Short & Jewish: An Evening of Short Films

Thursday, January 22 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 91 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Ben Pakman, Writer, Director, Actor:  “Parkway Hop” 

Beginning this year, we will be starting a new tradition: one night to celebrate some of the best Jewish work in independent short film. Here are the eight gems selected for this year’s festival:

“Dear Max: Contemplating Circumcision” (Documentary, 5 min): A father addresses his son, Max, in a personal reflection on circumcision — exploring faith, family and the traditions we inherit.

“The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong” (Documentary, 21 min): The acclaimed Gen-X author Gary Shteyngart recounts the operation that went off course and the personal and communal ramifications of having been “cut wrong” — an intimate story of identity, body, and belonging.

“Parkway Hop” (Narrative, 15 min): Two ex-lovers meet for the first time since one of them embraced Orthodox Judaism, taking a walk together as they search for an understanding of how each has changed.

“Revived” (Narrative, 16 min): After losing his bag at a gay bar in Jerusalem, Aaron finds himself unable to return home until Sefi steps in to help — a chance encounter that unravels into a deeper journey.

“Animated New Yorkers: Joel” (Documentary, 5 min): A short animated portrait of Joel, a quintessential New Yorker whose life in the city becomes the lens through which we see the spirit and quirks of urban Jewish identity.

“The Sacred Society” (Documentary, 12 min): This short dives into a community’s spiritual mechanics, revealing how ritual, hierarchy and faith intersect behind the scenes of a sacred society.

“Days Between Rest” (Documentary, 12 min): This film follows Rachel through her hectic daily life as she takes her four children to school, makes music with her family, and leads Shabbat services at her synagogue… in Uganda.

“The Stage Is Ours” (Documentary, 9 min): Nearly fifty Jewish actors, directors and playwrights gather on Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre and reflect on what Jewish theatre means to them.

EPHI’S TAKE: In most film festivals, the shorts program is often the most popular night — and not just because our attention spans aren’t what they used to be! Short films are frequently the most original, daring, and prescient works on the slate, created at the moment when filmmakers are early in their careers and their creativity is still gloriously unfettered by the limits that come with bigger-budget features. So don’t be surprised if you find yourself witnessing the very first work of a future Jewish-cinema virtuoso!

Sponsored by Solinsky Eye Care

Among Neighbors

Saturday, January 24 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 101 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Samuel Kassow, Historian; Charles H. Northam Professor of History Emeritus, Trinity College

When an American filmmaker arrives to an unassuming Polish neighborhood seeking the truth about a wartime atrocity, long-buried secrets erupt to the surface, a community fractures, and conscience awakens in ways no one expected. What begins as a simple inquiry spirals into a tense moral reckoning, exposing the fragile bonds that hold neighbors together — and the unspoken fears, prejudices, and loyalties that threaten to tear them apart.

Among Neighbors won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at San Francisco Independent Film Festival, the Austin Jewish Film Festival, and the Berkshire International Film Festival. It also won the Jewish Film Institute’s prestigious Envision Award.

Sponsored by the Kirstein Family Holocaust Education Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation

Sabotage

Please note: This screening has been rescheduled to Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm.

Running Time: 63 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Amy Weiss, Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, the Maurice Greenberg Chair for Judaica Studies, Director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization, and an Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and History

Sabotage uncovers the astonishing true story of the young Jewish women imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau who risked their lives to smuggle gunpowder out of a Nazi munitions factory – grain by grain, hidden in the hems of their dresses. Their courage fueled the 1944 Sonderkommando uprising, the only armed revolt in Auschwitz’s history. Through newly unearthed archival footage, personal letters, expert interviews, and the memories of surviving family members, the film reconstructs a world where terror was absolute and resistance seemed impossible. 

Sabotage premiered to critical acclaim and won the Best Documentary award at the Miami Jewish Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Director of a Documentary at the Ophir Awards (Israeli Academy Awards).

EPHI’S TAKE: This small, tender, fiercely powerful film tells a resistance story I somehow never knew – and it absolutely floored me. Only a little over an hour long, it carries the emotional force of a much larger epic. I won’t forget these women or this film, and I don’t think you will either.

