Blogroll Update: Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival

For 16 years we enjoyed the San Jose Jewish Film Festival, now in it’s 17th year, the festival is making some changes, starting with their name and brand spankin’ new website. They are now the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival to better reflect their demographics. Our blogroll has been updated with their new website, www.svjff.org.

Here’s what their new website had to say about the changes.

Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival Promises
New Commitments to Jewish Cinema in South Bay

Now in its 17th year, the San Jose Jewish Film Festival is reinventing itself. Reflecting the growth of the region, as well as the year-after-year expansion of the Film Festival programming, the SJJFF has changed its name to the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival (SVJFF).

With this name change, the SVJFF will bring more Israeli Film and more festive film events that will be screened at various venues in the Valley. This will be accomplished with new partnerships and a strategic change in operations. The SVJFF will back that commitment up by bringing two blockbuster Israeli films to two new venues in February this year. “The Israeli film industry is producing major movies and the Silicon Valley population — including the many Israelis in the area — are a natural audience.” says new SVJFF President, Lorin Fink

The strategic changes were made as a result of the Festivalís growth and the fact that the day-to-day activities of the Festival throughout the year require professional attention. “I am pleased to announce that Mark Levine, who has been involved with the Festival for ten years, has been named the part-time Executive Director,” said Lorin. “Mark has served four years as President and he is uniquely familiar with the needs of the organization and the community.” Lisa Ceile-Goldfus, the part-time liaison between the APJCC and the Film Festival continues in her role.

The Board also approved sweeping changes to the structure of the organization, transitioning from a purely volunteer group to a hybrid paid/volunteer organization. The SVJFF remains a major program of the Addison Penzak Jewish Community Center of Silicon Valley.

The SVJFF continues to need volunteers. If you are interested in being part of the Festivalís growth, please call Lisa Ceile-Goldfus at 408-357-7492.

What do a CBDYAGer, Newsweek, JDate, Rabbi’s and the “Intermarriage Problem” have in common?

They are all part of a Newsweek article in the January 21 Issue (yes, today’s only January 17) entitled Sex and the Synagogue. CBDYAGer Noah Mamber, most recently seen sprucing up Overfelt Gardens, is an East Bay resident who answered the phone one morning to be interviewed by Newsweek. The call was courtesy of his home town Rabbi in New Jersey. The article is about a new JDate initiative to offer Rabbi’s bulk biscounts for JDate memberships for their single congregants in an effort to combat intermarriage.

The rise of interfaith marriage is a sensitive issue among American Jews, and now two powerful forces in the religion are teaming up to do something about it: rabbis and JDate, the top matchmaking Web site for Jewish singles. For the first time in its 10-year history, the site is offering a bulk rate to rabbis who want to buy membership accounts for their congregants. According to Gail Laguna, JDate’s vice president of communications, singles who sign up through their congregation get a slight discount on the site’s $149 six-month subscription fee. “This is a way for us to break down the walls of the synagogue,” said Rabbi Michael Cahana, who leads the Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Ore. “We should use all the technological tools that are available to us.”

The rabbis who negotiated the bulk rate are also picking up the tab. Since September, Rabbi Donald Weber of Temple Rodeph Torah in Marlboro, N.J., has paid out of his own pocket for 24 six-month subscriptions. Cahana and Rabbi Kenneth Emert of Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff, N.J., who purchased a dozen three-month memberships, anted up for single congregants using money from their synagogues’ discretionary budget. “When I heard that another rabbi was putting his money where his mouth is, I did too,” says Emert, whose offer includes just one stipulation: “No mothers, no grandmothers.” Singles, in other words, have to sign up themselves. The financial aid is appreciated. If not for Emert, says 29-year-old public-interest lawyer Noah Mamber, “I would have had to choose between JDate and food.”

The rabbis say they felt compelled to act because of the gradual dilution of the faith through marriage. Almost half of American Jews marry non-Jews, a rate of exodus that has more than tripled since 1970. “This is about creating an opportunity,” says Cahana. Sometimes even Cupid needs a nudge.

Hat Tip to Book Maven and Noah