Boston Jewish Film Staff & Board

Boston Jewish Film Staff
Executive Director Susan Adler
Artistic Director
Joey Katz
Director of Production
Nysselle Clark
Marketing & Communications Manager Joyce Bettencourt
Accounting & Office Manager Ann Bersani

Festival Production Contributors
Technical Directors Laurann Lento Black and Wesley Hicks
Database Support Rajiv Manglani
Web Design & Maintenance Bouvier Consulting

Boston Jewish Film Board of Directors
Ken Shulman, President
Dana Volman, Vice President
Sari Korman, Clerk
Beverly Bavly
Miriam Bavly
Jill Cohen
Carol Epstein
Barbara Gutman
Judy Lappin
Taren Metson
Barbara Resnek
Alex Sagan
Deborah Schwartz
Lisa Resnek Wyett

Director Emeriti
Doreen Beinart
Abigail Cable
Laurence Feinberg
Judith L. Ganz
Jim Gould
Barbara Wallace Grossman
Nancy S. Raphael
Denise Widman

Boston Jewish Film Festival Founder
Michal Goldman

Boston Jewish Film Festival Artistic Director Emerita
Sara L. Rubin

Boston Jewish Film Honorary Committee

Doug BlockDoug Block
Doug Block is a documentary filmmaker based in New York City. His work includes the critically acclaimed HBO film 112 Weddings (2014), and 51 Birch Street (2005). Recently, he started a podcast, The D-Word, which focuses on the art and social impact of documentary film.

Kevin BrightKevin Bright
Kevin Bright is one of the creators of the Emmy award-winning TV series Friends (1994-2004) and the founding Director of Emerson College, Los Angeles. An Emerson alumnus himself, Bright has served in a variety of roles at Emerson, including professor and a Board of Trustees member.

Alice HoffmanAlice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman is a best-selling novelist. Her young adult novel, Practical Magic (1995), was adapted into the 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Over the course of her career, she has written and published thirty novels and short stories.

Wendy KoutWendy Kout
Wendy Kout is a writer and producer for theatre, film, and television. Her credits include writing for Mork and Mindy, creating and co-executive producing the hit TV show, Anything but Love, creating the romantic comedy film Dorfman in Love, and creating the award-winning play, We Are the Levinsons.

Jackie LiebergottJackie Liebergott
Jackie Liebergott is a retired professor, dean, and the first female President of Emerson College. Appointed in 1993, she oversaw the strategic move from Back Bay to the historic Boston Theatre District, which resulted in unprecedented growth for the college.

Joni LevinJoni Levin
Joni Levin is an Emmy award-winning film and television producer. She produced the recent adaptation of
Ben-Hur, as well as the Oscar-nominated film The Way Back. She received an Emmy Award for the TV mini-series When The Lion Roars about the history of MGM.

Joan NathanJoan Nathan
Joan Nathan is dedicated to preserving Jewish culture by documenting its cuisine. Her ten cookbooks include Jewish Cooking in America and The New American Cooking, were both recipients of the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook. She later produced and hosted the PBS series Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan. Joan is a regular contributor to The New York Times.

Robert SageRobert Sage
Robert Sage is a businessman, entrepreneur, and founder of the Sage Hotel Corporation. The recipient of several industry awards, he founded the Back Bay Hilton and has served as the national director of the American Hotel & Motel Association

Jenny SlateJenny Slate
Jenny Slate is an actress, stand-up comedian, and the NY Times best-selling author of the children’s book Marcel The Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me. In 2014, she won a Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Actress in a Comedy” for her performance in Obvious Child. She voiced the character of “Bellwether” in Disney’s Academy Award-winning film Zootopia, as well as “Gidget” in The Secret Life of Pets. Her television credits include Girls, Parks and Recreation, and Saturday Night Live, and her films include Obvious Child, Gifted, and Landline. Jenny is a graduate of Columbia University.

Nancy SpielbergNancy Spielberg
Nancy Spielberg is a film producer. Over the course of her varied career, she has overseen productions of some of the most widely acclaimed Jewish documentaries, including On the Map and Above and Beyond. Her upcoming documentary, Who Will Write Our History?, reveals recently-discovered documents from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Ron SuskindRon Suskind
Ron Suskind is an award-winning journalist and author. A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1995, Ron is the former national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal and author of the memoir Life, Animated, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated documentary.

Ed Symkus Ed Symkus
Ed Symkus has been reviewing films and writing about the arts since 1975. A Boston-based Emerson College graduate, he was a film critic for
The Boston Phoenix, and is currently a contributor to The Boston Globe and GateHouse Media, as well as a radio host.