Wednesdays at The Sandler
“Fascinating Sephardim: A Film Series” at 1:00pm
In-Person with Rose Pappo Allen
$10 per film/Prepaid $40 for all 5 films. FREE to PAID Members of our Sephardi Federation!!
This season the film selection will feature Sephardim in Surprising Places; Jews of many sorts. Hidden in North Africa, Uzbekistan, China, India, Cairo and Italy we find largely unknown ancient communities that thrived for centuries and were forced to transform. These stories reveal our shared experiences of survival. Each film viewing will be followed by in-depth discussion providing historic and cultural context to the subject as well as Q&R.
SFPBC At The Sandler Center
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Levis JCC Phyllis & Harvey Sandler Center | levisjcc.org
21050 95th Avenue S., Boca Raton, FL 33428 | 561-558-2520
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Wednesday, November 5, 2025 — A Double Bill
“Bukharians: The Jews Who Survived 2,500 Years in Isolation”
For over 2,000 years, Jews lived in the heart of Central Asia—then vanished from view. Cut off from the wider Jewish world, Bukharian Jews built their own customs, survived forced Muslim conversions, and kept their identity alive through food, folklore, and quiet resistance. Today, few remain in the area which is now Uzbekistan, but their descendants have carried Bukharian traditions to Israel, Canada, New York, and beyond.
2025, 19 mins. English, Unpacked Media
“The Forgotten Refugees”
In 1945, up to one million Jews lived in the Middle East outside of the Palestine Mandate and in North Africa. Within a few years, only a few thousand remained. The Forgotten Refugees explores the history and destruction of Middle Eastern Jewish communities, some of which had existed for over 2,500 years. Featuring testimony from Jews who fled Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Yemen, interspersed with footage, including rescue missions from Yemen and Iraqi.
2005, 49 min., English, Michael Grynszpan
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
“Shanghai Ghetto”
Though a small minority, Chinese Jews have always lived openly since first arriving to Kaifeng as 8th century merchants from Persia. In the 1800’s Jewish merchants from around the world began to trade in other ports like Shanghai. Sephardim from Iraq and India like the Sassoons and Kadouris became wealthy. But Shanghai became famous as a haven for Jews trapped in Europe following Kristallnacht. Narrated by Martin Landau, this film chronicles their story and lives in the Shanghai Ghetto.
2002, 96 minutes, English, German and Mandarin with English subtitles, Dana Mann
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
“Shalom Bollywood”
Learn about the unlikely story of the 2000-year-old Indian Jewish community and its formative place in shaping the world’s largest film industry. When Indian cinema began 100 years ago it was taboo for Hindu and Islamic women to perform on screen, so Indian Jewish women took on the female lead
roles, which they dominated for decades. Film clips from the era share the infectious, signature singing and dancing style known as Bollywood. The documentary introduces Sephardic history in India and then focuses on the lives of five of the greatest Jewish actors from the period.
2018, 76 minutes, English, Danny Ben-Moshe
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
From Cairo to the Cloud: The World of the Cairo Geniza
“From Cairo to the Cloud” tells the gripping story of the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, a vast treasure trove of manuscripts hidden for centuries in the “geniza,” or sacred storeroom, of an ancient synagogue in Old Cairo. The Geniza is the largest cache of Jewish history ever found, illuminating over a thousand years of Jewish, Christian and Moslem life in the heart of the Islamic world.
2020, 92 minutes, English, Michelle Paymar
Wednesday, March 18, 2026 — A Double Bill
“The Jewish Ghetto of Venice: History, Faith, Survival”
Nearly one-third of all Hebrew books printed in Europe before 1650 were made in Venice. In spite of their confinement, the Ghetto became the global heart of Jewish culture during the 16th and 17th centuries; the most vibrant Jewish center in Europe.
2025, 25 minutes, English, Italian, Slice
Iom Romi (A Day in Rome)
“Iom Romì” chronicles a day in the life of the contemporary Jewish community of Rome, which for centuries has lived in limbo between persecution and integration. As the only cultural group in the city that can claim an uninterrupted line of descent from the times of the empire, Roman Jews have fostered rituals and traditions that are unique in the world. From dawn to dusk, through the voices of several characters living and working in the historic Ghetto quarter, “Iom Romì” tells the story of a community both fiercely independent and distinctly Roman.
2017, 30 minutes, English, Italian with English subtitles, Valerio Ciriaci