Sponsored by Cambridge Insurance

Maintenance Artist 

In partnership with The Wadsworth

Sunday, February 1 | 2:00pm | The Wadsworth
Running Time: 95 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Toby Perl Freilich, Director of “Maintenance Artist” and Rachel Gerstein, Co-curator of the Wadsworth’s Jewish Art & Culture Research Project

Maintenance Artist dives deep into the extraordinary life and work of the woman who called herself the “artist-in-residence” of the Department of Sanitation — and made the invisible labor of cleaning, caretaking, and motherhood visible — and sacred. Through a blend of rare archival footage, striking visual compositions, and interviews with Ukeles, her colleagues, and the workers who became her collaborators, the film explores how a single artist transformed “maintenance” — the often-dismissed work of women and working-class people — into one of the most profound artistic and political statements of the twentieth century.

Premiering to acclaim as an Official Selection in Documentary Competition at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, the film has since captivated audiences at DC DOCS, the Jerusalem Film Festival, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, and others.

EPHI’S TAKE: In 1973, right here in Hartford, the The Wadsworth invited an artist – "who also happened to be an Orthodox Jewish woman" named Mierle Laderman Ukeles – to scrub its marble floors and stairways in full view of museum visitors. The piece, part of her groundbreaking “Maintenance Art” series, elevated the unseen labor of care, upkeep, and cleaning into the realm of performance. Her art asked us to reconsider who we value as “artists” – and why. And what better place to experience this film, and hear from its director, than in the very city where it all began – Hartford’s own Wadsworth.

Sponsored by The Wadsworth and Duncaster

Marathon Mom

Wednesday, February 4 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 90 min

Followed by a Reel Talk moderated by Ronni Newton, Editor of We-Ha.com, with Fernanda Jacobs, Fleet Feet owner; Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, JCC member and avid runner; and JCC fitness instructors Jessica Macdonald and Laura Barash.

In this deeply inspiring documentary, we follow Beatie Deutsch — an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother of five — as she dares to chase the ultimate dream: qualifying for the Olympic marathon. Her journey takes her from the streets of Jerusalem to races in Berlin, Seville and Kenya, navigating injuries, societal expectations and the relentless stopwatch. What emerges is more than a sporting story — it’s a portrait of courage, identity and reinvention. Refusing to choose between devotion and ambition, Beatie trains while keeping kosher, parenting while pacing the pavement, and claiming her place on the start line despite invisible barriers. Her mantra – “The only thing I’m going to take with me is the choices I make to expand my soul” – serves as a rallying cry for anyone balancing faith, family and the fierce pursuit of a dream.

Marathon Mom was named an Official Selection of the 2025 Miami Jewish Film Festival and is quickly gaining momentum among several major Jewish film festivals in 2026.

EPHI’S TAKE: There’s something miraculous about a film whose subject is an Orthodox Jewish American living in Israel who – on top of being a wife and mother of five – runs marathons around the world in pursuit of representing Israel in the Olympics. But what’s most fascinating lies beneath that ambition: the quiet, constant negotiation between discipline and devotion, between drive and duty. This isn’t simply a portrait of an overachiever; it’s the story of a modern Jewish woman refusing to be confined by expectation – religious, cultural, or personal – while still contending with the universal limitations of being human. Marathon Mom is both inspiring and deeply relatable, reminding us that endurance isn’t only measured in miles, but in faith, family, and perseverance.

Sponsored by Kathy & Ron Fishman and Lori & David Wetsman

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire

Thursday, February 5 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC | Tickets
Running Time: 87 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Avinoam Patt, Maurice Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies, New York University Director, Center for the Study of Antisemitism, NYU and Romana Strochlitz Primus, family friend of Elie Wiesel and descendant of Holocaust survivors (mentioned in the film).

Wednesday, February 11 | 2:00pm (Senior Matinee) | Mandell JCC | Tickets

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire is an intimate, deeply moving portrait of one of the most influential moral voices of the 20th century. Blending rare archival footage, illuminating interviews, and Wiesel’s own words, the film traces his journey from the trauma of Auschwitz to his unwavering commitment to memory, justice, and the sacred responsibility of bearing witness. Rather than presenting Wiesel as an icon carved in stone, the documentary shows us a vulnerable, searching, and conflicted human. We watch as his life becomes a dialogue between the past he cannot escape and the future he insists must be better. This is not a story of a survivor but of a man who transformed his personal grief into a global call for empathy and action.

