Dayton Jewish Film Festival
The Dayton Jewish Film Festival offers outstanding world cinema that promotes awareness, appreciation and pride to the diversity of the Jewish people and to the community at large. Our goal is to educate and entertain through evocative, narrative and documentary films that portray the Jewish experience from historic to current global perspectives
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Dayton is delighted to announce that the 23rd Annual Dayton Jewish Film Festival will be presented June 1 – June 30, 2023.
Inspiring world-class cinema and programming highlight the diversity of the Jewish experience and the historical richness of Jewish culture and identity. Our engaging lineup of features, documentaries, and narratives
educate and entertain, while offering opportunities for personal reflection and connection within the Jewish community and beyond to the broader community.
The 2023 Festival will utilize a hybrid format, with most films available both for in-person and virtual viewing. We respectfully ask that you consider making a tax-deductible contribution to our Festival. Your gift will enable us to continue offering first-class films and companion programming to those fortunate enough to live in the Miami Valley.
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Check Out Last Year’s (2022) JCC Film Festival Film Schedule
In-person tickets
Opening Night movie and reception
Virtual ticket
Thursday, June 2, 2022, 7pm at Dayton Art Institute
That Orchestra with the Broken Instruments (Opening Night)
A broken string, fractured echo chamber, rustling valves. One brilliant conductor, three gifted composers, and 100 musicians meet for four days of rehearsals. They speak different languages. Their instruments are broken. An orchestra of professional and amateur musicians, young and old, prepare, against all odds, for a one-time-only concert for the Mekudeshet festival. A poetic, engaging take on broken and whole presents an eclectic array of Jerusalemites and their determined attempt, even if it’s just for one night, to create harmony out of a discordant city.
Country: Israel
Competition – Musical Doc Section @ FipaDoc, France, 2022; Israeli Competition @ Docaviv International Film Festival, Israel, 2021
Venue: Dayton Art Institute
Guest Speaker, Neal Gittleman, Artistic Director and Conductor, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra
Neal Gittleman enjoys a career and reputation of international dimensions. With the historic merger of the Dayton Ballet, Dayton Opera and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra into the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance in July 2012, his expanded conducting duties include frequent performances with the Ballet and Opera.
Neal Gittleman inspires each listener’s imagination with his unique programming, in-depth comments, easygoing style and infectious enthusiasm for music. His focus is to make symphonic music readily available, as well as appreciated, by all musical tastes. Under his direction, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra has received the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music nine times. Neal Gittleman celebrated his 25th season with the DPO in the 2019–2020 concert season.
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
Plan A
Germany, 1945, Max, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, meets a radical group of Jewish resistance fighters, who, like him, lost all hope for their future after they were robbed of their existence and their entire families were killed by the Nazis. They dream of retaliation on an epic scale for the Jewish people. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Max starts identifying with the group’s monstrous plans….
Country: Germany
Nominated: Best Cinematography @ Awards of the Israeli Film Academy;
Nominee: Best Feature Film Award @ Haifa International Film Festival
Venue: The Neon Theater
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Thursday, June 9, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
Neighbors
In a Syrian border village in the early 80’s, little Sero attends school for the first time. A new teacher has arrived with the goal of making strapping Panarabic comrades out of the Kurdish children. To enable paradise to come to earth, he uses the rod to forbid the Kurdish language, orders the veneration of Assad and preaches hate of the Zionist enemy – the Jews. The lessons upset and confuse Sero because his long-time neighbors are a lovable Jewish family. With a fine sense of humor and satire, the film depicts a childhood which manages to find light moments between dictatorship and dark drama. Little Sero gets involved in dangerous pranks with his friends, and dreams of having a television so he can finally watch cartoons. But he also experiences how the adults around him are increasingly crushed by the despotism, violence and nationalism which surround them.
Country: Switzerland, France
Winner: Audience Award (Best Feature) @ Spokane Jewish Cultural Film Festival 2022;
Winner: SF Film Critics Jury Prize @ Sand Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2021;
Winner: Audience Award @ Boston Jewish Film Festival 2021;
Winner: Special Jury Mention @ Warsaw Jewish Film Festival.
Venue: The Neon Theater
Guest Speaker, Dr. Elliot Ratzman
Dr. Elliot Ratzman holds the Chair of Jewish Studies in Earlham College’s Religion Department where he teaches courses on Jewish thought, history, and politics, interreligious encounters, and social ethics.
