The Wandering Jew

Old Jerusalem: Matathias, spiteful over his lover's illness, spits on Jesus along the road to Calvary, and is cursed to live endlessly until His return. The Crusades, 1150: Matathias, now an anonymous knight, competes for glory in combat and for the wife of a soldier. Palermo, 1290: Matteos Battadios witnesses the death of his young son, leading to conflict with his wife over whether to take comfort in Christianity. Seville, 1560: Dr Matteos Battadios dedicates himself to the treatment and comfort of the poor, but his life and work are endangered by the arrival of the Spanish Inquisition.

'The legend of the Wandering Jew, condemned to walk the earth until the Second Coming.' (British Film Institute)

A Jew who mocked Jesus on the cross is visited by a devil and an angel.

The Wandering Jew tells the story of Arthur Levi (Jacob Ben-Ami), a German-Jewish artist who experiences the new German antisemitism when his masterpiece, a portrait of his Polish-born father entitled "The Eternal Wanderer" is rejected by the Berlin Academy of Art, which also asks his resignation as professor. Later in the film the figure in the painting comes to life and tells Levi the story of the persecution of the Jewish people. The film ends with footage of an anti-Hitler rally at New York City's Madison Square Garden and Levi's resolve to bear onward in the face of adversity.

A popular figure in 13th century Christian folktales, the Wandering Jew is said to have been condemned to wander the world forever because he denied Jesus of Nazareth a brief respite on the threshold of his home.

A young Lyova travels with the hope of ascent from Czarist Russia to New York. Disappointed, he returns to the young Soviet Union and is glad to have found a simple work.

This early film biography of the founder of modern Zionism depicts a young Herzl learning about Jewish persecution throughout the ages and developing his theory of political Zionism, which he saw as the only solution to anti-semitism.