film

Praying with Lior

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Producer(s)	Ilana Trachtman, Roberta Morris Purdee
Director(s)	Ilana Trachtman
Release Date	1999
Work In Progress	y
Youth Media	n

Film Description

PRAYING WITH LIOR is both a documentary feature film and an outreach/educational program. The film introduces Lior Liebling, a thirteen year old boy with an extraordinary spirituality, who also has Down syndrome. The exuberance and intensity of Lior’s praying has earned him a following among three Jewish synagogues in Philadelphia, where he has been called “spiritual genius,” “davening master,” and “little rebbe.” Synagogue-goers testify that praying with Lior helps them feel closer to G-d. Six years after Lior’s mother, a beloved Reconstructionist rabbi, died of breast cancer, Lior is being called to the torah to become Bar Mitzvah. The film chronicles the four months leading up to Lior’s feverishly anticipated Bar Mitzvah, through the eyes of the diverse “village” nurturing him—his Reconstructionist dad (Rabbi Mordechai Liebling,) stepmother Lynne Iser, Orthodox yeshiva, non-religious siblings, liberal community, and late mother. With intimacy and patience, the film illuminates Lior’s spirituality, his unique role in the community, his family’s journey of healing from grief, and what it means to be “praying with Lior.”