H eadlines
Community Grapples With Barrack Decision
L O CAL
SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
SINCE THE SCHOOL board
of Jack M. Barrack Hebrew
Academy announced it would
withdraw recognition of the
teachers union, also known as
the JBHA Faculty Association,
on Dec. 4, there have been a
range of reactions from the
larger school community,
including teachers, alumni
and parents.

“We’ve told the board that
really what the faculty asso-
ciation wants is to be able to
bargain collectively, and we’re
open to having negotiations on
whatever the issues are that
are of concern to the board
that perhaps led to their deci-
sion,” said Minna Ziskind,
union co-president
and history teacher.

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4 MARCH 14, 2019
JEWISH EXPONENT
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
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As a part of our ongoing discussions with the
faculty association leadership, we have offered a
meeting ... to provide an opportunity for greater
dialogue with the faculty as a whole regarding
the Board’s decision.”
GEORGE GORDON
It seemed as though dia-
logue about the decision was
going to happen at a meeting
on March 7.

“As a part of our ongoing
discussions with the faculty
association leadership, we have
offered a meeting ... to pro-
vide an opportunity for greater
dialogue with the faculty as a
whole regarding the Board’s
decision,” said George Gordon,
school board president, in
an email to the Exponent on
March 5. “We remain com-
mitted to moving forward in
a manner that is respectful
of our teachers and enhances
the quality of the educational
experience for students.”
The meeting was open to
faculty, association members,
board members and some
administration, Gordon said.

But the union voted against
attending the meeting after the
board would not give assur-
ances as to how many board
members would be present,
Ziskind said. The union
wanted at least two-thirds of
the board members to attend.

Gordon declined to comment
afterward about the meeting.

In an email in January,
Gordon explained the board’s
action by saying the decision
“best positions the school to
continue our unique mission
of incorporating deeply-rooted
Jewish values in a rigorous
intellectual environment.” He
has not offered further explica-
tion of the decision since then.

“Essentially, what we’re con-
cerned about is how this will
impact the kind of education
we’re able to offer,” Ziskind
said. “Will we have to teach
more classes and therefore not
be able to give the same level of
attention to students? Will our
compensation packages change
in terms of retirement or in
terms of medical care?”
Teachers and some stu-
dents have begun to wear red
on Fridays to express their
See Barrack, Page 9
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H eadlines
Festival Spotlights Israeli Minority Films
F IL M
SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
THE 23RD ANNUAL Israeli
Film Festival of Philadelphia
has more films highlighting
minority and women’s issues
than ever before.

The festival, which runs
from March 16 to April 7,
includes films that tell sto-
ries about diverse communi-
ties like Bedouins and Druze,
delve into the intersection of
women’s issues and Orthodoxy
and cover the discrimina-
tion Sephardic Jews have his-
torically faced from Israel’s
Ashkenazi establishment.

“The artistic community
never shies away from contro-
versy,” said Mindy Chriqui, the
festival’s co-founder and artis-
tic director. “In fact, I some-
times think they really look
hard for it. [Diversity is] really
an ongoing theme when we
look back at movies through-
out the years, but yes, this year,
it’s particularly strong.”
The festival’s selection com-
mittee didn’t set out to pick
films that emphasized diver-
sity, festival chairperson Nurit
Yaron said. Their goal was just
to select the best films coming
out of Israel right now. Because
the festival takes place at dif-
ferent locations throughout the
area — this year, there are six
venues — the committee takes
the audiences of those venues
into consideration when select-
ing the films.

The committee doesn’t have
a specific number of films to
select, Yaron said, ensuring that
all films are high quality and
not just included to fill a slot.

It was only after the selec-
tions that the festival’s staff
noticed the diversity theme.

“We don’t look at the sub-
ject and say, ‘This year is going
to be about x, y and z,” said
Yaron, who lives in Israel.

“First, we don’t have unlimited
films, and second, this is not
the way we work. We watch
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM David Derry, The
each film. We decide if
Ancestral Sin direc-
we like it or not. Some
tor and You Only Die
films we like immedi-
Twice screenwriter;
ately; some films we
The Unorthodox direc-
don’t like. Some films
tor Eliran Malka; In
go on the waitlist.”
Her Footsteps direc-
The Unorthodox,
tor Rana Abu Fraiha;
a film about the cre-
and Shoelaces director
ation of the Sephardic
Yankel Goldwasser.

Shas party in Israel,
The festival usually
opens the Israeli Film
sells out for most of
Festival. It screens on
the shows. Chriqui
March 16 at 8:30 p.m.

estimates that between
and on March 17 at 2
2,500 and 3,000
p.m. at the Lightbox
Film Center at the
Still from The Unorthodox
Photo courtesy of the Israeli Film Festival of Philadelphia attendees will come.

“The festival is
International House.

an Israeli film fes-
Out of the films this
year, Criqui pointed to Cause leaving her secular life for ers as part of the Jerusalem tival,” Yaron said. “It’s
of Death and In Her Footsteps Orthodoxy.

Film Project. Homemade plays important to show the face
as examples of films covering
Other films include Echo, before the screening of A of Israel.”
Tickets for the film festival
minority issues.

You Only Die Twice, The Mirror for the Sun.

are available at iffphila.com. l
Cause of Death, which Ancestral Sin and Shoelaces.

More of the film’s directors
screens on March 23 at 8:30
Echo is about a man who and screenwriters are attending
p.m. at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew begins secretly recording the festival than in past years, szighelboim@jewishexponent.com;
Academy, is a documentary his wife’s conversation after Chriqui said. They include 215-832-0729
exploring the death of a Druze becoming concerned that she is
police officer who was killed by cheating on him. It will screen
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a terrorist a decade prior. The on March 17 at 7 p.m. at The
film follows the officer’s brother, Ritz East.

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who is investigating the death.

In You Only Die Twice, an
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In Her Footsteps is another Israeli filmmaker delves into
documentary, about a Bedouin his grandfather’s life after the
family who make a home for family experiences difficulties
themselves in a Jewish commu- with his inheritance. The docu-
nity called Omer. The mother, mentary will screen on March
facing terminal breast cancer, 24 at 7 p.m. at the Kimmel
requests that she be buried in Center Perelman Theatre.

the Jewish town, but she is the
The Ancestral Sin, on March
first Muslim resident to ever 25 at 7 p.m. at Jack M. Barrack
make that request.

Hebrew Academy, is a histori-
A Mirror for the Sun and The cal documentary. It delves into
Other Story center on women the history of how a young
at the festival.

Israeli government, in the first
A Mirror for the Sun, on decades after independence,
April 6 at 8:45 p.m. at Gratz forced new immigrants from
College, is a documentary the Middle East and North
about the Israel Defense Forces’ Africa to settle in the Negev.

first Orthodox combat naviga-
Shoelaces, which also played
tor. After voluntarily serving in at the Gershman Philadelphia
the military, she goes on a hik- Jewish Film Festival, is about a
ing trip to Nepalese mountains man with special needs whose
and is hit by an unexpected father, who abandoned him as a
snowstorm. young child, becomes his care-
The Other Story, on April 7 giver after his mother dies. It
at 7 p.m. at the Kimmel Center screens on March 31 at 7 p.m. at
Perelman Theatre, is the festi- the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

val’s final screening. It follows
The festival includes one
a woman leaving Orthodoxy short, Homemade, which was
for a secular life and a woman created by young filmmak-
JEWISH EXPONENT
MARCH 14, 2019
5