The OC Jewish Arts Festival at the Merage JCC has provided our community with a cultural extravaganza, featuring lauded lineups of authors, musicians, filmmakers, celebrities, chefs and influencers. We've played host to Matisyahu, Idan Raichel, Rami Kleinstein, Dennis Ross, Capitol Steps, Tovah Feldshuh, Ed Asner, Rita Rudner, Joe Mantegna, Adeena Sussman and Jake Cohen - just to name a few! From history to mystery, fact to fiction, politics to religion, and humour to political satire, The OC Jewish Arts Festival's exceptional repertoire has something to offer to all arts lovers

Schedule

November 4, 2023

7:30 PM : Little Town

Award-winning filmmaker Dani Menkin who has charmed Jewish Film Festival audiences for years with crowd-pleasers such as Aulcie, On the Map, Picture of His Life, and Dolphin Boy, among others, now returns with his new touching story about a father and son coming closer together with the help of a stranger. In this heartwarming romantic comedy, a struggling stand-up comedian aspiring to be a star is inspired by a free-spirited woman to take his son on an unexpected adventure to a “little town” in the mountains where each of them hopes their dreams will be fulfilled.
 
Little Town is a story of grief, healing, and family, and the journey that each character takes to find a new path in life.

November 7, 2023

7:00 PM : Vishniac
 
Roman Vishniac was a Russian-American photographer best known for capturing on film some of the most iconic images of Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust, documenting a world that was soon to vanish.
 
In 1935, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) hired Vishniac to travel to Eastern Europe and take photographs documenting Jewish poverty and relief efforts to be used in its fundraising campaigns. Few predicted that less than a decade later, these communities would be wiped out, and that Vishniac’s photographs would provide the last visual records of an entire world.
 
Many of these photographs were collected in the famous book, A Vanished World. (1983) which won the National Jewish Book Award in visual arts.
 
The film is narrated by his daughter Mara Vishniac Kohn who lived in Santa Barbara for more than 40 years and died in 2018 at the age of 92, not living to see its completion. At first Kohn was reluctant to tell the story of her idiosyncratic father, because the two had had a fraught relationship. Ultimately, she took responsibility for his legacy by preserving his work, a haunting eulogy to a world on the brink of destruction.

November 9, 2023

7:00 PM : Closed Circuit
 
In this pulse-pounding deconstruction of a terrorist attack, raw security camera footage and gripping eyewitness testimonies chronicle the deadly June 2016 Sarona Market shooting in Tel Aviv. Two Palestinian gunmen fired on shocked diners at the upscale food hall, leaving four dead, scores injured, and lives forever traumatized. In this hellish chaos, a girl escapes but loses her father; a family’s Ramadan meal is shattered, Arab and Jewish restaurant workers seek shelter; a cop unwittingly harbors a feeing terrorist; and a courageous patron fights back.
 
Produced by Nancy Spielberg (Who Will Write Our History, Above and Beyond) and directed by award-winning filmmaker Tal Inbar(The Home Front) , Closed Circuit helps us imagine the unthinkable by skillfully weaving together raw footage from closed-circuit cameras with the present-day memories of survivors of the incident and examines the closed circuit of trauma shared by the victims.

November 12, 2023

4:00 pm : Great Jewish Americans 101: The Films of Steven Spielberg - Presented by Dr. Eric Goldman

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director, filmmaker and producer in the world. Recently, he won Golden Globe Awards for Best Director and Best Motion Picture for The Fabelmans.Dr. Eric Goldman will examine Spielberg’s films, focusing on elements that make his movies so unique and how his Jewish background has deeply influenced his cinema.

Dr. Eric Goldman authored The American Jewish Story through Cinema and cohosted the Turner Classic Movies series The Projected Image: The Jewish Experience on Film. He is an adjunct professor of cinema at Yeshiva University and host of “Jewish Cinematheque” on the Jewish Broadcasting Service.

November 14, 2023

10:00 - 11:00 am : The Enemy Beside Me by Naomi Ragen - Partnership between OC Jewish Arts Festival and  Books & Bagels

In partnership  OC Jewish Arts Festival and Books & Bagels
Author virtual, participants in person
Discussion led by Dana Susson, Esq.
 
Inspired by true events, Naomi Ragen's The Enemy Beside Me is a powerful, provocative novel about two people fighting for reconciliation over unforgivable crimes of the past.
 
