By Marc Katz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Hardly lost in a film of drama, love and a mostly Jewish football (soccer) team that beat a German team — despite the harshest of consequences — is the Nazi elimination of more than 7,000 Macedonian Jews during World War II.

Ninety-seven percent of Macedonia’s Jewish population was sent for termination to the Treblinka death camp.

Transportation for the mass murder was orchestrated through the Bulgarians, willing agents of the Nazis.

In contrast to that stark reality, “It’s a movie about love,” says Alan Gabel, a lawyer from Dayton who lived in Macedonia in 2011 when the feature film The Third Half was filmed.

Gabel helped producers line up some pre-funding dollars and was able to introduce them to a Hollywood friend of his who helped the filming process along.

Eventually, most of the funding came from the country of Macedonia, and as Gabel watched the project take shape, he gained a deep knowledge of the country and the Jews who used to and still live there.

“It’s about religious tolerance,” Gabel says of The Third Half. “It’s about loyalty. It’s about sports. The good guys won, knowing if they won they could be shot and killed by the Nazis.”

The Third Half is the final film for this year’s JCC Film Fest, on May 18 at the Neon. Gabel will be on hand to add commentary about the film, and about life in Macedonia — the country just north of Greece and formerly a part of Yugoslavia — where only about 200 Jews live today, mostly in Skopje, the capital, with a few in Stip and Bitola.

That Gabel was involved in the filming was a matter of circumstance. He had lived in Azerbaijan (a former part of the Soviet Union) for more than a year beginning in 2007 when he took a volunteer job with the American Bar Association to work on Azerbaijan’s criminal defense program.

There, he became friendly with a member of the U.S. Department of Justice who later asked Gabel if he wanted to work in Macedonia as part of a U.S. program to help Macedonia modernize its government human resources program.

A two-year commitment turned to three, and during this time Gabel became involved with The Third Half.

He’ll talk about Macedonia’s small synagogue, its Jewish museum, and its complicated argument with Greece over the legal name of the country.

“Macedonia struggles with the Jewish issue,” Gabel says. “The few Jews who still remain have a difficult time. They still have a shul on the second floor of their activity building, and it’s nice. But not many Jews have a lot of tradition. Not only did the Nazis kill most of the Jews there, Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia, which is Communist, so they didn’t practice religion. So there’s been a long time since there’s been a strong Jewish worship. They still celebrate Chanukah, they still have a Purim gathering, they still have a Seder. But overall, they struggle with it.”

That struggle has grown since the community does not have a rabbi, although it had one for a short time until he left for Israel.

That leaves no one to answer questions, since the community is small and also not well-versed in Jewish ways. and a rabbi would have to speak Macedonian as well.

As for integrating into the community at large, Gabel says, “the Jews are accepted, but there are so few of them. They get along, but they don’t stick out.”

Gabel is back in Dayton, rebuilding his law practice. The sense is, he’d go back to Macedonia, even if just for a visit. He might talk some others into going with him.

The JCC Film Festival presents The Third Half on Sunday, May 18 at 7:15 p.m. at the Neon Movies, 130 E. 5th St., Dayton. Following the film, attorney Alan Gabel will talk about his connections to the movie. Tickets are available at the door, at jewishdayton.org, at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville or by calling Karen Steiger at 610-1555. 

To read the complete May 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.