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Monday, June 13, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
One More Story
Yarden Gat is a young and brilliant journalist working on a famous newspaper, who does not believe in love. When she eventually decides to go on a date, she reveals all her cards to the person she meets. She tells him that she slept with her boss and ruined her friend’s chance of having true love when she made him go out on a date each day of the month with a different woman, only to get a humiliating scoop for the newspaper. Maybe not the best story for a first date….Will any of them eventually find true love?
Country: Israel
Venue: The Neon Theater
In-person tickets
Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 7 pm Little Art Theater, Yellow Springs
In-person tickets
Thursday, June 16, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
Virtual ticket
Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 7 pm at Little Art Theater, Yellow Springs
Thursday, June 16, 2022, 7 pm at The Neon
Berenshtein
The last surviving member of the great partisans who located Hitler’s secret weapon, the V2 missile development facility, revisits his past as a soldier in World War II. By diving into his traumatic memories, he is forced to grapple with the dissociation and loss of identity that ensued after the war. Despite this adversity, it becomes clear that he is able to stay true to his values through it all. Based on the true story of Leonid Berenshtein.
Country: Israel
Winner: Audience Award for Best Feature Film @ Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, 2022
Venue: Little Art Theater, Yellow Springs; The Neon Theater, Dayton
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Thursday, June 16, 2022, 10am at The Neon Theater
Cinema Sabaya
Nine women, Arab and Jewish, take part in a video workshop hosted by Rona, a young film director, who teaches them how to document their lives. With each raw homemade footage shot by the women and shared with the others, the group dynamic forces them to challenge their views and beliefs as they get to know each other and themselves better.
Country: Israel, Belgium
Film Partner: Hadassah
Winner: Best First Feature @ Jerusalem Film Festival;
Winner: Audience Award @ Jerusalem Film Festival;
2021 Official Selection @ The Chicago International Film Festival
Venue: The Neon Theater
Guest Speaker, Dr. Martha Moody Jacobs
Martha Moody is a lifelong resident of Ohio. A novelist and physician from Dayton, Moody’s three previous books of fiction have sold close to 1 million copies. She is the author of Best Friends (2001), The Office of Desire (2007), and Sometimes Mine (2009).
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Tuesday, June 21, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
200 Meters
Mustafa and his wife Salwa live 200 meters apart in villages separated by the Israeli border wall. One day he gets a call every parent dreads; his son has been injured in an accident. Rushing to cross the Israeli checkpoint, Mustafa is denied on a technicality. But a father’s love won’t give up and he will do anything to reach his son. A 200 meter distance becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey, as Mustafa, left with no choice, attempts to smuggle himself to the other side of the wall.
Country: Palestine, Jordan, Qatar
Winner: The BNL People’s Choice Award @ Venice Days;
Winner: Meet the Neighbors Competition @ Thessaloniki Film Festival;
Winner: Meet the Neighbors Special Jury Award @ Thessaloniki Film Festival;
Winner: Human Rights Jury Prize @ Atlanta Jewish Film Festival;
Winner: Audience Award @ Golden Rooster Awards
Venue: The Neon Theater
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Thursday, June 23, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
I Am Here
Ella Blumenthal is not your average 98-year-old. Her feisty and magnetic personality makes her past even more surprising. Follow this spirited South African Holocaust survivor as she reveals to her family her astonishing life journey and her unwavering appreciation of life.
Country: South Africa
Venue: The Neon Theater
Guest Speaker, Renate Frydman
Renate is the founder of the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center and the Charles and Renate Frydman Educational Resource Center.
In-person tickets
Virtual ticket
Sunday, June 26, 2022, 7pm at The Neon Theater
Wet Dog (closing movie)
The 16-year-old Iranian Soheil moves to Berlin-Wedding with his parents. He quickly befriends some Turkish and Arab youth from the Husseyn gang and falls in love with the Turkish girl Selma from the parallel class. What Soheil doesn’t tell his friends; he’s not a Muslim, but a Jew.
