Film Festival

The 21%: EID

Dates : May 11, 2025 — May 13, 2025

Duration : 1 hours 30 minutes

Join us for our 15th annual in-depth exploration of the daily lives and challenges of Arab citizens of Israel. Featuring a screening of Eid followed by a moderated conversation with director Yousef Abo Madegem and Bedouin activist Amal Elsana Alhjooj.

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The 21%: The Lives Of Arab Citizens Of Israel

Join us for our 15th annual in-depth exploration of the daily lives and challenges of Arab citizens of Israel. Featuring a screening of EID followed by a moderated conversation with director Yousef Abo Madegem and Bedouin activist Amal Elsana Alhjooj.

Sponsored by the Greater Washington Forum on Israeli Arab Issues and the Edlavitch DCJCC. Lead Support provided by The Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation.

This program is also sponsored by Sephardic Heritage International (SHIN DC)

Amal Elsana Alhjooj, PhD, is an Indigenous Bedouin Palestinian academic and activist born in Israel. Elsana Alhjooj is an Associate Professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work and the Founding Executive Director of the nonprofit social change organization PLEDJ (Promoting Leadership for Empowerment, Development, and Justice).Over the past three decades, Elsana Alhjooj has led a movement for feminist, indigenous, solutions-oriented community organizing and policy change advocacy in the Middle East and Canada. She is the recipient of many awards including the recipient of the Genius 100 Visionaries of the Future (2017), and the New Israel Fund’s Human Rights Award (2013), and was previously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize(2006).She is the author of Hope is a Woman’s Name , a personal memoir that recounts her experiences growing up and her activism through the lens of intersectionality, navigating between individual, social, and political identities and the systems of power within which they exist,

Rabbi Sid Schwarz is a social entrepreneur, author and teacher. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Adamah: People, Planet, Purpose (formerly, Hazon).

Rabbi Sid founded and led PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values for 21 years; its work centered on integrating Jewish learning, Jewish values and social responsibility. He is also the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD where he continues to teach and lead services. Dr. Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in Jewish history and is the author of two groundbreaking books–Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews Can Transform the American Synagogue (Jewish Lights, 2000) and Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World (Jewish Lights, 2006).

Rabbi Sid directs the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a program that trains rabbis to be visionary spiritual leaders. He also created and directs the Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network which is identifying, convening and building the capacity of emerging spiritual communities across the country.

Sid was awarded the prestigious Covenant Award for his pioneering work in the field of Jewish education and was named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in North America. Sid’s most recent book is Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future (Jewish Lights, 2013).

About Eid:

Eid, a young man from Rahat with dreams of becoming a playwright, secretly writes a play based on the sexual assault he experienced as a child. He finds solace in a long-distance relationship with a married actress in Paris, but when his family arranges a marriage for him, his life takes an unexpected turn. Trapped between tradition and his own desires, Eid strikes a risky bargain with his new wife: a child in exchange for freedom. But when a trip to Paris to see his lover ends in disappointment, he must confront his past and find his own voice.

Starring Shadi Mari (Fauda, Our Boys), who won an Israeli Academy Award for his role, this is the first feature film directed by a Bedouin filmmaker.

“A moving, entertaining drama that will keep you engrossed from start to finish, even if you’ve never thought much about Bedouin culture before.” – Hannah Brown, The Jerusalem Post