Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, Director, The Viewing Booth

Ra’anan Alexandrowicz is a director, screenwriter and editor. He is known for the documentary The Law in These Parts (2011), which received the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival, a Peabody award, and numerous other prizes. His earlier documentaries, The Inner Tour (2001) and Martin (1999), were shown in the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section and MoMA’s New Directors / New Films series. Alexandrowicz’s single fiction feature, James’ Journey to Jerusalem (2003), premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and at the Toronto International Film Festival and received several international awards. Alexandrowicz’s films have been released theatrically in the United States and Europe, and broadcast by PBS, ARTE, the BBC, as well as other television channels. Ra’anan served several times as an editing advisor for the Sundance Documentary Fund.

Keren Ben Rafael, Director, The End of Love

Keren Ben Rafael was born in Israel in 1978. She studied Philosophy and French Literature at Tel Aviv University while working as a director and content editor on television documentaries. She graduated from the prestigious French School La Femis, directing department in 2009. Her short films I’m Your Man, Northern Lights and “At the Beach won several prizes at various festivals and were all screened on television. Her debut feature, “Virgins”, premiered at Tribeca in 2018 where its female lead won Best Actress. It also won the Fipresci Prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Best Director and Best Actress at the Montenegro Film Festival, and Best Film at the Sguardi Altrove women’s Film Festival, Milan. The End of Love is her second feature film.

Omer Ben-Shachar, Director, Tree #3

Omer Ben-Shachar is a writer/director,  born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel. He won a 2019 Student Academy Award for his short film Tree #3. The film also won Urbanworld’s Best Young Creator Award, the Palm Springs ShortFest’s Audience Award, and AFI’s Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award, among other accolades. An AFI Conservatory alum, Omer is currently a participant of the 2019–20 Viacom Viewfinder Emerging Directors Program, the 2020 Warner Bros. TV Directors’ Workshop and the BAFTA LA Newcomers Program. He was named to Forbes Israel’s 30 Under 30 list in 2020.

Leanna Berkovich, Director, Fata Morgana

Leanna Berkovitch is an independent filmmaker and animation art director with expertise in conceptual art development and layout backgrounds design. Fata Morgana is her graduation film from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Leanna’s work combines video and animation as well documentary and experimental genres. She focuses on a creating poetic moments that hold a story or specific emotion, utilizing a moment to present a larger picture.

Steven Branfman, Film Subject, A Father’s Kaddish

Steven Branfman received his MAT from Rhode Island School of Design in 1975 and enjoys an international reputation as a clay artist.  In 1977, he founded The Potters Shop and School in Needham, MA as his studio, pottery school, gallery and pottery bookstore.  He has been teaching pottery at Thayer Academy in Braintree, MA for 42 years.  His Raku ware is in the collection of several museums.  He is the author of four pottery and Raku books.  Steven is a popular workshop presenter, giving guest demonstrations and lectures of his pottery forming, glazing and firing techniques all over the world.

Randi Cecchine, Principal Camera and Editor,  Commandment 613

Randi Cecchine’s documentaries include Scrambled: A Journey Through Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and Trail of Feathers, about a radical political performance troupe. Her interest in spiritual topics began well before her bat mitzvah. She and Miriam Lewin met when they were asked to create a video project about preschoolers’ understanding of math. Randi is pursuing a Master’s degree in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image at the University of Amsterdam.

Daniella Bokor, Director, Fata Morgana

Daniella Bokor is a filmmaker, 2D animator, and concept artist based in Israel. Daniella graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, in 2019 and now works as a freelancer and as a graphic designer at the Israeli N12 news channel. Daniella is the director of short, award-winning animated-documentary film, Fata Morgana. Her work focuses  on finding interesting, unique characters and giving them a surprising visual look.

