Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, a lineup of depth, delight

How far should our leaders go to ensure we stay true to our moral ideals? Should the state employ a morality police, as in Iran?

A crazy idea, right? Well, what if it happened in your own backyard?

That's the premise of God's Neighbors, the bold, controversial, low-budget drama from Israeli director Meni Yaesh that opens the 33d Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival on Saturday night at the Gershman Y in Center City.

Shot guerrilla-style, the film is about three baseball-bat-wielding toughs from the Israeli town of Bat Yam who viciously attack those who don't follow the strictest interpretation of Jewish religious law.

The Jewish Film Festival runs through Nov. 16 with screenings and parties at nine venues in the city and suburbs. It features a sophisticated lineup of 17 feature films and three shorts from 11 countries, including Israel, Canada, France, Poland, Slovakia, and South Africa. Most screenings are followed by special programs - Q&As with the filmmaker or stars; panel discussions with historians, critics, and academics; or after-parties.

The fest will close with a screening of Israeli director Yuval Adler's powerful debut feature, Bethlehem. Already an international hit, the espionage thriller is Israel's entry in the 2014 Academy Awards.

Other highlights include German director Margarethe von Trotta's biopic Hannah Arendt, starring always-brilliant Barbara Sukowa as the great philosopher, who explored the nature of evil after attending Adolf Eichmann's trial in 1961.

Director Josh Aronson's documentary Orchestra of Exiles is a particularly strong feature about the extraordinary humanitarian work undertaken by Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman during the Holocaust. Huberman, a Jew who founded the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, used his contacts and fame to help more than 1,000 Jews escape the Nazis, including the family of fellow violinist David Grunschlag, who later joined the Philadelphia Orchestra. Grunschlag's daughter, Dorit Straus, will speak after the screening.

"I remember as a child hearing the stories about what Huberman did for my family," said Straus, one of the film's executive producers. "I think he needs more exposure, more people need to know about him."

Another complicated individual is explored in the festival's centerpiece, The Jewish Cardinal, about Jean-Marie Lustiger, a Polish Jew who converted to Catholicism after the war, eventually entering the priesthood. One of Pope John Paul II's close advisers, he served as archbishop of Paris from 1981 to 2005.

Lustiger never stopped identifying as a Jew, said historian and religious-studies expert Marcia Littell, who in 1983 attended a conference where the so-called Jewish Cardinal was keynote speaker.

"He said throughout his life he was a Jew," said Littell, professor emeritus of Holocaust and genocide studies at Richard Stockton College in South Jersey. "He was so committed to Jesus, and he stressed how Jesus was a Jew. He never felt conflicted. He saw the world through the rose-colored glasses of faith."

Lustiger's dual commitment was so respected that, after his death in 2007, church officials said Kaddish for him before his body was taken to Notre Dame Cathedral for the funeral.

On a lighter note, there's the documentary Commie Camp, about Camp Kinderland in Massachusetts for Jewish children (also open to non-Jews) that was founded in 1923 in accord with socialist and communist ideals. Delightful, beautifully researched, and narrated by journalist Katie Halper, it's a personal film about Halper's time at the camp as a kid and later as a teenage counselor.

Kinderland has been derisively described by conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as a communist indoctrination center; yet, it long ago gave up its commitment to the Communist Party, Halper says. What campers, parents, and alumni love about it is that it doesn't teach any political ideology, but extols universal values, she said - "sharing, justice, fairness, compassion, and caring about other peoples no matter their background."

Through Nov. 16 at various venues in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania suburbs.

Festival passes: $180 full access; $50 five-film pass; $18 lunch-box programs and closing night.

Single tickets: $12; $11 seniors; $7 students; free children 12 and younger.

215-545-4400, www.pjff.org.EndText