Graduate Student Capstone: Wooden Wars or: Everybody Can Be Jewish These Days

“Wooden Wars” focuses on the lives of four young Catholics from modern Poland, each of whom changes forever when they discover that they might have Jewish roots. Sisters Zosia and Ania separate as one travels to America, converts to reform Judaism, and embraces her lesbian sexuality, while the other stays behind in Poland and marries a Chabadnik. Both come to speak Yiddish at home. Their stories are intertwined with those of their friends Jakub and Tadek, two young men whose own relationships with Jewish identity and Yiddish language are troubled. Neither as children nor as adults do the characters have control of their fates. Various paranormal forces are involved in the action, and Jesus appears to sing in Yiddish.