Savannah Jewish Cultural Arts Festival brings films, food through month of March

Savannah has become home to the Jewish Cultural Arts Festival for the second year in a row.

For the past 20 years, the Savannah Jewish Federation (SJF) has hosted a film festival dealing with the themes of Jewish culture. Still, post-COVID, strides were made to evolve the concept to include more than just films. As a result, the Jewish Cultural Arts Festival hosts a myriad of other events as well, like comedy shows, art receptions, cooking classes, and more.

Movies are still a big part of the festival. In fact, this month already kicked off with a movie for the opening night reception. In addition to displaying artwork from local Jewish artists, The Jewish Educational Alliance center hosted the film "Four Winters," which told the story of the young surviving Jewish partisans who fought the Nazis and their allies deep within European lines.

But for those who missed the reception, the Cultural Arts Festival offers much more films.

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Every Thursday, a Food for Thought film series is hosted at 12:30, featuring different films orbiting around the themes of Jewish culture. "We had one called Israel swings for Gold," said SJF Arts and Ideas Coordinator Katie Griffith. "It was the story of the athletes of an Israel baseball team going and playing in the Olympics. And this Thursday, we're playing 'The Barn.' It is a documentary by a woman named Rachel Casper, who was helping tell the story of her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor."

These film nights will also be joined with a meal for the family to enjoy. Meals such as lentil shepherd's pie or even meatless Bolognese.

The following two Fridays, the SJF will be showing short films on Shabbat, a day when the Jewish community exercises their freedoms by taking a break from the labors of life. "The films themselves are very thought-provoking," said Griffith. "The first week's theme was about family and what different families looked like within the Jewish lens. And then also last week, we had a movie dealing with the themes of identity."

These shorts will be hosted at Chai's Coffee Bar. Coffee for the event will be free to the audience.

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On March 27, Tzilla Lamberger teams up with the SJF to host a Jewish-themed cooking class. For the class, she will be teaching her viewers how to cook traditional Israeli vegetarian foods. Participants will watch the chef extraordinaire in action and be allowed to cook alongside her and, of course, eat what they cook when it's all said and done.

The JAE carefully planned many of these films the cultural arts festival displays to help best show the different aspects of Jewish culture. "Savannah is a very small city, but there are very large Jewish Film festivals throughout the country," said SJF Chief Operating Officer Jamie Richman. "And so we really rely on their expertise. And we see what they are showing at all of their festivals, what the hottest Jewish movies are, and try to get whatever the best available."

"There are many different themes running throughout the month," Richman said. "We didn't really want it to be just a 'one-note'; we wanted to have something for everyone. We have everything from comedies to love stories to documentaries. There's a lot of different things playing."

Community partnership events will be held every Sunday, such as the upcoming Jewish Educational Alliance's Open House on March 19, or the Jewish Comedy Night At Front Porch Improv on March 26.

A lot of work was put into ensuring this event allowed everyone to see what the Jewish community is about. "The Jewish community is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest communities that, you know, basically helped founded Savannah," said Griffith. "There's so much rich history here, and we're just trying to share that with the community. Basically, open it up and let people know that everyone's invited, everyone's included. There's just so many good things that I think we're just trying to let people enjoy and, you know, take advantage of, including the movies, the comedies, the cooking, the writing, and the artists. We want to highlight and celebrate that."

The Jewish Cultural Arts Festival is a must-see event for the Jewish community in Savannah. But not all events are free. For the events you do have to pay for, tickets can be bought on the Savannah Jewish Federation website.

The event will last until the end of the month and is entirely open to the public. For more information, contact the SJF at 912-355-8111 or email artsandideas@savj.org or visit savj.org.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA events: Savannah Jewish Cultural Arts Festival