jvalley.org | jewish community news

Jewish Community News

News: September 2006

The 15th annual San Jose Jewish Film Festival begins in October

The 2006 San Jose Jewish Film Festival 15th season begins October 18 in downtown San Jose and runs through November 19. The films reinforce Jewish identity and help to educate on topical issues in Israel and throughout the world.

“These movies are a window into the Jewish world,” said Mark Levine, president of the Festival. Tickets can be purchased via the film festival Web site, www.sjjff.org, or by calling (800) 838-3006. All movies are shown at the Camera 12 Theater in downtown San Jose.

In “The Jews of Iran,” we watch in vivid detail how the 25,000 Jews in Iran face mounting pressures as a minority living within an Islamic regime.

Israeli feature films “Live and Bec-ome” and “Out of Sight” depict different, and generally unknown aspects of Israeli life. “Live and Become” offers an insider’s view of the Ethiopian immigration to Israel. “Out of Sight,” named Best Picture in Israel in 2005, depicts an Israeli family under stress. It is at once a mystery and a heart-rending story of family loss.

So what’s Jewish about Beethoven?

Actually nothing. However, his protégé, Ferdinand Hiller, was Jewish. And Hiller cut a lock of Beethoven’s hair upon the great master’s death. This lock of hair stayed in his family and was brought out of Germany by the family when they escaped the Nazis. That hair, which was passed down through generations in Europe, now lives at the Ira F.Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at the Martin Luther King Library in downtown San Jose.

The true story of the unique odyssey is captured in the film “Beethoven’s Hair,” based on the book by the same name. Both the author of the book and the director of the film will be in San Jose to answer questions from the audience. They will also be at a unique event on Saturday, October 28 at the Beethoven Center, which will include a movie screening, Beethoven’s music and tours of the Center, including a viewing of Beethoven’s actual lock of hair.

Sister Rose, who passed away only a few months ago, was a Catholic nun who made it her life’s work to fight anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church. “Sister Rose’s Passion” tells this nun’s unique story. She speaks out about the historical inaccuracies of anti-Semitism in the Church and even weighs in on Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ.” After the film, there will be a panel discussion about “What Has Vatican II meant for our Community?” Jewish and Catholic clergy will be represented on the panel. Co-sponsors are the Jewish Community Relations Council of Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley Conference on Community and Justice, and the ADL.

“Fateless” (Hungarian/German), a story about a teenager from a middle class Budapest family caught in a police round-up of Jews, is a gripping, mature and existential film based upon the semi-autobiographical novel by Hungarian Jewish author Imre Kertész, who recently received the Nobel Prize for Literature and, incidentally, adapted his novel for this film.

On the lighter side are “Go For Zucker” winner of the Ernst Lubitsch Award for Best German Comedy (2005) and “The First Time I Turned Twenty,” a charming coming-of-age story set in France in the 1960s.
A complete schedule of screenings with synopses of all selections may be found at the festival Web site www.sjjff.org Tickets are also available through the Web site or by calling (800) 838-3006. Often tickets sell out early, and are not available for purchase at the door.

The San Jose Jewish Film Festival is a committee of the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center, and is sponsored in part by the Consulate General of Israel, the Koret Foundation, Metro Newspaper, and the City of San Jose.

News

Features

JCN Issues