Amit Hai Cohen, Subject/Musician, In Your Eyes, I See My Country

Amit Hai Cohen is a musician, composer, filmmaker and curator who works along the artistic axis between Jerusalem and Morocco. His film work includes Stop the Evacuation (2012) and the docu-music Ya Lkhmama (2015) which premiered at Essaouira festival in Morocco. Together with Neta Elkayam, He created Abiadi, a tribute concert for the legendary Moroccan singer Zohra Al Fassia (2017) and the Electro-Moroccan project Arénas. In 2019 Amit curated the Jerusalem Biennial spearhead exhibition Ziaras, showcasing contemporary Moroccan artists from around the world. During 2020 he has created and directed films and musical content for the “Banai״ Exhibition which opened recently in the Tower of David Museum. As a composer, Amit works across dance and film and tours internationally with his projects and collaborates with leading musicians from the Jewish and Arab world.

Saul Dreier, Subject/Musician, Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band

Saul Dreier was born in Poland in 1925. Until 1939 he led a usual life in Krakow, but his youth was stopped with the Second World War when life for Jewish people turned to nightmare. He spent years in concentration camps, where his passion for music helped him survive. After liberation by the American army, he spent a few years in Italy before moving to the US, where he met his wife and started his business. Now over 90, his stolen youth is still in him. As Founder of Holocaust Survivor Band, Saul run concerts and speaks throughout the world.

Tzor Edery, Director, Tamou

Tzor Edery is an artist living in Jerusalem. He first studied fashion design, then continued on to Bezalel Academy of Art and Design to study animation. His work focuses on studying mental states and personal experiences through the body, gender and moving between genders, as well the history, archaeology, and present of the Middle East and North Africa. He seeks to bring these elements of aesthetic and culture together in his personal and contemporary visual world.

Stephen Edwards, Director, Syndrome K

Stephen Edwards is a newly accomplished filmmaker and a seasoned and highly sought after film and television composer, scoring movies and TV shows for 20+ years. He co-directed and produced Requiem for My Mother which won 2 audience awards at US film festivals, ran on PBS stations from 2016 to 2018 and is now featured on Amazon Prime Video, and about which Oscar-winning composer John Williams wrote “Your requiem is a lovely work! Heart-felt and honest, it contains a delicate innocence … making it touching tribute to a Mother from a loving son.”   The CD of the soundtrack from the film peaked at #3 on the Billboard Classical Charts in 2017, and won a Hollywood Music and Media award for outstanding Classical Composition.  Edwards is an accomplished pianist who has played on many top Hollywood soundtracks, and has won acclaim for his orchestral and choral compositions. He has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Vatican.  Edwards is a dual citizen of both the United States and Italy, and was emotionally riveted to the untold story of Syndrome K while he was in Italy. He resides in California with his two daughters. When not producing films or composing music, he enjoys golfing, hiking and sitting down at a Steinway piano.

Neta Elkayam, Subject/Musician, In Your Eyes, I See My Country

Neta Elkayam is musician and visual artist, born to a family of Maghreb origin. Her father was born in Tinghir, and mother in Casablanca. Having graduated with honors from the “Key” School of Arts, she now works and lives in Jerusalem. Neta performs, writes and renews North African Jewish music. Inspired by the poetry of North African women, she combines in her music Andalusian, Amazigh, and Mediterranean influences as well as rock, pop, and Piyut. Together with her musical and life partner Amit Hai Cohen, she has created tributes to the Moroccan Jewish stars Albert Suissa and Zohra Al Fassia and a musical project inspired by the music of the woman from the Atlas. She has performed on many stages around the world and collaborated with well-known artists such as Maurice El Medioni, Raymonde el Bidawiya, Abir el Abed, Abdeslam Sefiani, the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra conducted by Tom Cohen, Dudu Tassa and more. She is the winner of the ACUM music prize.and was nominated for an Ophir Oscar Award for a leading role in the 2019’s musical film Red Fields (Mami).

Eytan Fox, Director, Sublet

Eytan Fox was born in New York and grew up in Israel. Sublet is his eighth feature film and is the fourth to screen at BJFF. His 2004 movie, Walk on Water, about a Mossad agent tracking the grandson of a Nazi, opened the Panorama at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004, was nominated for a César Award and was named one of the top foreign films of 2005 by the National Board of Review, USA. His 2013 film, Cupcakes, was a musical comedy about friends entering an international song contest. His films have won 28 international awards altogether. His television shows include the critically acclaimed Israeli series, Florentine and Mary Lou.

