New documentary presents ‘intimate portrait’ of beloved Hackney rabbi

Rabbi Gluck at the Kindertransport memorial outside Liverpool Street Station. Photograph: Eithne Nightingale

Popular local rabbi Herschel Gluck is the star of a new documentary that is being billed as a portrait of ‘one of life’s true optimists’.

Gluck has devoted his life to building bridges between various communities, and in How to Get On With Everybody, award-winning filmmakers Elin Moe and Winstan Whitter explore his life and work.

They follow Gluck’s role within Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch group, and dig into his friendship with the local Muslim community.

Gluck set up the Muslim-Jewish Forum in London 25 years ago and was awarded an OBE from the Queen for his services to interfaith understanding in 2013.

The film also looks at how being brought up surrounded by Holocaust survivors shaped Gluck’s lifelong commitment to creating dialogue between people from all backgrounds – work he continues to do in conflict zones around the world.

The documentary is the latest in a long line of Hackney-focused films by Winstan Whitter, who was raised in Stamford Hill. The former professional skateboarder spoke to the Citizen back in 2011 about his mission to tell good stories.

How to Get On With Everybody will first be screened at the Rio Cinema on 25 May as part of the Hackney History Festival.

To book tickets, visit bit.ly/4cZyKMc.