Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey's Israel Film Festival consists of feature films and documentaries from or about Israel. We offer virtual and live screenings!

Schedule

November 12, 2023

person screenings

7:00 PM : Matchmaking

"Romantic Comedy"

Moti Bernstein is the son every mother wants, a student every Rabbi loves to teach, the ideal Yeshiva Bochur, the perfect match for every bride. He has it all: a good family, a brilliant mind, and he is not bad looking either. In search of a wife, he will meet the best girls in the Jewish orthodox world but will fall for the one girl he can never have. The only one he wants. Against everything he knows and every value he holds dear, Moti will be forced to go out on a limb in the most unexpected and unusual of ways. Who will win? The system or the inner voice? An entertaining and good-hearted romantic comedy that gives a light Orthodox twist to "Romeo and Juliet".

Location : Teaneck Cinemas - 503 Cedar Ln, Teaneck, NJ 07666.

Virtual Movies

12:00 AM : Judas

The story is set in Jerusalem in the winter of 1959. Shmuel Ash, a sensitive student who has dropped out of university because his father's finances have collapsed, takes a live-in job as a companion to an elderly, incapacitated man, Gershom Wald, who needs someone to argue with. Wald learns from Shmuel that he has stopped working on his thesis, which dealt with Jewish views on Jesus. The conversation between these two protagonists revolves around the humanity of Jesus. Shmuel tells Wald about his alternative theory on Judas Iscariot: he says he believes Judas was not a traitor at all but, in fact, the truest believer in Jesus's divinity. Furthermore, a relationship develops between Shmuel and Wald's daughter-in-law, Atalia Abravanel, a sensual and mysterious woman. Shmuel falls in love with her in what becomes a tender coming-of-age tale.

12:00 AM : Our Story

Lee Biran and Eliana Tidhar make the perfect duo in this charming musical rom-com. Tal (Biran) is an ambitious music agent working at his mother’s agency. On a visit to a school in the south of Israel, he meets an introverted music teacher (Tidhar). Their encounter could prove to be the perfect chance to launch her career, but they must first overcome their differences and let their love of music do the rest. Married in real life, Biran and Tidhar are utterly convincing as Tal and Ori, two characters who discover the courage to defy other peoples’ expectations of who they should be and to follow their own dreams.

12:00 AM : Sand Flakes

David, a sensitive, creative teenager, lives in Southern Israel with his ill mother, his father who gave up his dreams, and his young brother. He discovers an online writing forum and starts publishing his family stories under the fake identity of the rich kid "Nadav". As he gets entangled in his lies, he is afraid of losing his new forum friends, and being exposed by his family. The situation undermines the delicate fabric of the family.

12:00 AM : Slient

Avihu, a controversial TV host, is back from suspension at the height of a prime minister election campaign. The leading candidate, (the ex-prime minister's son and his former beloved pupil), won’t speak to the media or give interviews but has agreed—on his terms—to give Avihu an exclusive interview. He isn’t the only one who is silent; Avihu’s mother has mysteriously stopped talking. Caught in the whirlwind of their silence, Avihu is on a path to his own reckoning.

12:00 AM : The Future

When Israel’s Minister of Space and Tourism is murdered in the lead-up to the country’s first mission to the moon, Yaffa (Samar Qupty), a young Arab university student from the occupied West Bank, confesses to the murder. Scientist Nurit (Reymond Amsalem) asks for permission to interview the assassin. As the pioneer of The Future Project, an algorithm-based program meant to predict acts of terrorism (or, if you’re Palestinian, resistance), Nurit is convinced that the unrepentant Yaffa is withholding her whole motivation. The two women face off, determined to give nothing away, over a potentially fraught series of encounters. As the truth is exposed, an increasingly disillusioned Nurit inches towards a profoundly troubling realization.

November 13, 2023

person screenings

1:30 PM : Matchmaking

"Romantic Comedy"

Moti Bernstein is the son every mother wants, a student every Rabbi loves to teach, the ideal Yeshiva Bochur, the perfect match for every bride. He has it all: a good family, a brilliant mind, and he is not bad looking either. In search of a wife, he will meet the best girls in the Jewish orthodox world but will fall for the one girl he can never have. The only one he wants. Against everything he knows and every value he holds dear, Moti will be forced to go out on a limb in the most unexpected and unusual of ways. Who will win? The system or the inner voice? An entertaining and good-hearted romantic comedy that gives a light Orthodox twist to "Romeo and Juliet".

Location : Wayne YMCA - 1 Pike Drive, Wayne NJ 07470.

