Solidarity comes from a number of places, but finding commonalities through the experience of similar prejudices is a great tool for unification. The experience of being Jewish and the experience of being Black in the United States are by no means the same thing, but there is considerable overlap in the way that both communities are made to feel like others and often scapegoated for a variety of social issues for which they bear no responsibility. Re/Pair analyzes that common ground through the exploration of the challenges faced by these two communities in grappling with certain points on which they may not see eye to eye.
Lacey Schwartz Delgado puts together nineteen different duos, each of whom shares something personal that makes them a particularly good fit to have a compelling conversation. One example is actors Harry Lennix and David Schwimmer, who have known each other for years. Journalists Van Jones and Batya Ungar-Sargon, writers W. Kamau Bell and Adam Mansbach, and musicians Rhymefest and Matisyahu are among the others who talk frankly and push each other to confront ideas with the potential to divide them. The conversations are honest, refreshing, and in some cases, quite fun and entertaining.
This film’s loaded title indicates that there is indeed tension between these two identities, and this film doesn’t shy away from that. It also highlights the fact that neither community is a monolith, and in fact there are many people who have ties to both worlds, though being Jewish isn’t something that, contrary to long-established and reductive stereotypes, is visually discernible. There’s also no one set opinion on anything, especially attitudes towards Israel and Palestine. Raven Schwam-Curtius, for instance, conveys a strong passion for the need for shared liberation of all people, but the film doesn’t go that much deeper with her – or anyone – on that subject since it’s not the key takeaway of this project. That one sole point of view should not be arbitrarily assigned to an entire group of people is the far more critical education.
For anyone without close connections to either of these groups, this film should prove highly informative, looking at a rich history of advocating together dating back to the Civil Rights movement and the ways in which community relationships have evolved over the years. It’s not always positive, looking at conflicts such as posted online support from a chapter of Black Lives Matter in the wake of the October 7th attacks in Israel and how that caused tremendous fractures threatening formerly very strong alliances. But what’s important is the continuation of the conversation and a desire to remain in dialogue with those who can be and have been great friends to each other.
This film offers a snapshot of some incredible friendships and the way in which people navigate subjects on which they may not agree. 101 minutes isn’t nearly long enough to truly dive deep, and there are some pairings that are given just a minute or two of screentime, presumably edited down from much longer sessions that needed to be trimmed to become part of the feature film. This is a worthwhile and engaging topic that, based on this feature-length test case, would do well to be expanded into a television series in which subjects have more time to be able to flesh out their conversations and their opinions. This is merely a starting point, and in that sense, this film feels slightly unfinished, but in a way that suggests more of the same should come rather than something explicitly missing from this presentation. Re/Pair asks important questions and addresses, if not completely answers, many of them, painting a worthwhile and thought-provoking portrait of what it looks like to find common ground and fight hard to hold onto it.
Movie Rating: 7/10
Re/Pair makes its world premiere in the TIFF Docs section at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
