Film Society

Park East has just launched this new project to complement our current programs that serve to enrich and deepen the community’s contact with Jewish heritage and culture, through film.

With the Park East Film Society, we hope to bring the community together around thought-provoking Jewish and Israeli films and to promote discussion of and an interest in film as an art form.

Our goal at Park East Synagogue has always been reaching out and building bridges with our larger community. We do that through prayer, education, Torah classes, and now we hope this new venture into cinema will add an additional dimension to these efforts.

We extend our sincere gratitude to Regina Gil, Executive Director of the Gold Coast Film Festival, who has been our consultant and has helped us to make this project a reality.


Previous Films

“Tuviansky”
In 1948, Tuviansky, a captain in the Israeli army and a former major in the British army, was arrested. Within four hours he was interrogated, tried, sentenced, and executed and his body was thrown into a pit in the ground.
Tuviansky was accused of treason because he had innocently supplied a list to his British boss at the power plant – on a list of vital institutions whose power supply was not interrupted even during power cuts. The locations on the list had been shelled before Tuviansky passed the list to his boss. However, passing on the list was enough for the head of security in Jerusalem, a Major Glibly, to start an investigation and in no time, to execute Tubianski.
A year later Tuviansky was found innocent. His executioners were then tried and moderately punished.

“Partner with the Enemy”
In the midst of the ever-fraught, Israeli-Palestinian political landscape, two women – one Israeli and one Palestinian – attempt the seemingly impossible: to build a business together. Suspenseful, moving, and not without humor, this is the story of a very special bond, facing challenges of all shapes and sizes.

“Muses of Bashevis Singer”
Isaac Bashevis Singer, the famous Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize winner wrote with a ‘harem’ of dozens of translators behind him. Beyond simple translation, these women were a vital source of his creativity. The inspiration he drew from them came in many forms, often mixing romance with professional aspirations. Today nine remain to tell his story. Intimate, poignant interviews and exclusive archival footage combine to portray the unknown story of an author who charmed and enchanted his audiences, just like he charmed and enchanted his translators.

“On The Map”
On the Map, a fast-moving, emotional, and awe-inspiring documentary, recounts the story of how the 1977 Maccabee Tel-Aviv basketball team that no one thought could win toppled the four-time defending Soviet team and put Israeli basketball firmly on the map. Featuring interviews with the Jewish-American athletes who made history, combined with the pulse-pounding action of a high-stakes game with an incendiary political situation at the height of the Cold War, director Dani Menkin delivers a film that honors Israeli heroes, mesmerizes fans of the game and captures the spirit of a nation triumphant and victorious against all odds.