10th annual event to screen 6 films

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Area Jewish Film Festival will mark its 10th anniversary this year.

Under the auspices of the Youngstown State University Center for Judaic Studies, the festival will run from Thursday through Sept. 23 and will include six films at several locations.

A highlight will be a free screening Sept. 13 of Saul Friedman’s documentary “Ash and Smoke: The Holocaust in Salonika.” Friedman is the founder of the Judaic and Holocaust Studies program at YSU, where he is also professor emeritus of history.

He has been awarded the YSU Distinguished Professor Award six times, the Ohio Humanities Council Lifetime Achievement Award and the Zionist Organization Branckis Award, and five regional Emmys for PBS documentaries.

Friedman has published 10 books on Jewish history and the Holocaust.

A dessert reception will follow the screening, which will be in DeBartolo Hall on the YSU campus.

Advance tickets can be purchased at the Jewish Community Center on Gypsy Lane. Tickets can also be ordered online at ysu.edu/judaic. Buyers will print these tickets from their homes. Tickets will also be sold at the door.

The schedule for the film festival is as follows:

“Kaddish for a Friend,” 7 p.m., Wednesday, at USA Cinema, Great East Plaza, Niles.

This 94-minute subtitled tragicomic film is about a Russian Jewish World War II veteran and a Palestinian teen, who form an unlikely friendship. The youth had been raised to hate Jews while growing up in a Lebanese refugee camp. After his family moves to Berlin, he tries to gain acceptance among his Arab peers by vandalizing an elderly Jewish man’s home. When he is caught and threatened with deportation, he apologizes to the old man, which begins a relationship that slowly evolves.

“Brothers,” 7 p.m., Sept. 9, Temple El Emeth, 3970 Loganway, Youngstown.

This 116-minute subtitled film is about two Jewish brothers who are reunited in Israel after many years of silence. Dan has been living on a secular kibbutz, while his deeply religious brother, Aaron, is a distinguished lawyer and Torah scholar in New York. Aaron comes to Jerusalem to defend a group of students who have refused military service. The conflict between the two brothers and the legal struggle between the prosecutor and defense reflect a society torn between its religious and political principles.

“Nicky’s Family,” 7 p.m., Sept. 12, USA Cinema, Niles.

This 96-minute documentary tells the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and his remarkable rescue mission that saved 669 children in 1939 in Prague as World War II neared. Winton’s story has only recently come to light.

“Ash and Smoke: The Holocaust of Salonika,” 7 p.m., Sept. 13, room 132, DeBartolo Hall, YSU.

This documentary looks at the Greek city of Salonika. Almost 57,000 Jews lived in Salonika on the eve of the Holocaust. By December 1944, only three remained.

“Mabul (TheFlood),” 7 p.m., Sept. 20, USA Cinema, Niles.

This 100-minute subtitled film centers on a troubled boy and his dysfunctional family as they struggle to stay afloat amidst a crisis in a ramshackled farming community in Israel. Rich in biblical metaphors, the story is told with sensitivity, humor and irony through the eyes of the gifted but underdeveloped 13-year-old.

“Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story,” 7 p.m., Sept. 23, Temple El Emeth, Youngstown.

This 84-minute documentary in Hebrew and English is a poignant retelling of the Operation Entebbe raid by elite Israeli forces to save Jewish hostages being held by Arab terrorists at an airport in Uganda. It is told from the perspective of squad leader Yoni Netanyahy, older brother of the current prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.