Skokie (film)

Skokie is a 1981 television movie directed by Herbert Wise, based on the real life NSPA Controversy of Skokie, Illinois, which involved the National Socialist Party of America.

The film premiered in the US on November 17, 1981. It was shown on the Israeli Educational television in the 1980s and on German television on March 3, 1997.

Plot

The peace of Skokie, a comfortable Chicago suburb, is threatened when Frank Collin (George Dzundza), a politically astute neo-Nazi organizer, selects the place as the site of his next rally. Close to 40 percent of the town’s population is Jewish, and many of them are survivors of the Holocaust. They see the march as a warning and reminder of their days as concentration camp prisoners.

The Jewish community decides to stand against the rally at all cost to make sure that the Holocaust will never be forgotten or allowed to happen again.

Moderate leaders Bert Silverman (Eli Wallach) and Abbot Rosen (Carl Reiner) advise the Jewish community to ignore the neo-Nazis; the strategy they put forward is "quarantine", isolating the meeting by totally ignoring the neo-Nazi presence and refusing to be provoked. The logic is simple: if the Jewish community refuses to acknowledge the rally and thus refuses to feed the media any publicity, the meeting will be futile and eventually forgotten.