Taking over from her father and grandfather as the head of the Survivor’s Campaign, an organization whose purpose is to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, Milia Gottstein has dedicated her life to making sure the voices of Holocaust victims will never be silenced. The overwhelming and heartbreaking work often took time away from her personal family life, and just when she is getting ready to pass on her work to others, an unexpected phone call suddenly explodes all she thought she knew about her present and her future.
 
Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist, playwright and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1971. She has published twelve internationally best-selling novels, and is the author of a hit play, "Women's Minyan", that has been performed more than 600 times in Israel's National Theatre as well as in the United States and Argentina. Naomi has written for the Jerusalem Post and other publications in Israel and abroad, as well as to her blog list, about Israel and Jewish issues. An Orthodox woman, feminist and iconoclast, Naomi is a tireless advocate for women's rights in Israel, waging a relentless campaign against domestic abuse and bias in rabbinical courts.

November 16, 2023

7:00 PM : A Taste of Israel: An Evening with Chef Michael Solomonov

Michael Solomonov is a beloved champion of Israel's extraordinarily diverse and vibrant culinary landscape. He is the executive chef and co-owner of Philadelphia’s Zahav, the trailblazing restaurant that put the rich melting pot of Israeli cuisine at the forefront of dining in America today. A 5-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, he is known for his extraordinary skill at transforming simple foods into artful culinary masterpieces and is widely regarded as one of the country's top chefs and entrepreneurs.

In addition to his duties at Zahav, Chef Solomonov is a partner in Laser Wolf Philadelphia, Federal Donuts, Dizengoff, Goldie, K’Far, Merkaz, Abe Fisher and Laser
Wolf Brooklyn, which opened in May 2022 at the Hoxton Hotel in Williamsburg and K’Far Brooklyn, also at the Hoxton.

Awards and Recognition:
Laser Wolf Brooklyn was named “The Restaurant of the Summer” by the New York Post in June 2022
Laser Wolf Philadelphia was named one of the “Best New Restaurants in the World” for 2021 by Conde Nast Traveler, The New York Times’ “The 2021 Restaurant List” and GQ’s “Best New Restaurants in America, 2020”
Zahav was awarded 2019 Outstanding Restaurant by James Beard Foundation, the #1 restaurant in the country
In 2018, Food & Wine named Zahav one of the “40 Most Important Restaurants of the Past 40 Years”
In 2019, Zahav was named to the “The National Eater 38" as one of America’s “38 Essential Restaurants” for the 6th year in a row
Solomonov won the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef in 2017
Both Abe Fisher and Dizengoff were featured as two of Travel + Leisure’s “50 Best New Restaurants, 2014”

November 18, 2023

7:30 PM : Israel 201: Your Next-Level Guide to the Magic, Mystery, and Chaos of Life in the Holy Land

In Israel 201, American-Israeli stand-up comedians Joel Chasnoff and Benji Lovitt pull back the curtain and show you the people, places, and phenomena that make the country truly unique, and that can happen “only in Israel.” From Yom Kippur bike sales to Jerusalem’s cat conundrum, shomer Shabbos car insurance to LGBTQ combat soldiers in the IDF, this is the Israel you haven’t heard about. In a hilarious tribute to Israel’s 75 years of existence, these comedians aim to educate both Zionists, those without any knowledge of Israel, and Israelis themselves about the magical beauty as well as the absurdity and chaos that accompanies life there.
 
Based on the authors’ own experiences living in Israel for a combined twenty-five years, and interviews with Israeli A-listers like Fauda co-creator Avi Issacharoff, Olympian Yael Arad, and others, Israel 201 is a behind-the-scenes look at the magic, mystery, and chaos of one of the most fascinating, and misunderstood, countries on earth.
 
Join us for an entertaining and engaging Israel at 75 comedy show featuring these hilarious authors.

November 19, 2023

10:00 AM : Fancy Nancy Tea party with Robin Preiss Glasser Illustrator of the Fancy Nancy books

Children must be accompanied by an adult
 
Calling all ballet dancers! Wear your favorite fancy party attire and join us for an interactive event with Robin Preiss Glasser, bestselling illustrator of the internationally renowned Fancy Nancy series as she hosts a fabulous tea party and book reading, followed by a fun art activity.
 
Books will be available for purchase and signing
 
Robin Preiss Glasser, a former professional ballet dancer, has illustrated more than fifty children's picture books, and is the #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator of the Fancy Nancy series, written by Jane O'Connor. She won the Children’s Choice Award for Best Illustrator of the Year for Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet. Robin lives in Southern California with her family.

Date : November 4 - 19, 2023

Location : Merage Jewish Community Center - 1 Federation Way , Irvine, CA 92603

Click here for More Information.