Blind Spot (2024 film)

Blind Spot is a 2024 American documentary film about campus antisemitism in the United States, prior to and following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

In the film, over two dozen US college students describe the rise of antisemitism on their campuses.^[1] Prominently featured are CUNY, Tulane, Columbia, and the University of California, Berkeley.^[2] Jewish leaders from campus and community organizations are interviewed, as is Representative Ritchie Torres.^[2]

Executive producer Leonard Gold was first inspired to make the film 15 years earlier when he observed antisemitism as the father of a private school student in Manhattan. ^[2] When antisemitism escalated on college campuses before and after the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, Gold perceived a "serious modern-day American civil rights problem".^[2]

The soundtrack includes music from Leonard Cohen, Nat King Cole, and Israeli cantors Naftali and Netanel Hershtik.^[3]

The film premiered in 2024 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York^[2] and was shown at the Boca Jewish Film Festival.^[3]

Fern Sidman called the film "an indictment, an inspiration, and above all, a mirror held up to a society". She noted the film's focus on social pressures on Jewish students to renounce their connection to Israel, calling this "a modern form of antisemitism cloaked in the language of social justice".^[4] Douglas Altabef called the film "a fire alarm ringing and a profile of many of the firefighters trying to deal with the flames".^[5] The Jerusalem Post called the film "yet another red alert about Jew-hatred in America", noting that it began with events in 2022, in contrast to other documentaries on the topic, which were made after the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.^[6]

• October 8
• The Encampments
• Tragic Awakening

Official website