting performance, but, again, I feel that the attention this film deserves stems from its historical relevance. Without any reservation I admit that in some cases, as is here, this is just. For those of my generation and younger who spent more time watching MTV than CNN in the early 1990’s, the film is a great resource, a way to begin the discussion.

I must conclude by reiterating the point that as Jews, Hotel Rwanda is nothing short of a must see.  The faces are black and the accent is African, but by G-d Hotel Rwanda feels like our familiar Holocaust movies. From the rounding up of neighbors in the night to the media propaganda trying to dehumanize the other and incite mob violence. How can we not relate and , in the very least, empathize with the slaughtered Tutsis? With the horrifying images from Hotel Rwanda resounding in our conscience and with open hearts and minds, perhaps our annual scream of “Never Again” can evolve into its most pure abstraction.