Steven Spielberg’s new TV series will feature none other than Shaarei Zedek Medical Center of Jerusalem – a religious hospital that provides service to Jews of Judea and Samaria, Arabs, and other Israelis.
Globes reports that the documentary reality series will be a project of Spielberg’s Dreamworks Studios, and that the actual producer will be “Everyone Loves Raymond” producer Phil Rosenthal.
Spielberg has produced two other Jewish-themed movies: "Schindler’s List," about German businessman Oskar Schindler who gave his fortune to save nearly 1,200 Jews by employing them in his factories, and "Munich," about the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics.
Spielberg also founded and funds the Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, with an archive of nearly 52,000 videotaped testimonies from Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.
Though the project is a commercial one and will be sold to broadcasting networks around the world, it was born of Rosenthal’s long-time connection with Shaarei Zedek and Spielberg’s interest in Jewish subjects. Hospital Director Prof. Yonatan HaLevi has given his blessing, and Jerusalem Municipality Cultural Advisor Nava Dischinsky will accompany the project.
“Spielberg asked me to think of a TV project in Israel,” Rosenthal told Globes. “I suggested a reality series on Shaarei Zedek, to which my family and I have long donated. He like the idea of a crowded hospital with secular Israelis, religious Jews, Arabs, and American doctors, and we will beginning very soon.”