Family Programs

An orchestra of 100 professional and amateur musicians, young and old, sets out on a journey against all odds to a one-time concert. They speak different languages. Their instruments are broken.

One brilliant conductor, three gifted composers, and musicians from different backgrounds meet for four days of rehearsals to pull off a concert unlike any other: a concert played in Jerusalem on broken instruments. A poetic, engaging look at the broken and the whole through characters determined to create, if only for a moment, harmony in a discordant city.

Part of the BEATSxJ: Movies about Music series.

When a little-known Jewish community in rural Uganda encounters a group of Orthodox Israeli rabbis, everyone is destined to be transformed.

Director Tamás Wormser documents the extraordinary encounter over seven years, crafting a nuanced and visually arresting documentary reflection on identity, religion, and the long shadow of colonialism.

This poignant look at the lives and religious practice of the Abayudaya touches on the very definition of what it is to be Jewish, while raising timely questions about wealth inequality and the relationship between Israel and the African diaspora.

Screening followed by a conversation with director Tamás Wormser.

Part of the Jews of Color series: Programs Centering Jews of Color.

They met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable—compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people?

Directed by 2018 Washington Jewish Film Festival Visionary Award Winner Roberta Grossman (Who Will Write our History, Blessed is the Match: Hannah Senesh), Reckonings recounts the tense negotiations between Jewish and German leaders.

Under the constant threat of violence, they forged ahead, knowing that the size of the settlement would never be enough but hoping it could at least be an acknowledgement and a step towards healing.