Editor’s note: This event has already taken place.

It might be unfair to frame a review of a documentary about a secular Israeli with words of Torah, but I can’t help myself.

“Alone Together” introduces us to the chef at a Tel Aviv homeless center who volunteers hours each week hugging abandoned infants. Most commentators agree that when God instructs the Israelites to “love your fellow” (Leviticus 19:18), the command is not to feel a certain way but rather to act a certain way—with loving-kindness. The verse’s modifier, “…like yourself,” could mean to act the way you wish others would act toward you or to act lovingly because you and others are alike.

Loving The Other

Either way, Maya Tiberman and Kineret Hay-Gillor, directors, present viewers with a living exemplar of v’ahavtah l’reyechah kamochah in the 56-minute film about Ravit Reichman. When eulogizing her father, Reichman says that he taught her to “give to others.” Reichman lives to give love and understands that about herself. She volunteers with Israel’s First Hug Association, hugging, cuddling, bathing, and whispering encouragement to abandoned infants.

We first meet Reichman while she is up to her wrists in couscous, managing a commercial kitchen. We see a too-tall, too-wide, hunch-shouldered, middle-aged woman sporting a denim tote bag and fake-gold earrings. Reichman’s superpowers shine through later when she takes an infant in her arms, radiates love, and saves its life.

Later, we learn that the kitchen she leads feeds destitute people whom she circulates among at mealtimes, mothering each person.

If there is a plot beyond “Alone Together’s” intimate character study, the documentary builds suspense through Reichman’s melancholy and loneliness. Something unsettled needs resolution. The film production heightens this tension with oppressive silence during scenes of Reichman’s down time.