The Jew in the Lotus

In 1990, eight Jewish delegates traveled to Dharamsala, India, to meet with the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet and share ‘the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile.

When writer Rodger Kamenetz was invited to go along to chronicle the event, unexpectedly, his whole life changed. Kamenetz begins an intense personal journey that leads him back to his Jewish roots. As he discovers, sometimes you have to go far away to find your way home.

Inspired by Kamenetz’s best selling book, The Jew in the Lotus, award winning filmmaker Laurel Chiten’s documentary fills in what the book left out. Focusing on the author’s particular odyssey of suffering and the role of spirituality as a universal theme, this film touches audiences on deep emotional levels. It does not put itself forth as a definitive look at Judaism or Buddhism but is a complete portrait of a man who is still in the process of formation.