Creating the most iconic moment in Israel’s television broadcast history, Channel One’s avuncular and statesman-like anchorman Haim Yavin – Israel’s Walter Cronkite – had all eyes on him as election results slowly rolled in. As he recently related, “there was no other way to report what I was witnessing, no one had in mind Menachem Begin becoming the leader of the people.”
“I thought to myself – as my statistician handed me the results – and whispered, ‘Hey, Begin won the election.’ I must tell the audience, not in a detailed way, but in a very short concise way: We were witnessing history.”
“Somewhere in my memory,” Yavin recalled, “a word from the Talmud – I didn’t know exactly from what connection – but I knew the word, mapecha,” the Hebrew word for revolution.
“I played with the word, which was my second job, and modified it in the moment to mahapach. More revolutionary than revolution, as this was an election by ballots not a revolution of bullets.
The American filmmakers of a new documentary on the life of Menachem Begin to debut on June 7, found the May 1977 black & white film footage of Yavin’s election-night broadcast and knew the word “captured both the moment and key events of Menachem Begin’s life.”
“I turned to the director,” said Denver-based producer Rob Schwartz, “and said ‘that’s the title!” We translated it to “upheaval” which became the title of our film.
In several conversations with the filmmakers, participants and nonparticipants who knew Menachem Begin, the iconic word was discussed. Some, like Ariela Cotler, who was a very young Likud Party parliamentary whip thought it had a negative connotation. She had worked side-by-side with Begin when he led the opposition and then when he became leader of the government and prime minister. Cotler views mahapacha as “taking power by force,” an “upheaval.”
“Upheaval is not a positive change, the results of a democratic election were a turnover, a shift” in the will of the voters, said Cotler. Yet, she agreed, “Hayim Yavin’s use of the word that night was very powerful, he summed up the psychic state of the people who created a turnover.”
The original footage of that television news broadcast moment is just one of many which make Upheaval an out-of-the-ordinary documentary on the life of one of Israel’s historic figures. Maryland-based director Jonathan Gruber recruited a research team to comb both American and Israel television news libraries and found many moments of the famous news anchors of the day reporting key events in Israel and the incredible life of Menachem Begin.
GRUBER AND Schwartz worked closely during the creative process as Gruber explained, “there’s the film making, the story and there is the challenge of presenting someone as iconic as Menachem Begin.”
Using rarely seen archival materials and intimate interviews with Israelis and Americans who knew Begin personally and as prime minister, the Upheaval team has created a film covering the entire arc of his life.
Both Schwartz and Gruber have personal drives that impacted their decisions during the making of Upheaval.
“I was 10 years old when the Camp David Accords peace agreement happened, that’s mainly my memory of Menachem Begin,” said Gruber.
“Yet, we had to share Begin’s story in totality, the negative stuff also had to come out in order to have any credibility, we had to talk about things that didn’t reflect well; that was very important.”
For Schwartz, a retired healthcare executive, it was a book that sparked his interest that lit the fire to aspire to make, “an award-winning documentary on the life of Menachem Begin.”
“I had read former political adviser, speechwriter and diplomat Yehuda Avner’s 2010 history The Prime Ministers and found the coverage of Menachem Begin the most compelling,” Schwartz recalled. “I was moved and tried to find an English language film to watch and couldn’t find one.”
Schwartz related a piece of synchronicity that provided the impetus behind getting Upheaval made when he recalled a dinner shortly after with former US senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut.
“Joe asked me if I’d read any good books lately?” Schwartz recalled, “I said The Prime Ministers and he said, ‘me too!’” Schwartz continued, “‘Who’s your favorite?’ Sen. Lieberman asked me, I answered, ‘Menachem Begin,’ he said, ‘Me too!’”
The next day, Schwartz and Lieberman met in the senator’s NYC office and Lieberman offered to help with Schwartz’s concept to make a full-length documentary film and together they began the planning, fundraising and recruiting of people to appear in Upheaval.
Of the several notable people interviewed for on-screen roles, author Yossi Klein Halevi summed up the importance and centrality and continued relevancy in contemporary Israel of Begin’s life and motivations.
“You can’t understand Israel today without understanding the legacy of Begin versus Ben Gurion, we live between two visions, radical contradictions of both men who played such key roles.”
“To this day, said Halevi, “I love him (Begin) and will always love him.”
The filmmakers have also worked closely with the Jerusalem-based Menachem Begin Heritage Center to extend the reach and impact of the film and are creating additional educational material for Israeli and international audiences.
The film will be screened on June 7th at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Viewers can see Upheaval at its free international debut, outside of Israel, on June 7 at 8 p.m. ET on Facebook Live and streaming in virtual cinemas across the US beginning June 9. For more information and viewing options, visit the film website: upheavalfilm.com