Anna Feder, Moderator, Shiva Baby

Anna Feder has been working in cinema exhibition in various capacities for over two decades. She served as a programmer at Wicked Queer: the Boston LGBT Film Festival for four years.Previous to this, she served as associate director of the Northampton Independent Film Festival, a programmer with SF Indiefest and was the director of the Boston Underground Film Festival for seven years. She currently serves as the Director of Programming in the Visual Media Arts department at Emerson College and curates the Bright Lights film series in the Bright Family Screening Room and teaches a course she designed on cinema exhibition.

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Speaker, Unchained

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe is the Shlulamit Reinharz Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, where she teaches in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department. She is also director of the Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, a research initiative that  explores the tension between women’s rights and religious laws. Her research focuses on gender and multiculturalism in family law and on the intersection between secular and religious law. Her publications include the books, Gender, Religion and Family Law: Theorizing Conflicts Between Women’s Rights and Cultural Traditions (2012),  The Polygamy Question (2015),  and Women’s Rights and Religious Law (2016) and she was guest editor of a special issue of Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues on New Historical and Legal Perspectives on Jewish Divorce . Dr. Joffe is a co-founder of the Boston Agunah Task Force, devoted to research, education and advocacy for women under Jewish family law. She holds three law degrees; an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School and LLM and SJD from Harvard Law School. Before coming to HBI, she taught law at University College London and was law clerk to Justice Frank Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada. She was called to the bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Noah Gardenswartz, Speaker, Behind the Scenes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 

Noah Gardenswartz is a comedian and writer based out of New York. He writes for Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and has performed stand up on Conan, and The Late Late Show with James Corden. Additionally, he has his own Comedy Central special, and has released two comedy albums both available on iTunes.

Ed Gaskin, Speaker, Shared Legacies

Ed Gaskin is the founder of Aspen & Stowe LLC, which creates entertainment content for a variety of media platforms. As an adjunct professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, he co-taught a class for 25 years called, “Christianity and the Problem of Racism” for students preparing for the ministry. He is currently working on a book with a similar title. His most recent publication in the Times of Israel, titled “After the Tree of Life tragedy, I went to Shabbat services and never stopped,” which was shared over 1,600 times. Ed received a Masters of Divinity degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and a Masters of Science in Management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. where he graduated as a Martin Trust Fellow. He currently attends Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley and Roxbury Presbyterian Church in Roxbury.

Kamal Hachkar, Director, In Your Eyes, I See My Country

Kamal Hachkar was born in 1977 in Tinghir, Morocco. His father migrated to Paris in the 60s, a few years after the departure of the Jews from Tinghir, and Kamal arrived in France, at six months old, beginning a lifelong in-betweenness story that has continued with his journeys between the two countries. In his films, Kamal confronts questions about identity both as an insider and an outsider.

In his first film, Tinghir Jerusalem (BJFF 2013), he tried to reconstruct a world that no longer exists, where both Jews and Muslims lived together in his hometown of Tinghir. In Your Eyes, I See My Country” focuses on the younger generation of Jewish and Muslim artists for whom Moroccan identity has different meanings.

Rabbi Kevin Hale, Sofer STaM, Film Subject, Commandment 613

Rabbi Hale’s work includes evaluating and restoring Torah scrolls, writing megillot and mezuzot, and teaching about Judaism’s sacred scribal traditions. He follows in the footsteps of his teacher, Rabbi Dr. Eric Ray, as a scribe authorized to repair the Czech Torah scrolls of the Memorial Scrolls Trust, now loaned to communities around the world. A deeply curious tinkerer, he invents musical instruments, makes recordings without electricity, and bakes his own matzah.

Rachel Harrison Gordon, Director, Broken Bird

Rachel Harrison Gordon is an MFA/MBA candidate at NYU Tisch/Stern and a Sundance 2020 Blackhouse Fellow. Rachel’s interest in storytelling evolved through pursuits of perspectives in journalism and in government. She has studied people through quantitative behavioral data and through their stories, and hopes to create films, commercials, and music videos that highlight the different ways people come of age. Her work challenges expectations of race, family and addiction. Prior to NYU, she served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for the Obama Administration, learning about Veterans and their experience returning home. She worked as a data analyst within a consumer insights group at The New York Times. Rachel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, where she studied Mechanical Engineering. Broken Bird is Rachel’s first film.

