Persistence Works...

A friend of mine recently suggested I watch the documentary: "A Life Apart: Hasidism in America". Additionally, I had been interested in seeing the documentary: "Trembling Before G-d" And so I began my search yesterday. I soon discovered that nowhere in San Diego was this film to be found. I checked the following: Hollywood Video, Blockbuster Video, SDSU Library, JCC Astor Judaica Library, a local video store which has ALMOST everything "Kensington Video", and finally, The Agency for Jewish Education. As you can guess I was suprised it was nowhere to be found.

Luckily "The Agency for Jewish Education" was very helpful and did a search and discovered the video was available to rent at the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles. And so, I proceeded to call them.

The woman who helped me at the library was amazing. She took my name, phone and address. And today, the NEXT day, two videos arrived at my door. There is no fee to check videos out here. Rental time is usually one week. Though, if you call, you can extend the time. I can't wait to watch my two videos, and to visit the library in a couple weeks when I am up in LA. At that time I'll pay them back for the postage (a whopping $3.95).

There is something to be said for the community feel I got when I received the videos on the honor system. This is special, something that is rare in our society, and exactly the way knowledge should be available--at little or no cost and available to all.