Awake Zion

Of interest in the latter category is Monica Haim's first-person documentary "Awake Zion," an adventurously fun exploration of the "unsuspecting kinship" — historically and culturally — between reggae and Judaism. (It's not just the extreme hair and rhythmic chanting, and it has origins in slave histories and geographical readings of the Old Testament.) The journey takes Haim, herself a roots reggae-loving, Miami-born Jewish girl, from Rasta outposts in Jamaica to the dancehall scene in Tel Aviv to the Crown Heights, Brooklyn, popularity of Orthodox Jewish reggae star Matisyahu, and, as you might suspect, is set to a propulsive, infectious soundtrack. What shimmers, though, is the hopefulness of those who embrace similarities, who view spirituality in terms of commonality instead of apartness.