Judith Helfand, Director/Producer/Subject, Love & Stuff

Judith Helfand is a filmmaker known for her ability to use her quirky sense of humor, personal storytelling. and the power of transparency to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time, from climate change to the “politics of disaster.” Her films have premiered at Sundance,  been nationally broadcast on PBS, HBO, and The Sundance Channel. and have received the Sundance Excellence Award in Cinematography, Emmy nominations, and a Peabody Award.

Helfand co-founded two critical organizations: Working Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures, where as Creative Director, she helped design and lead Chicken & Egg Pictures’ mentorship and funding programs for nearly a decade. In 2007, Helfand received a United States Artist Fellowship, one of 50 awarded annually to “America’s finest living artists.” In 2016 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch.

 Helfand is currently holder of the Bob Allison (Allesee) Endowed Chair in Media at Wayne State University’s Department of Communication and is faculty at SVA’s Social Documentary Program. She taught documentary at NYU’s undergraduate film and television program and was filmmaker-in-residence at UW Madison. She lives in NYC with her almost six-year-old daughter Theodora and their betta-fish, Maxi Taxi.

Johanne Helgeland, Director, The Crossing

Johanne Helgeland is a Norwegian director. She was educated at The Norwegian Film school. The Crossing is her feature film debut. She is also one of the most experienced female commercial film directors in Norway and has directed shorts, music videos and tv-series for both children and grown-ups.

Susannah Heschel, Speaker, Shared Legacies

Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, and Jüdischer Islam: Islam und jüdisch-deutsche Selbstbestimmung, and co-editor, with Umar Ryad, of The Muslim Reception of European Orientalism. The author of over 150 articles and the recipient of four honorary degrees, she has held research grants from the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

Nelly Kafsky, Producer, An Irrepressible Woman

Nelly Kafsky is a seasoned veteran of film and television. After various jobs as an assistant, director of short films, casting director, stage manager, production administrator, and several years as a TV producer in advertising agencies, she arrived at TeleFrance in 1991 as Director of Creation and Production. She then produced more than fifty TV films and series including the famous Cordier, Judge and Cop series.

At the end of 1994, she created the TeleFrance subsidiary, Neria Productions. Nelly Kafsky launched, among other things, the nine-episode soap opera Terre Indigo, which remains one of TF1’s biggest successes. More than fifteen quality prime time films mark out her two years of presidency, including the cult series Louis la brocante with Victor Lanoux.

At the end of 2002, Nelly Kafsky created the company Mazel Productions, where she continues to produce quality short and feature films.

Jennifer Kaplan, Director, A Father’s Kaddish 

Jen Kaplan’s first love was always the magic of stories – listening to them, learning from them and telling them in a visual way through film, since 2000. Her first film Mixed Blessings: The Challenges of Raising Children in a Jewish-Christian Family was shown in film festivals across the globe (including the Boston Jewish Film Festival, in 2004) and aired on several PBS stations. She worked as a Fundraising Producer at Connecticut Public Television and served as the Associate Director of Filmmakers Collaborative in Boston. She currently serves as a member of the Newton Cultural Commission. Since 2011, she has focused her efforts on producing 5-7 minute films for clients including Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Brandeis University, Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh, and LimmudBoston. A Father’s Kaddish is her most recent film with her company Spencer Films.

Tamar Kay, Director, Unchained 

Tamar Kay graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem in 2015. She is a three-time Israeli Academy Award nominee. Her Thesis film, The Mute’s House (BJF 2017), was shortlisted for the 2017 Best Short Documentary Academy Award (Oscars) and screened internationally, winning numerous awards in prestigious festivals.  Unchained, an Israeli TV drama Tamar co-created with Yossi Madmoni & David Ofek, premiered in 2019, at the Israeli KAAN channel and was accepted to the prestigious Series Mania festival. Tamar edited the TV series, “Arik Einstein: A Standard Love Song”, which won the Israeli Emmy for Best Documentary in 2018. Prior to her film studies, she completed a dual degree in Psychology & Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Currently, Tamar is developing a full-length feature script with the support of The Rabinovich Foundation for Arts.