Virtual Movies

12:01 AM : Matchmaking

Moti Bernstein is the son every mother wants, a student every Rabbi loves to teach, the ideal Yeshiva Bochur, the perfect match for every bride. He has it all: a good family, a brilliant mind, and he is not bad looking either. In search of a wife, he will meet the best girls in the Jewish orthodox world but will fall for the one girl he can never have. The only one he wants. Against everything he knows and every value he holds dear, Moti will be forced to go out on a limb in the most unexpected and unusual of ways. Who will win? The system or the inner voice? An entertaining and good-hearted romantic comedy that gives a light Orthodox twist to "Romeo and Juliet".

November 14, 023

person screenings

7:00 PM : Barren

An ultra-Orthodox twenty-something couple in Israel, unable to conceive children, find their lives upended in this provocative drama about faith and sexual exploitation. After Naftali travels to Ukraine during Rosh Hashanah to pray for a child, his wife, Feigi, is left alone with her in-laws, who invite the rabbi Elijah for the holiday. Claiming to be a healer of barren women, Elijah convinces Feigi to undergo his treatment, starting a chain of events that lead to crises of belief, conscience, and marriage for the couple once Naftali returns. Director Mordechai Vardi based his film on true events, raising fundamental theological questions and revealing the vulnerability of women living within such enclosed

Location : Kaplen JCC on the Palisades - 411 E Clinton Ave, Tenafly, NJ 07670.

November 15, 2023

Virtual Movies

12:01 AM : Barren

An ultra-Orthodox twenty-something couple in Israel, unable to conceive children, find their lives upended in this provocative drama about faith and sexual exploitation. After Naftali travels to Ukraine during Rosh Hashanah to pray for a child, his wife, Feigi, is left alone with her in-laws, who invite the rabbi Elijah for the holiday. Claiming to be a healer of barren women, Elijah convinces Feigi to undergo his treatment, starting a chain of events that lead to crises of belief, conscience, and marriage for the couple once Naftali returns. Director Mordechai Vardi based his film on true events, raising fundamental theological questions and revealing the vulnerability of women living within such enclosed religious environments.

November 16, 2023

person screenings

7:00 PM : Children of Nobody

Living on the fringes of Israeli society, troubled boys must band together to save the shelter for at-risk youth that has kept them off the streets. For generations, an altruistic surrogate mother, Margalit (Tiki Dayan), provided loving refuge to victims of neglect and violence in a shabby house on Tel Aviv's outskirts. When tragedy strikes, it's up to right-hand man Jackie (Roy Assaf) to keep the home from corrupt property developers and assuage a social worker's scrutiny.

Location : Teaneck Cinemas - 503 Cedar Ln, Teaneck, NJ 07666.

November 17, 2023

Virtual Movies

12:01 AM : Children of Nobody

Living on the fringes of Israeli society, troubled boys must band together to save the shelter for at-risk youth that has kept them off the streets. For generations, an altruistic surrogate mother, Margalit (Tiki Dayan), provided loving refuge to victims of neglect and violence in a shabby house on Tel Aviv's outskirts. When tragedy strikes, it's up to right-hand man Jackie (Roy Assaf) to keep the home from corrupt property developers and assuage a social worker's scrutiny.

November 19, 2023

person screenings

7:00 PM : America

Director Ofir Raul Graizer (The Cakemaker), returns with a cleverly structured, psychologically astute melodrama about relationships. After coaching swimming in Chicago for ten years, Eli (Michael Moshonov), returns to Israel for the death of his abusive father. There, he reconnects with his childhood friend (Ofri Biterman) and his Ethiopian fiancee (Oshrat Ingedashet), setting in motion a series of events that will alter everyone’s lives. Grazier gradually reveals important pieces of backstory that shifts how viewers perceive the dynamics between the characters. This understated love triangle explores the values of friendship, love and moral responsibility with the same emphasis on sensuality as The Cakemaker.

Location : Kaplen JCC on the Palisades - 411 E Clinton Ave, Tenafly, NJ 07670.

November 20, 2023

Virtual Movies

12:00 AM : America

Director Ofir Raul Graizer (The Cakemaker), returns with a cleverly structured, psychologically astute melodrama about relationships. After coaching swimming in Chicago for ten years, Eli (Michael Moshonov), returns to Israel for the death of his abusive father. There, he reconnects with his childhood friend (Ofri Biterman) and his Ethiopian fiancee (Oshrat Ingedashet), setting in motion a series of events that will alter everyone’s lives. Grazier gradually reveals important pieces of backstory that shifts how viewers perceive the dynamics between the characters. This understated love triangle explores the values of friendship, love and moral responsibility with the same emphasis on sensuality as The Cakemaker.

Date : November 12 - 20 , 2023

Location :

Wayne YMCA - 1 Pike Drive, Wayne NJ 07470.
Teaneck Cinemas - 503 Cedar Ln, Teaneck, NJ 07666.
Kaplen JCC on the Palisades - 411 E Clinton Ave, Tenafly, NJ 07670.
online

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