AllMovie

Director Wayne Kopping and host Dr. Tal Ben Shahar explore a side of Israel that you won't see on the evening news in this documentary that avoids politics to highlight the creativity and progress that has helped the troubled nation to flourish in the center of an unforgiving desert. A respected Harvard university lecturer, Israeli native Dr. Shahar chose to return to his homeland to find out how the nation had managed to be innovative despite being locked into what often appeared to be a perpetual cycle of violence. What he discovered was that the concept of "tikkun olam" (responsibility to the world) was still very much alive, and that the people of Israel view their country as one big community. But it goes even further, because "tikkun olam" also has a major impact on technology, the economy, and humanitarian efforts in the country. Interviews with Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and others highlight the many ways that the outsider's perspective of Israel is often at odds with the way the nation is viewed from the inside.