All is darkness. Then the movement begins, a trailing shot down the birth canal of a hallway, toward the mystery. Suddenly light! A bright room filled with elderly men in beards and black hats: sages, perhaps from another world. At the far end of the room, on a raised platform, is a blazing red light.

Is this a scene from a Steven Spielberg movie?

In an overview of the career of this legendary director, Time Magazine described this event as one which influenced Spielberg’s vision. It turned out to be his earliest memory from a day in 1948 when he was taken in a stroller to a Cincinnati synagogue for a service.

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