As one of the longest-running Jewish film festivals in the country, the Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg, educates and engages diverse Tidewater communities, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, by presenting world-class film premieres, repertory cinema, and associated programs that are inspired by Jewish or Israeli history, heritage, and values. Our vision is to create shared experiences and connections through film and cultural programs inspired by Jewish legacy and values.

Kids Night Out Babysitting is available at the Simon Family JCC for the BIG Saturday Night Celebration of Jewish Film. Registration required in advance. Space is limited. Register at JewishVA.org/KNO.

Full Festival passes are available for $60 and include entry to all events. Festival Passes must be purchased by Thursday, February 1, 2024.

Schedule of Events:

Sunday, February 18, 2024

2:30 PM:A CELEBRATION OF ISRAELI SHORT FILM

In memory of the victims of  October 7

All funds raised will benefit UJFT’s Israel Emergency Fund

The Virginia Festival of Jewish Film holds in our thoughts the tragic events of October 7, 2023, when over 1,200 people were murdered in southern Israel. Additionally, our thoughts extend to the hostages who died in captivity in Gaza and to the members of the IDF who have fallen in the line of duty, defending the people of Israel since the start of the war. In their honor, we present these four short films.

The Boy was written and directed by filmmaker Yahav Winner, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists while helping his wife and their newborn daughter escape. All of these films, born from the depths of Israeli reality, provide an unfiltered glimpse into what daily life is like in Israel.

The Boy

Director Yahav Winner z”l - 25 min - Israel - 2023 - Hebrew with English subtitles

Avinoam and Barak, father and son from a kibbutz bordering the Gaza strip, each face an approaching war in their own way. Barak wants to stop everything, and Avinoam wants to stop Barak. One night, when Barak disappears, Avinoam is forced to accept that his child needs help.

Sirens

Director Erez Tadmor - 22 min - Israel - 2017 - Hebrew with English subtitles - VIEW TRAILER

As missiles rain down on Tel Aviv, a frustrated Israeli couple faces a series of misadventures after an early morning call from the fertility doctor in this frantic, funny, and surprise-filled Israeli Academy Award winner for Best Short Film.

Asa Turns 13

Director Sali Elimelech - 30 min - Israel - 2017 - Hebrew with English subtitles

As Asa prepares for his bar-mitzvah, he must also cope with his mother’s death. He embarks on a sad and sometimes humorous journey through the neighborhoods of Netivot, a southern Israeli town where his mother's grave, which he has never visited, is waiting for him at the end of the street.

Dear God

Directors Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv - 13 min - Israel - 2014 - Hebrew with English subtitles - VIEW TRAILER

Dear God depicts romantic Jerusalem seen through the eyes of Aaron, a guard at the Western Wall. One day, a beautiful, mysterious woman puts a note between the holy stones, and Aaron decides to fulfill her deepest wish.

Location: Simon Family JCC
Reba & Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater Jewish Community
5000 Corporate Woods Drive
Virginia Beach, VA

Tickets: Suggested donation of $18

Thursday, February 22, 2024

1:30 PM & 7:30 PM: HOME

Director Benny Fredman - 111 min - Israel - 2023 - Hebrew, Yiddish with English subtitles

A young and recently married Orthodox man's dream to open a computer store in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem turns into a violent nightmare when the entire neighborhood sees him as an existential threat. Turning his whole world upside down, the threat enters his home and puts his marriage to the test as he faces the reality of his own free will within a predetermined world.

View Trailer

Location: Cinema Cafe Kemps River
1220 Fordham Drive
Virginia Beach, VA

Tickets: $12

Saturday, February 24, 2024

7:30 PM: REMEMBERING GENE WILDER

The BIG Saturday Night Celebration of Jewish Film

Includes a conversation with the film’s director, Ron Frank, followed by a dessert and champagne reception

Director Ron Frank - 92 min - United States - 2023 - English

Born Jerome Silberman to an assimilated Milwaukee Jewish family, his childhood buddies called him Jerry—but the world would come to know him as Gene Wilder. The endearing comic genius starred in an extraordinary string of film roles, from the timid Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks’ The Producers to the strange and magical title role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to the comedy classics of Blazing Saddles, The Frisco Kid, and Young Frankenstein. Now, in this affectionate and touching biographical documentary, the full measure of Wilder’s gifts is on display, not only as a comedic actor but as a writer, director, and mensch.

View Trailer

Location: Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
2200 Parks Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA

Tickets: $25

Sunday, February 25, 2024

2:30 PM: THE CATSKILLS

Preceded by the short film
THE PEACOCK THAT PASSED OVER

Includes a conversation with documentary subject Steve Gold

Director Lex Gillespie - 86 min - United States - 2023 - English

With a trove of lost-and-found archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, The Catskills journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as a refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families. As bungalow colony proprietors, guests, waiters, comedians, hoteliers, and beauticians share colorful tales of Catskill farms, boarding houses, and luxury resorts, they paint a picture of vibrant American Jewish life and culture in the 20th century.

View Trailer

THE PEACOCK THAT PASSED OVER
Director Max Goldberg - 4 min - United Kingdom - 2022 - English

Four years ago a peacock suddenly landed and has settled ever since in the grounds of a Leeds synagogue. Whimsical and charming, the film explores the responses of a diverse section of that Yorkshire community.

Location: The Samuel C. Johnson Theater at Norfolk Academy
1585 Wesleyan Drive
Norfolk, VA

Tickets: $12

Monday, February 26, 2024

7:15 PM: SHTTL

Director Ady Walter - 109 min - Ukraine - 2023 - Yiddish with English subtitles

Photographed in a shtetl that the production team constructed outside Kyiv, this single-shot film is entirely in Yiddish. Set in the twenty-four hours before the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, SHTTL tells a story about life, love, and hope set in an unnamed Yiddish Ukrainian village at the border of Poland. Amid communal tensions between tradition and modernity, two young men fight over a woman they both desire to marry.

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Location: Naro Expanded Cinema
1507 Colley Avenue
Norfolk, VA

Tickets: $12

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

2:30 PM & 7:30 PM: THE STORY OF ANNETTE ZELMAN

Director Philippe Le Guay - 93 min - France - 2023 - French with English subtitles

What begins as a charming wartime romance between Jean—a sweet Catholic boy in Paris—and Annette—his feisty Jewish artist girlfriend—turns into a gripping tale of star-crossed lovers in this handsomely realized drama based on actual events. Set in Nazi-occupied Paris, The Story of Annette Zelman is a tale of love and resistance that plumbs the depths of human passion, prejudice, and betrayal.

View Trailer

Location: Beach Cinema Alehouse,
941 Laskin Road,
Virginia Beach, VA.

Tickets: $12

Date:
February 18-28, 2024

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