Country: Germany
Venue: The Neon Theater
Virtual tickets – questions and answers
For more help or information please call 937-610-5513, Helen Jones, JCC Program Assistant
When are virtual films screenings?
| 200 Meters | Available Tues., June 21, 7:00 PM – Jun 23, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| Berenshtein | Available Wed., June 15, 7:00 PM – Jun 18, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| Cinema Sabaya | Available Thurs., June 16, 7:00 PM – Jun 18, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| I Am Here | Available Thurs., June 23, 7:00 PM – Jun 25, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| Neighbours | Available Thurs., June 9, 7:00 PM – Jun 11, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| One More Story | Available Mon., June 13, 7:00 PM – Jun 15, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| Plan A | Available Tues., June 7, 7:00 PM – Jun 9, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| That Orchestra with the Broken Instruments | Available Thurs., June 2, 7:00 PM – Jun 4, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
| Wet Dog | Available Sun., June 26, 7:00 PM – Jun 28, 7:00 PM, 2022 in Ohio |
How do I play the movie on my TV?
See our detailed instructions for our dedicated Apple TV and Roku apps below.
Chromecast will work on select Android devices, see instructions above. Chromecast on iOS devices are not compatible with the Eventive platform.
Important note: Due to content protection restrictions, the Screen Mirroring feature on Smart TVs and other devices cannot be used. Many browsers built into Smart TVs and other devices will NOT allow protected content to play.
You can also directly connect a laptop or computer using an HDMI cable by doing the following:
- Make sure your computer is close enough to your Television for the HDMI cable to reach between them safely.
- Connect one end of the HDMI cable into an available HDMI port on the TV. Take note of the HDMI input number it is being connected to.
- Plug the other end of the cable into your laptop’s HDMI out port
- Set the TV to the HDMI Input port that the computer is connected to using the source or display button on your TV remote.
- If your computer’s display does not automatically appear on your television screen, you may need to have the computer manually detect the display.
- Windows: Right-click on the desktop > Display Settings > Click Detect > Click the “Multiple displays” drop-down box and select “Duplicate these displays”) > Click Apply.
- Mac: Go to the Apple Menu > choose System Preferences > Choose the “Displays” panel > Hold down the “Option” key to show the “Detect Displays” button – note that it replaces the ‘Gather Windows’ button > Click on “Detect Displays” while holding down Option to use the function as intended.
I’m seeing a black screen where the movie should be, but audio plays normally.
My movie won’t play! (General troubleshooting steps)
Are you logged in with the correct account? Please check your login status at the upper right of the Eventive window. If you are logged in you will see a circle with the initials of the account holder. To switch accounts, click on the circle and select “sign out”, then login (using email address or facebook login) to the preferred account.
If you are not logged in, you’ll see the word “login” at the upper right of the window. Click “login” and enter the desired account credentials.
You may also login directly from the order pop-up if you click “unlock movie” while logged out.
If all you see in the player window is a black screen, please click or tap on the window to activate the player controls.
How do I use the Eventive TV app on my Apple TV device?
When you open the app for the first time you’ll see an activation code. On another device, please navigate to watch.eventive.org/tv, then login if necessary and use the code to connect your account. Now, select from the available channels on the Eventive Apple TV app to begin watching. All of your unlocked content will be available on the app. If a program has not already been unlocked, you’ll have to unlock it on another device such as a laptop or mobile device first.
If you ever need to re-activate the TV app, you can select TV app setup by hovering over the login ID circle at the upper right of the device screen.
How do I access the Eventive TV app on Fire TV or Firestick?
Select the app and install on your device. Once installed you will then see a 6 character code you will enter into your account settings at watch.eventive.org/tv
Once you have entered the code your Fire TV will show all of the content you have unlocked for viewing via another device such as a laptop or mobile device.
How do I access the Eventive TV channel on Roku?
Once you have installed the app, open it and follow the instructions to login. All of your unlocked content will be available on the app. If a program has not already been unlocked, you’ll have to unlock it on another device such as a laptop or mobile device first.