Arkadij Khaet, Director, Masel Tov Cocktail 

Arkadij Khaet was born during the final moments of the Soviet Union. A few weeks after his birth his family left the Republic of Moldova and immigrated to Germany. After graduating high school he lived in Israel for a while, and then moved to Cologne to start his undergraduate studies in Film and Television. As a student he started to implement his own film projects. During studies he met his co-director Mickey Paatzsch with whom he started a collaboration on several projects. Arkadij Khaet is studying Film Directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg and is currently living in Southern Germany.

Avigayil Koevary, Actress, Unchained

Avigayil Koevary, singer-songwriter and actress, is undoubtedly a significant figure on the Israeli cultural scene. She has completed three albums with her band ”Koevary ״ which has garnered praise and prizes from the media (her latest album “Bat Zekunim” /“The Youngest Daughter ״ won the ACUM award for best production. Avigayil has performed in several Israeli films including the leading role in Red Cow (BJFF 2018) for which she won Best Actress Award from the Jerusalem Cinematheque. She plays the leading female role in the TV series Matir Agunot. Avigayil has been performing as a singer-songwriter for more than a decade and has appeared on the screen as a new, fresh talent but with all the depth and distinctions of a seasoned actress. Koevary was born in Jerusalem to Modern Orthodox parents who moved to Israel from New York.

Talya Lavie, Director, Honeymood

Talya Lavie is a director and screenwriter who won the Israeli Academy Awards for writing and directing Zero Motivation, an Israeli blockbuster which received multiple international awards including Best Film in Tribeca Film Festival and the Nora Ephron Prize; the film broke the Israeli box-office record of the past two decades, won six Israeli Academy Awards, was awarded Best Film by the Israeli Film Critics Association, and was selected to be one of the three Best Israeli Films of All Times by the most widely read newspaper in Israel. Lavie graduated with merit from the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem after studding in the animation department in Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. Her short film Sliding Flora screened at New York City’s MoMA, Paris’s Louvre, and in over 40 film festivals worldwide. Her short film The Substitute received several international awards, notably the Audience Award in the Berlinale. Honeymood is her second feature film.

Tod Lending, Director, Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band

Tod Lending is an Academy Award® nominated and Emmy winning producer, director, and cinematographer whose work has aired internationally and nationally on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO, A&E, Al Jazeera English, Arte, CBC, RAI, ZDF; has been screened theatrically and at national and international festivals. His work has inspired the creation and passing of federal legislation (The Legacy Act/American Dream Act) and has garnered major grants from foundations including the MacArthur Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, and more. He was a University of Maryland Journalism Fellow in Child and Family Policy, an advisor at the Sundance Institute, and is the president and founder of Nomadic Pictures, a documentary film production company based in Chicago. 

Miriam Lewin, Director, Commandment 613

Miriam Lewin has made documentary shorts on topics ranging from housing discrimination in Georgia to the 50th anniversary of undergraduate coed singing at Yale. She also writes and produces radio programs on classical music, and is developing a science podcast. Miriam’s first career was in opera administration, and she manages the world’s oldest collection of opera supertitles.

Naomi Levy, Instructor, Closing Night Cocktails

Naomi Levy is an internationally renowned, award winning bartender based in Boston. She is the founder of Beyond the Mixing Glass, a company aiming to bring the principals of bartending and hospitality to a wider audience. She believes that hospitality can be a powerful tool no matter the industry.

Levy served as the bar manager of Eastern Standard from 2010-2016, has won multiple regional and national titles. In 2019 she was named Best Bartender by Boston Magazine and 40 under 40 by Wine Enthusiast. Naomi has most recently been working as a bar & restaurant consultant, developing programs around the Boston area. Naomi is also the founder of Maccabee Bar, an annual Hanukkah-themed pop-up bar in the Boston area.

