Yelena is a powerhouse producer, friend, travel partner, birthday buddy, community volunteer, and dedicated family woman. She’s at the helm of FilmTribe, dedicating her aesthetic eye.
For her latest interview in VoyageATL, she had visions of an Israel-themed session. Big on blue, and magazine cover-worthy. It was a blast to think bold, and pull out the lighting gels.
The outcome is big drama, but it was all fun behind the scenes:
I was thrilled to be hired as the photographer for Faces of Orthodoxy Season 6 Atlanta (backed by the Orthodox Union). They profiled 6 movers and shakers, to tell their dynamic stories, and show the world that Orthodox people are relatable, rather than exotic or strange as seen in the media.
Week one: Yelena Hertzberg
“I’m a religious CEO of a Film Production Company which I started with my husband. My story starts in the former USSR. Growing up under communism, I knew that my grandfather baked matzah underground for our community in Belarus & that I was a Jew. We lived 200 km away from Chernobyl & the nuclear disaster affected our family’s health. When I was 9, we got a visa from my grandparents in the States. Seeing my parents make hard choices for us made a lasting impression on me. We made it to L.A. & unintentionally settled in a religious area, Pico-Robertson, where my aunt owned a quadruplex. Like good Russian secular Jews, we put up a New Year’s ‘bush’ near a window. A religious neighbor told us we don’t put up Christmas trees. Slowly, I started realizing more about Judaism.
Early on I knew I had a talent for art. I went to art school for fashion design & was recruited by a top fashion house in L.A. Too busy to date during college, I thought I’d try my luck at meeting someone on AOL. I searched ‘film’ under hobbies and until this day, I have no idea why that was important to me. Elan Hertzberg came up. He was a production assistant & Jewish. We dated for 3 years & then got engaged. My best friend from childhood had recently become religious & was getting married 3 months after us. Participating in all her wedding festivities, we got immersed in this whole new world. It was very attractive to us. We spent every Shabbos for the next year in the Valley Village community & learned so much from the families. We moved back to Pico, took lots of classes, & enrolled our toddler in a Jewish preschool.
Being a fashion designer wasn’t conducive to our lifestyle, so I became a wardrobe stylist for commercials & print. In 2007 when the economy was going sideways, we moved to Charlotte, N.C., a small Jewish community with a film industry. We helped grow the community there, but we were growing faster. My husband produced for Nascar & commuted to Atlanta. We knew we had to move to Atlanta after he spent one Shabbos in Toco Hills. My husband also predicted, correctly, that Atlanta would be the new production capital & we needed to be the pioneers.”
“On our pilot trip to Atlanta in 2011, we walked into a kindergarten classroom at Torah Day School & the children stood up for us and started singing. I cried like a baby. I realized this is what our family was missing. Soon after we moved, the school called asking if I would run a dinner & auction. Somehow they must have found out about my volunteer shenanigans in L.A. & Charlotte! I then joined the board as a fundraising trustee. I’m now the fundraising trustee at Congregation Beth Jacob. I crave making a difference in the community.
I launched my own marketing & graphic design firm. My husband was a sought-after freelance producer for over 25 years. Together with two partners, we started our own film & post-production company, FilmTribe, in 2015. All our partners davened (prayed) at the same shul, so we consider ourselves a 13th tribe. We work with clients from concept to completion. We produce TV commercials, movies, & branded content for clients such as Netflix, MTV & Universal, to name a few.
Integrity drives our work. Everything is done according to our values & Torah guidance. We don’t schedule shoots on Fridays because they’ll likely wrap once Shabbos begins. My husband was directing for The Rock & asked him if they could move the shoot from a Friday to Thursday, to which he responded, ‘Of course.’ Shaq wishes us Shabbat Shalom. Everyone who works with us knows we are religious, that our office has weird scrolls hanging on every doorpost, that we have our own food on set & we don’t hug the opposite sex. We are respected for it & are so grateful for our relationships.
I believe the best way to reach people globally is through film & TV. People watch shows about us & believe them to be true. Hashem gave us the gift of visual storytelling to tell our Jewish story, the beauty of who we are. I think our whole career has brought us to this point to tell our story in the most impactful and relevant way using media. Our next chapter is creating Jewish content that is real & authentic. We have projects in development we’re really excited about. We’ve created a perfect team to tell our story. We think the world is listening.”
Behind the scenes:
BTS: Sara Newmark
