Robert Haiat

In Montreal, on Rosh Hashanah, 1948, writer Chaim is forced to reflect on his religion when asked to be the tenth in a minyan. As he sits in the park, he suddenly sees an old friend whom he hasn't seen since they quarrelled when they were Yeshiva together. Hersh, a rabbi, survived Auschwitz and his faith was strengthened by his ordeal, while Chaim escaped the Nazis, but had lost his faith long before. The two walk, reminisce, and argue passionately about themselves, their actions, their lives, their religion, their old quarrel, and their friendship.

Lena Kuchler, a Holocaust survivor, searches a Polish refugee camp for lost family members in the months after the war but instead finds 100 starving children with nowhere to go and nobody who wants them. She takes it upon herself to care for them, leading first to an isolated retreat, where they encounter antisemitic violence, and ultimately, to an exodus to Palestine.

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.