2022 Dayton Jewish International Film Fest Donors
- 2500+ Studio Executive
Anonymous
Bernard Rabinowitz
Sam Levin Foundation - 1000+ Director
Gayle & Irvin Moscowitz - 500+ Screen Writer
Michael Goldstein
Lisa Hanauer & Sue Spiegel
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Jones
Barbara Mendelson
Phillip A Office
Marlene & Terry Pinsky
Cantor Andrea Raizen
Stephen Renas - 250+ Actor
Theodore Arnovitz
Michael & Patty Caruso
Enrique & Ruth Ellenbogan
Marni Flagel
Renate Frydman
Friends of the Community
Michael Herrlein
Linda & Steve Horenstein
Susan & David Joffe
Joseph & Marsha Johnston
Ed & Marcia Kress
Ann R. Laderman
Marc & Julie Liss-Katz
Judy Lipton
David London & Kim Dinsmore
Dr. and Mrs. Donald Marger
The Rubi Girls
Judy Schwartzman Mike Jaffe
Norman & Mary Rita Weissman
Joan & Peter H. Wells – In Memory of Rebecca Linville
- 100+ Supporting Actor
Beth Adelman
Matt & Elaine Arnovitz
Jack & Maryann Bernstein
Beth Abraham Synagogue
Ken & Lisa Blum
Stanley & Connie Blum
Libby & Ken Elbaum
Alan & Becky Elovitz
Adam & Tara Feiner
Neil D. Friedman
Felix Garfunkel
Paula J Gessiness & Jay M. Holland
Dr. Kim & Mrs. Shelley Goldenberg
Martin Gottlieb
Judy Heller
Linda & Allan Katz
Meredith & Jim Levinson
Cheryl & Franklin Lewis
Beverly A. Louis
Carol & James Nathanson
Carolyn Rice
Alice & Burt Saidel
Dan & Kim Shaffer
Suzanne & Bob Thum
Dieter & Suzi Walk
Joni & Ralph Watson
Dr. Warren Wingate
Judy Woll
Gary & Mary Youra
- 18+ Crew
Frieda Blum
Dena Briskin
Judy & Alan Chesen
Phil & Louisa Dreety
DeNeal Feldman
Lynn Foster
Bella Freeman
Roz Gray
Henry Guggenheimer
Sharon & Izzy Guterman
Helen Ostreicher Halcomb
Lois Harris
Meryl Hattenbach
Clara Hochstein
Jane & Gary Hochstein
Emily & Jon Holt
Karin Hirschkatz & Neil Katz
Janice Kohn
Kim & Candy Kwiatek
Wendy Lipp
Ruthe Meadow
Linda Novak
Edie Pequignot
Cherie Rosenstein
Helen Ross
Nick & Bobbie Schmall
Jeff & Julie Stoller
Diane and Ralph Williams
2022 Dayton Jewish International Film Fest Committee
- Andrea Raizen, Chairman
- Judy Schwartzman, Vice Chairman
- Mike Caruso
- Jack Bernstein
- Connie Blum
- Alan Chesen
- Enrique Ellenbogen
- Ruth Ellenbogen
- Renate Frydman
- Felix Garfunkel
- Michael Goldstein
- Judy Grampp
- Michael Herrlein
- Gary Hochstein
- Susan Joffe
- Marc Katz
- Tambrina Klein
- Ryan Levin
- Meredith Levinson
- Dave London
- Ruthe Meadow
- Gayle Moscowitz
- Bernard Rabinowitz
- Steve Ranas
- Elliot Ratzman
- Marci Vandersluis
- Marc Jacob, Sr. Director, JCC
- Helen Jones, Program Administrator
Jewish Observer
First public commemoration 60 years ago at Beth Jacob Congregation By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer It was 60 years ago when Holocaust survivors invited the public to the Dayton area’s first community Yom Hashoah memorial service, held April 21, 1963 at Beth Jacob Congregation on Kumler Avenue. But The post Community Yom Hashoah Observance evolved from survivors’ bonds appeared first on The Dayton Jewish Observer. [...]
By Lisa Keys, Kveller.com One of the most — if not the most — iconic Olympic gymnastics moments of all time was when Jewish gymnast Kerri Strug clinched the gold medal in the 1996 Olympics despite having a serious injury. With the encouragement of her coach, Béla Károlyi, Strug continued The post Kerri Strug to keynote Presidents Dinner appeared first on The Dayton Jewish Observer. [...]
“Long live Europe, Am Yisrael Chai,” exclaimed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she received an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University last year. Her words were quickly decried on Twitter as imperialistic “racist Nazi slogans.” In 2015, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s current national security minister, was arrested on the The post Am Yisrael Chai – The People of Israel Live appeared first on The Dayton Jewish Observer. [...]
