The Olive and the Tree

THE Secret Strength
of the Druze

In Person
Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Thursday, November 30 at 7:15pm

Reception w/Food, Beverages, and Book Signing
Advance Reservations Recommended (no refunds)
$15 Members • $25 Public

The Olive and the Tree is Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s fourth documentary. While the subject matter she has chosen has always varied, the purpose remains the same: to demonstrate the importance of family values, with a particular focus on the manner in which they are transmitted to future generations. In her latest film, Dr. Ruth tells the story of the Druze, Israel’s most fascinating non-Jewish religious minority. Starting with childhood education, the Druze constantly must fight to maintain the sect’s unique cultural and social identity despite the lure of assimilation. There is no converting to the Druze. You must be born into it. Their religion is an 11th century offshoot of Islam which developed as a separate faith. There are approximately 700,000 Druze in the world today, of which 115,000 live in the mountain villages of Israel’s Galilee and Carmel regions. Because their faith preaches loyalty to the nations in which they reside, the Druze, unique among Israel’s non-Jewish minorities, perform compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces. As a result, the Druze have earned the trust and respect of Israel’s citizens and government. Their unique status, however, has forced the Druze to confront challenges to their continued existence as a distinct social group. As the modern world continues to intrude, how can the Druze preserve their cultural identity? (Israel/USA, 2006, color, 60 min., color)

Known to millions the world over as simply“ Dr. Ruth,” Dr Ruth Westheimer is a celebrated psychosexual therapist and pioneer in the field of media psychology, an author of 31 books (and counting) and a filmmaker. In the fall of 1993, Dr. Ruth had her own weekly series in Hebrew on Israeli television and in 1991 she served as Executive Producer for a documentary on Ethiopian Jews titled “Surviving Salvation.” Filmed by the Academy Award winning Malcolm Clarke, the documentary aired nationally on PBS. Her second documentary, entitled “No Missing Link,” also received national airing on PBS and was about how grandparents have transmitted values, particularly religious values during the 70 years of communism in Russia. Her latest documentary, “The Olive and The Tree: The Secret Strength of the Druze” was completed in February of 2006. She also has material for another based on a visit to the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea. Currently Dr. Westheimer is an Adjunct Professor at N.Y.U. and an Associate Fellow of Calhoun College at Yale University, where she taught a course on the American family in the Fall of 2005, and a Fellow of Butler College at Princeton University, where in the spring of 2007 she will once again be teaching a course on the Jewish family. She is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and in addition to having her own private practice, she frequently lectures at universities across the country and has twice been named “College Lecturer of the Year.”

Great Holiday Gift! 
Dr. Ruth will autograph the new edition of her best-selling book,‘Sex for Dummies,” after the film!

Thank you to our sponsors