Caroline Link, Director, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit 

Caroline Link is one of Germany’s most celebrated filmmakers. Throughout her illustrious career that spans more than two decades, she has received international accolades for her work including multiple Academy Award nominations, and an Oscar winfor Best Foreign Feature in 2003 for Nowhere In Africa (BJFF 2002). Her Oscar win helped usher in a new era of visibility and vitality for German cinema and her work continues to captivate audiences around the world.

Tamar Manasseh, Subject, They Ain’t Ready for Me

Tamar Manasseh is the Founder and President of MASK (Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings). Following the shooting of Lucille Barnes in 2015, Tamar, a mother of two who grew up in Englewood and now lives in Bronzeville, rallied several other mothers and established MASK. In the summer of 2015, she and other parents in the community took to their local corner daily to let everyone know that they’re watching.

MASK’s purpose is to put eyes on the streets, interrupt violence and crime, and teach children to grow up as friends rather than enemies. Its primary mission is to build stronger communities through a focus on violence prevention, food insecurity and housing. Additionally, MASK partners to ensure that community members have access to necessary city services, opportunities for education and professional skills growth, and economic development.

Tamar has also helped launch MASK initiatives in other Chicago neighborhoods, as well as cities throughout the nation, including Evansville, Indiana, Staten Island, New York, and Memphis, Tennessee.

Jurgis Matulevičius, Director, Isaac

Jurgis Matulevičius graduated from the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy with a degree in film directing. He has worked with well-known Lithuanian film directors Šarūnas Bartas, Algimantas Puipa and others. Jurgis made a number of short films that were seen and praised by critics, festivals and audiences in Lithuania and abroad alike – his films were presented in many local and international festivals like Los Angeles’ Cinefest, Kiwi International, Krakow Film Festival, Oberhausen film festival, Odessa Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival Film Market “Marche du Film” and others.

Consul General Nicole Menzenbach, Introduction, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Nicole Menzenbach is the Consul General of Germany to New England. From 2014-2017, she served at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin as the Head of Division for Higher Education, Science and Academic Relations Policy, and from 2012-2014 as a Senior Advisor for Afghanistan Multilateral Affairs on the Task Force Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her various roles within the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs have stationed her in Lisbon, Portugal and New Delhi, India. She began her professional career working first as an advisor for Joschka Fischer while he was a Member of Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, and then as his Senior Advisor when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was a Fellow at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs from 2017-2018.

Mickey Paatzsch, Director, Masel Tov Cocktail 

Mickey Paatzsch is a freelance filmmaker and short film writer/director who studied Fiction Direction at the Macromedia Colon. He studied philosophy at the University of Colon and completed his master’s degree in 2019. His films portray misfits and their habitats in a fun and creative way. With his friend from university, Arkadij Khaet, he realizes movies in co-direction.

Tom Perzman, Director, Tamou

Tom Perzman is a visual artist and filmmaker living in Tel Aviv. Tom lived abroad where he gained experience in a variety of creative fields that accompanied him into his academic studies in the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Tom chooses to play in his works with time and its meaning, unfolds his family history and aims to promote Queer content and stories in contemporary society.

Dr. Shari Rogers, Ph.D Director/Producer, Shared Legacies

Dr. Shari L. Rogers is a licensed clinical psychologist and social activist whose work encompasses movie production, writing, educational programing, curriculum development and public speaking. She is the Co-Executive Producer of the PBS documentary, Eli Inspiring Future Generations. Rogers has been published in “Friendship and Faith, The Wisdom of Women Creating Alliances for Peace.” Shari is the president and founder of Spill The Honey, a Michigan-based 501(c)(3) organization committed to promoting human dignity and advancing public knowledge of the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Through programs, sponsored initiatives, and strategic partnerships, Spill the Honey advances cultural tolerance, draws attention to contemporary injustices, and encourages young people to become compassionate, global citizens.Rogers also serves as a trustee of the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy (ISGAP).

