By SHELDON KIRSHNER, Staff Reporter   
Thursday, 02 April 2009

Canadian journalist Martin Himel visited Asia to complete Twist of Faith.

The collision of current events and religious faith has long intrigued Canadian broadcast journalist Martin Himel, who has been stationed in Israel since the early 1980s.

“I believe we are all driven by some sort of faith,” he said. “I’ve covered world events for more than two decades, and I feel that faith is a universal theme  intrinsic to all of us. I wanted to explore that common trait and see how it impacts various societies.”

In pursuit of this theme, Himel has produced a 13-part documentary series for Vision TV. Twist of Faith, which had its debut on Feb. 23 and ends on June 1, examines a broad range of topics and issues, from the future of Judaism to Islam in China.

Joan Jenkinson, a Vision TV executive producer, believes that Himel’s series strikes a contemporary note.

As she put it, “These are desperate times for many of us. We are seeing faith take ever more unusual and unexpected forms as people seek solid ground. While we commonly hear that religion is on the wane, Himel’s extraordinary series illustrates the degree to which our world is still shaped by the power of belief – for good and ill.”

Describing Twist of Faith as his most ambitious project to date, Himel said he has always been interested in the effect of religion on current affairs.

“You might remember that the religion of rebellion and activism in the 1970s was socialism, communism and radical anarchism. These were fervently held beliefs, just as militant Islam, fundamentalist Christianity and Judaism are upheld today as motivators for national movements.”

He launched Twist of Faith in December 2007 through his Canadian  company, Elsash Productions.

Vision TV, which financed the venture, was clearly impressed by his track record as a filmmaker. A former CTV news correspondent in Israel, Himel has made a succession of documentaries, some of which touch on the nature of faith.

In Angels with Broken Wings (2001) and North Korea: Desperate or Deceptive (2004), he respectively highlighted the plight of thousands of children locked in closed Russian psycho-neurological hospital wards and explored the social, political and economic landscape of a totalitarian Asian society at odds with the United States.

Himel’s documentary on Israel’s reoccupation of the West Bank, Jenin: Massacring the Truth (2004), challenged the allegation that Israel had committed war crimes in attacking a Palestinian refugee camp from which suicide bombers set out.

His film on anti-Israel student movements on North American college campuses, Confrontation at Concordia (2003), documented the clash between Jewish and pro-Palestinian students at Montreal’s Concordia University after a planned speaking engagement by Israel’s former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was abruptly cancelled.

Himel’s End of Days (2005) investigated the growing belief in apocalypse and redemption among evangelical Christians and  messianic Jews.

For Twist of Faith, he travelled far and wide, visiting Canada, the United States, Kosovo, Serbia, Britain, Russia, China, India, Thailand, Ethiopia, South Africa and Turkey. He also reported from Israel, his home base, and the West Bank.

His travels took him off the beaten track.

Researching Hindu untouchables in India, Himel interviewed sewage workers. “The gases are overwhelming. I don’t know how they last one day, let alone years working in the sewers. It didn’t take two days before I was deathly sick. I hit the floor twice at Delhi’s airport from the agonizing pain of severe stomach cramps, brought on by bacterial infection. It made me think how easy it is to die in those sewers.”

Travelling through China’s Gobi Desert, Himel was struck by the perception that Chinese mosques are “an elegant mixture” of pagoda temples and Arabian minarets.

Investigating Judaism, he was taken by its sheer adaptability and the passion of Israelis for their identity. “It is that passion which is so essential for Jews to be Jews.”

Deep in the highlands of Ethiopia to study Ethiopian Christianity, he felt as if he had gone back in time.

Himel, 52, a graduate of Associated Hebrew Schools and Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto day schools, was raised in a secular Zionist household in Toronto. Although he is not an observant Jew, he values Jewish traditions and culture.

As a child, his parents divorced. His mother, Malka, a former Israeli, was a prominent Canadian folk singer and part  of the Malka and Joso duo. His father, Sydney, was a lawyer and a member of Canada’s basketball team in the first and second Maccabiah Games in Israel.

Himel gravitated toward journalism when he was a teenager. Don Cameron, a Canadian TV producer who had covered the war in Vietnam, visited the Himel household in suburban Toronto and regaled him with stories of the fall of Saigon in 1975. “I remember feeling, ‘This is what I want to do.’ I was smitten.”

After graduating from high school, he studied economics and international relations at the Hebrew University. “I had always had a passion for Israel. Its vigour and zest were so appealing, but living in Israel, while rewarding, was very difficult.”

Returning to Canada in 1978, Himel landed a position at CTV’s Canada AM program. “Then I got a chance to work as a field producer for ABC TV in Israel, covering the prime minister, Menachem Begin.”

Parlaying that opportunity into a gig as a freelance Mideast correspondent, Himel contributed reports to CTV, Global Television and Fox News.

From 1982 to 1993, as CTVs bureau chief and resident correspondent, he covered the breaking stories of the day, not only in Israel but in Europe as well.

“My most memorable stories were Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt and Israel’s phased withdrawals from the Sinai Peninsula, the first Palestinian uprising, the revolution in Romania and the Gulf War.”

When CTV asked Himel to take another assignment, he declined. “After covering massive world events in the Middle East, all else paled in comparison,” said Himel, who today contributes current events pieces to PBS and Dan Rather Reports. “I also had personal relationships that I wanted to preserve in Israel.”

Himel switched to the Baton Broadcasting group after he was asked to set up an Israeli operation.

Eight years ago, he established Elsash Productions, which now enjoys a reputation for innovative in-depth reporting.

Himel, who has permanent residence status in Israel, lives with his wife in the northern Tel Aviv suburb of Herzlyia Pituach.

“I have a lot of roots in Israel,” said Himel, the father of two grown children and a Magen David Adom volunteer medic who worked on emergency teams during the 2006 war in Lebanon and the most recent war in the Gaza Strip. “I have a great passion for this place. It’s a vibrant life, and I love the fact that the Mediterranean Sea is only a 10  minutes’ walk from my house.”

And while he finds Israeli politics “shamelessly corrupt” and the educational system “abhorrent,” he likes Israelis.

 “The people are terrific. It is hard to be lonely in Israel. Everybody makes your business their business. Sometimes, it is oppressive, but if you are in trouble, many people are willing to help.

“And there is always something real to talk about. It’s never just, ‘What did you buy in town today?’”