A Film by Noam Shalev
(Israel, 2000, 51 Minutes, Color, English)

After twenty years of traveling the roads of Europe, the Noer family is getting ready for the completion of the long way it began years ago in Denmark. The parents and their fifteen children have spent the last two decades passing through Europe, crossing it west to east and north to south. Five years ago they arrived in Israel in a convoy of old trucks, tractors and caravans, and since then they have been living in a small encampment near the seashore in central Israel.

Johny Noer, the head of the family, is a Danish writer and journalist. Following a revelation he experienced in 1976, he took his wife and five children on a journey that was concluded only by the turn of the century. Eleven more children were born to Johny and Giselle along the way. Johny’s first born, John, died of cancer shortly after the family finally arrived in Israel. During their years in Europe, the family traveled between towns and small townships, staying a short period of time in every place while Johny ipreached  his message: the need to bring Christians and Jews together. For years the family helped and arranged charity activities in the Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. In the course of things they were attacked by anti-Semites in Holland, and expelled from Bulgaria after an emotional speech of Johny's in front of thousands of believers.

Johny and his wife, Giselle, lead a routine, fulfilling family life. Life in the caravan camp is almost self-sufficient, as the children attend the family school, located in one of the caravans. The older children help maintaining the caravans and teach the younger children in the family school. Two of the sons are in charge of maintaining the trucks and tractors.

The documentary deals mainly with the last part of the journey: the preparations for the last fifty miles, ending in the climax of finally arriving in Jerusalem. Journey To Jerusalem follows the family during 18 months, documenting the happy and sad moments, and following the actual realization of a dream. As the Noer family and accompanying families get ready to conclude the journey they began more than twenty years before, many volunteers from Denmark, Belgium and other countries  join the convoy, each staying for several weeks in the caravans. The volunteers help prepare the caravans and the other vehicles for the last part of the journey

 National Geographic TV