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire has been widely celebrated on the festival circuit, earning multiple top honors. It won the Torchbearer Award at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, the Best Documentary Award at the JFilm Festival in Pittsburgh, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Rochester Jewish Film Festival. Director Oren Rudavsky also received the prestigious Yad Vashem Award at DocAviv for his work on the film.

EPHI’S TAKE: Of all the films I brought to the committee, this was the one everyone instantly agreed was a must-have. Not just because it captures one of the giants of Jewish literature, but because it refuses to simply place him on a pedestal. Instead, we meet the man behind the myth—brilliant, but also complicated and flawed. And it’s precisely those imperfections that make him so fascinating, and his creativity so extraordinary.

Sponsored by the Families of Alan Lazowksi and Peter Fishman on behalf of Voices of Hope 

The Floaters

Saturday, February 7 | 7:30pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 101 min

Followed by a Reception

Out of a band breakup and onto the dirt of her childhood Jewish summer camp, Nomi (Jackie Tohn) reluctantly takes a last-ditch job from her over-achieving best friend Mara (Sarah Podemski) supervising the misfit teen group nicknamed “The Floaters” at Camp David. As the camp faces financial collapse and a rival camp throws down a high-stakes competition, Nomi must bridge the gap between outsider campers and her own bruised ego. The result is a comedy rich in warmth, nostalgia, and the knitted-together diversity of Jewish summer life.

The Floaters has been shown at almost all of the major Jewish film festivals and is the winner of the NYWIFT Excellence in Narrative Filmmaking Award at the Woodstock Film Festival.

EPHI’S TAKE: There’s summer camp… and then there’s Jewish summer camp. And if you don’t know the difference, you’re in luck – this adult comedy nails the vibe of what that experience feels like: the oy and the joy. But The Floaters is more than nostalgia for bunk beds and canoe races. It gives voice to the “floaters” – the kids who aren’t part of the main activities, who discover that not fitting in might just be their superpower. What Jew can’t relate to that? As if that weren’t enough, the film’s protagonist is played by the great Jackie Tohn – the tough-but-loving sister from Netflix’s Nobody Wants This. And because we couldn’t resist, we’re teaming up with our own Camp Shalom for this – a perfect match for a story that celebrates belonging in all its beautifully awkward forms.

Sponsored by the Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Memorial Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation and JNext

Pink Lady

NEW DATE! Sunday, February 8 | 2:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 104 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Ely Winkler, Director of Advancement, Eshel

In the cloistered Haredi world of Jerusalem, Bati and Lazer appear to have it all: a loving marriage, three young children, and a life built on faith and order. But when Lazer is blackmailed with compromising photos — and a long-buried truth about his own sexuality surfaces — the fragile scaffolding of their marriage begins to crack. What follows is an unflinching yet deeply compassionate look at love, repression, and the cost of honesty within a society that prizes silence.

Winner of Best Director at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and an Official Selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Pink Lady has quickly become one of the year’s most talked-about Israeli dramas.

EPHI’S TAKE: For years, we’ve seen stories about the unique struggle of being both Orthodox and gay. What we rarely see, however, is that journey through the eyes of the wife left navigating her own upheaval. Pink Lady takes that next courageous step – it centers her story, exploring how a husband’s coming out can feel like the greatest curse, yet ultimately reveal itself as a test from God – that could very well bring an unexpected blessing. It’s a film of tenderness, honesty, and quiet revelation – intimate, beautifully observed, and as surprising as life itself.

Troll Storm

Sunday, February 15 | 2:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 83 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Tanya Gersh, Subject of “Troll Storm”, Anti-hate activist and advocate against antisemitism and Stacey Sobel, Regional Director for Connecticut at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

In the peaceful ski-town of Whitefish, Montana, real-estate agent and soccer-mom Tanya Gersh wakes up to a nightmare: neo-Nazis launching a vicious online “troll storm” against her and her family. As death threats flood in and her community faces the return of American fascism, she fights back — filing a landmark First Amendment lawsuit that turns private harassment into public reckoning. Directed by Eunice Lau, Troll Storm draws chilling parallels between Germany’s rise to fascism and America’s online hate culture, weaving together intimate interviews, archival testimony and the very visible architecture of oppression. It’s a study of one woman’s courage and one community’s resolve — and a timely call to remember that silence is complicity.

Troll Storm has been celebrated as an Official Selection of the 2024 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and recipient of the NYWIFT Excellence in Directing Award.