Brad Rothschild Director, They Ain’t Ready for Me

Brad Rothschild is an award winning producer and writer with both a creative and a business background. He received a Masters in International Affairs and an MBA, from Columbia University. From 1995-1997, he served as the Speechwriter and Director of Communications for the Mission of Israel to the United Nations. Brad wrote and produced the independent film, Homeland, which won an awards at multiple festivals including the Delray Beach Film Festival and the West Hollywood International Film Festival. Brad produced the award-winning documentary feature, Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald, which has screened in the Jerusalem Film Festival and in over 20 festivals in the United States and around the world and was distributed theatrically in 2013. Brad’s other documentary films include African Exodus and Tree Man. He is currently directing a documentary film about Raoul Wallenberg. Brad’s written work has appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Huffington Post and The Times of Israel.

Sara Rubin, Moderator, An Irrepressible Woman

Sara Rubin served as Executive Director of The Boston Jewish Film Festival from 1997 to 2008, and as Artistic Director (2008 to 2011).  She was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2006 in recognition of her work on behalf of French culture and cinema.  She continues to attend such film festivals as the Berlinale and Cinéma du Réel (Paris), to consult with filmmakers in the U.S. and abroad on finding wider audiences for their films, to organize film screenings for nonprofit organizations (most recently, Suffrage100MA.org in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment), to assist film festivals (including Brown University’s 2020 Providence French Film Festival) and to moderate discussion sessions on film (most recently, as part of a Symposium on Education for Gender Equality presented by Wellesley College and Sciences Po).

Emma Seligman, Director, Shiva Baby

Emma Seligman is a Canadian filmmaker based in New York. She is a graduate of NYU’s Undergraduate Film & Television program. She directed the short film Shiva Baby (2018) of which the feature film is based. It premiered at South by Southwest in 2018, went on to Woodstock Film Festival, TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest and is now a Vimeo Staff Pick. Shiva Baby (2020) is her first feature film.

Ruby Sosnowicz, Subject/Musician, Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band

Reuwen Ruby Sosnowicz is 91 years young. He was born in Warsaw Poland  and survived Nazi persecution. He is a historian and archivist of Jewish music and has preformed all over the world for almost 8 decades with numerous orchestras and bands that he have created. He loves performing music and putting smiles on faces. Ruby  is the Co-Founder and Musical Director of The Holocaust Survivor Band and is a proud subject of the documentary Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band. He is a proud great grandfather to 2 precious little boys, and feels blessed that one was born on his birthday–what a legacy! “Life proves to show that wonderful moments and new chapters can still happen in your life at any age. So keep reaching for your dreams, enjoy the beautiful sounds of music in your life, and always remember to love another. G-d bless you!”

Elizabeth von Wagner, Moderator, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Liz von Wagner is the Cultural and Press Affairs Officer at the German Consulate Boston. After spending her formative years in Massachusetts, she attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She spent the majority of her adult life living abroad, mainly in Germany but also with years spent in the Republic of Georgia, Hungary and Kuwait. Before joining the German Consulate in Boston, she was part of the Press and Public Relations team at the German Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City.
 

Robin Washington, Moderator, Shared Legacies

Robin Washington is a journalist, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Alliance for Black Jews. His commentaries have appeared in scores of newspapers around the world, including the Jewish press, as well as in books edited by Ishmael Reed and Charles Ogletree. A weekly show host for Wisconsin Public Radio and longtime GBH contributing reporter and producer, he has also appeared on NPR, BET, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and many other broadcast outlets.
Washington grew up in a Chicago family of black and Jewish civil rights activists, participating in sit-ins and protests when he was three years old — events he recalls fondly as “family outings,” though history records them as dangerous and nation-changing. He has gone on to chronicle the movement in his acclaimed PBS documentary, “You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!” and also made history with likely the first TV interview with a little-known Harvard law student named Barack Obama.
 

Dr. Shayna Weiss, Speaker, Unchained

Dr. Shayna Weiss is the Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.  was the inaugural Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies at the United States Naval Academy. She earned her PhD from New York University in Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in Israel at Bar Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, where she taught courses about Israeli history and society. She has also taught at Brooklyn College and New York University. Her research interests converge at the intersection of religion and gender in the Israeli public sphere, as well as the politics of Israeli popular culture. She is completing a book on gender segregation in the Israeli public sphere.