Filmmaker Shmuel Hoffman’s grandmother survived the Holocaust in Germany as one of a few thousand U-Boote — Jews who went into hiding, moving from place to place under the radar as a submarine, or U-Boot, would do.
East German Jews were inclined to stay in East Germany after the war, aligning with the country’s socialist-leaning politics. Hoffman was born there to a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father decades later.
Now with a family of his own — a wife and five children in Philadelphia’s Overbrook Farms neighborhood — Hoffman doesn’t shy away from complex Jewish histories such as his own. He uses filmmaking to explore Judaism’s complicated topics.
Hoffman, an Orthodox Jew and member of Chabad of Penn Wynne and Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, has made films with his wife Margelit for decades, working with clients such as MTV, Disney and the Orthodox Union. The Hoffmans are now working with Jewish matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom on a follow-up project to Netflix’s “Jewish Matchmaking,” gathering the cast for a reunion.
The Hoffmans have been back and forth from Israel over the past few months working on a project about the Israel Defense Forces’ lone soldiers, the non-Israeli Jews — mostly from Western countries — who join the IDF. The goal is to examine the reasons and outcomes
for lone soldiers to join the military.
“People go voluntarily signing up for something that most people don’t want to do,” Hoffman said.
In countries where military service is mandatory, citizens are usually reluctant to join, Hoffman explained; they do as little as possible or find positions in the service that don’t see combat.
Lone soldiers are different. Many of them, from upper-class Jewish families in the U.S., seek out deployment.
“Another thing that comes up is identity at home,” Hoffman said. “So, what’s defined as a ‘home’ living in America as a Jew? And certain aspects make them feel lost.”
Taught that love of Israel is a large part of Jewish identity, some American lone soldiers join the IDF to “search for something greater than themselves,” Hoffman said. Some make aliyah after their service. Others return to America disillusioned. Hoffman wants to ask, “Why?”
“In filmmaking, it’s always the opposites [that] are interesting,” he said.
Born in East Germany but growing up in West Germany with a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father, Hoffman has always been interested in opposites.
When Hoffman was a boy, his mother married a West German man, allowing the family to make the otherwise dangerous trip across the border a few years before the Berlin Wall fell. Hoffman’s mother, with increased access to records and resources in the Republic of West Germany, became interested in their family history.
“She researched and found our family and Western [German] Jewish community,” Hoffman said. “The Western Jewish community had papers and books and all of that, telephone books, address books and so on.”
As the family settled in its new home, Hoffman developed his identity and interests. He was a talented viola player, winning competitions nationally and across Europe. At the same time, he attended various yeshivas in Monsey, New York, and Israel.
Hoffman’s growing religiosity conflicted with his musical interests. Many of his concerts fell on Friday and Saturday, and he could no longer participate if he wanted to keep shomer Shabbos.
He pivoted to his other interest, photography and later filmmaking, studying photography while he was in yeshiva in Israel. He used his grandfather’s film equipment, gifted to him by his grandmother. In Israel, Hoffman met his wife, and the two bonded immediately over the arts. Margelit Hoffman attended Bennington College in Vermont and studied painting and writing.
Early in their marriage, they decided they wanted a career in the arts.
“We said, ‘Yeah, let’s just pursue that and see if we can make a living from it,’” Hoffman said.
Hoffman broke into the industry with a film called “Auschwitz Conservation Camp,” looking at the tourist industry that developed around Auschwitz. The project was funded by a grant from the European Union’s arts and culture fund.
The Hoffmans’ careers and lives are deeply integrated, Hoffman said. Making films is how he spends time with his wife — otherwise, how would they find quality time balancing their job and passions? Their five children tag along on their travels, though Hoffman has never pressured them to become filmmakers.
Instead, Hoffman hopes that his children will be inspired to make their own impact on the world. At the core of Judaism is storytelling. While many Orthodox Jewish communities are insular to protect themselves, Hoffman said, it’s important for Orthodox Jews to share their stories with the world.
It’s time that Jews come up and come out and share,” he said.