'The Lesson,' a gripping drama from Israel, casts spotlight on thorny social issues straight from the headlines

There are so many elements to unpack in the extraordinary Israeli drama “The Lesson” — which is based on a true story and won the best series award at the Cannes International Series Festival last year — that it’s hard to know where to begin.

The starting point of this gripping six-part miniseries, which premiered this month on ChaiFlicks, the Jewish streaming service in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, is a confrontation between an outspoken student and her civics teacher in a high school in the Tel Aviv suburb of Kfar Saba that rapidly spins out of control.

When...