Welcome to the 13th Annual Saint John Jewish Film Festival!
This year’s festival brings together an inspiring collection of thought-provoking, moving, and unforgettable
films that explore Jewish identity, history, traditions, and culture from around the globe. These are stories
that spark conversation, deepen understanding, and entertain — films you likely won’t see anywhere else
in Saint John, or even New Brunswick!
GENERAL INFORMATION
If you wish to become a Film Festival sponsor, Please contact the Jewish Historical Museum at:
Phone: 506-633-1833
Tickets for individual films can be purchased for $15/film from the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum.
Tickets for you and a friend for $25/film (in person only) .
Passes for the entire series of five films are available from the Museum for $50.00 each.
Payments can be accepted by cash, cheque or credit card.
Ticketholders may choose to attend the screenings in person at the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum – which will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. each evening – or online with a unique non-transferable link for each film.
The proceeds from the film festival will support the work of the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum to preserve the Jewish history of Saint John.
the lineup for the Festival:
SATURDAY OCTOBER 24 – LLOYD GOLDSMITH NIGHT OPENING FILM AND RECEPTION - SPONSORS ONLY
Once Upon My Mother
2025, subtitles, 1 hour 42 minutes
In 1963, Esther gave birth to Roland, the youngest in a large family, born with a clubfoot that prevented him from standing. She promised he would be able to walk just like everyone else and have a wonderful life.
Esther devoted herself to ensuring this promise came true. Spanning decades of hardships and miracles, this is the story of the greatest love of all: a mother’s love for her child.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 25
Reading Lolita in Tehran
2023, subtitles, 1 hour 47 minutes
As Islamic morality squads stage raids in Tehran and fundamentalists seize hold of universities, Azar Nafisi, a teacher, secretly gathers six of her most committed
female students to read forbidden Western classics. Unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, their stories intertwine with the novels they read, just like the
heroines of Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Jane Austen. These women dare to dream, hope and love, in an exploration of women’s resilience.
MONDAY OCTOBER 26
Rosenthal: The Great Showman
2025, subtitles, 1 hour 23 minutes
In 1978. Hans Rosenthal, Jewish and a Holocaust survivor, is Germany’s most popular TV presenter. The 75th edition of his live game show is about to be broadcast on November 9 – exactly 40 years after Kristallnacht, the pogrom that shattered his family. He is expected to entertain and distract an audience of millions rather than attend the first official German memorial for the victims. Hans, is in a moral dilemma. Will he find the strength to address his family trauma?
TUESDAY OCTOBER 27
For The Love of A Woman
2025, 1 hour 57 minutes
In the 1970s, Esther, an American woman mourning her mother, receives a letter sending her on a journey to uncover a chapter of her family’s history. With help from Zayde, a university professor, she begins searching for a woman who lived decades earlier in British Mandate Palestine. The woman is Yehudit, whose arrival in a settlers’ village in the 1930s entangled the lives of a widowed father, an idealistic farmer and a cattle trader.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28
The Future Awaits
2025, subtitles, 1 hour 31 minutes
As the rounding up of Jewish families multiplies, 13-year-old Tauba, and her parents, Polish Jews, find refuge in a tiny room in Paris. Conditions are tough, and each day merges into the next as they live in constant fear of being discovered.
Tauba’s fighting spirit shines through. Despite the extreme circumstances of her daily life, she will keep hope until the liberation of Paris, and take back control of her life.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 29
Hold On To Your Music: A Mother’s Legacy
2025, 1 hour 18 minutes
This moving film tells the true story of Lisa Jura, a gifted young pianist who escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna via the Kindertransport. Alone in London at 14, she found hope through music, resilience through love, and passed both on to her daughters. Spanning three generations, it’s a tribute to survival, artistry, and the enduring strength of a mother’s love.
Thank you
to our 13th Annual Saint John Jewish Film Festival Sponsors
Executive Producer
Ken Craft & Katherine Biggs-Craft–in memory of Jerry and Marcia Koven
Producer
- Dr. Joseph Arditti
- Dr. Richardo and Lois Bessoudo
- Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception
Associate Producer
- Anne Baker
- Phillip and Diane Bloom
- Lana and Gary Davis
- Signe Gurholt
- Dianne Ormandy
Director
- Lorie Cohen Hackett
- Mark and Teresa Goldsmith
- Grant Heckman and Dr. Sandra Bell
- Richard and Felicity Osepchook
- Michael and Janet Richard
- Janet and Michael Shore
- Brenan’s Funeral Home
- John Walker Insurance
- The Bra Room
Editor
- Dr. Gordon Chapman and Ellen Tucker
- Amos Friling and Ilanit Bokur-Friling
- Ian Hamilton
- Susan Isaacs-Lubin
- Andrew and Lynn Koven
- Barbara Lee-White
- Dr.Gerald and Colleen Maloney
- Regina Mantin
- Derek and Jacqueline Oland
- James Streeter
- Michael and Margaret Wennberg
- Anonymous