EPHI'S TAKE: Tanya’s world unravels into something that sounds like the plot of a horror film — except every moment of it is real. But what makes Troll Storm so powerful isn’t just its timeliness; it’s its ferocity. We watch an ordinary woman transform, step by step, from a modest and private citizen into a fearless defender of her family, her faith, and her moral ground. The journey is gripping, unsettling, and deeply inspiring. In the end, the film becomes a moving testament to resilience — and another reminder of the unbreakable spirit at the heart of Jewish life.

Sponsored by the Robert B. Fishman Memorial Fund for the Mandell Jewish Community Center at the Jewish Community Foundation

Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse

Tuesday, February 17 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC | Tickets

Running Time: 98 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Philip Dolin, Co-Director of Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse

Wednesday, February 18 | 7:00pm | Parkade Cinema, Manchester | Tickets

In this engrossing documentary, the legendary cartoonist Art Spiegelman lays bare his life and art – from underground comix and trade-cards to his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, where he portrayed his Holocaust-survivor parents as mice and cats. The story spans decades of radical work and restless questioning: How do you speak truth when the world tries to silence you? How do you wrestle with your father’s past, your own voice, and a medium still fighting for recognition as “real art”? Spiegelman’s humor, ambition and moral urgency all surface here, making this film both a portrait of an artist and a provocation to all of us.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC 2024 and an Official Selection of the Miami Jewish Film Festival 2025.

EPHI'S TAKE: What do you get when you mix intergenerational trauma with a florid imagination? If you’re Art Spiegelman, you create one of the most groundbreaking works of Holocaust literature ever made. But for an artist this visionary, the same gifts that inspire brilliance can also become burdens – albatrosses that must be carried, examined, and ultimately transformed. This film offers an intimate look at the suffering, humor, and restless mind behind Maus, revealing how the act of creation can both wound and heal. And as Maus continues to be banned, Disaster Is My Muse reminds us why art that tells the truth will always find a way to endure.

Sponsored by the Peggy and Alan Mendelson Fund and Rosalie H. and Jay D. Smith Jewish Heritage Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation

The Milky Way

Saturday, February 21 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 94 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Grae Sibelman,  Adjunct Faculty in the Hebrew and Judaic Studies program at UCONN

In a dystopian twist on early motherhood, Tala — a 33-year-old musician and new single mother — takes a job at “The Milky Way,” a luxurious breast-milk dairy where wealthy parents pay a premium for the purest milk from working-class women. As Tala begins pumping, she steals glances into the lives of the rich mothers she supplies, most notably Nili, whose ease and indifference to her privilege reveal the chilling gulf she inhabits. At once absurd, tender and sharply observant, the film invites us to rethink who produces, who consumes — and at what cost.

Already turning heads on the festival circuit, The Milky Way was awarded a Special Jury Mention in the Critics’ Picks section at the 27th Tallinn Black Nights and won Best Screenplay at the 41st Jerusalem Film Festival. It earned an impressive 10 + nominations at the 35th Ophir Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

EPHI'S TAKE: This one’s a bit of a wild card — and sure to polarize. But that’s what great art does – and this is pretty great. Watching a young mother essentially turn herself into a cow just to survive is, yes, uncomfortable to watch. But it’s also a wickedly sharp metaphor — and, if your sense of humor runs dark, a surprisingly funny one. This Israeli satire is a truly original blend: part sci-fi, part social critique, part family drama. As we watch women and the working poor still struggling just to put food on the table, The Milky Way offers the perfect spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down — absurd, audacious, and deeply human.

Halisa

Sunday, February 22 | 2:00pm
Running Time: 102 min 

Set in a mixed-ethnic, working-class neighborhood of Haifa called Halisa, this deeply felt Israeli drama centers on Sarah (played brilliantly by Noa Koler), a 40-something nurse at the local children’s health clinic whose greatest wish – becoming a mother – has so far eluded her. When she forms a tentative, compassionate bond with a young mother grappling with her own struggles, things get complicated. The film weaves the very private terrain of infertility and desire into the wider social terrain of class, identity and belonging, and the result is a portrait of motherhood and sacrifice that feels both intimate and urgent.

Already garnering major recognition, Halisa is the winner of the Jury Prize – Best Film in the Israeli Feature Film Competition at the 2024 Haifa International Film Festival and was honored with five nominations at the 2024 Israeli Film Academy (Ophir) Awards including Best Film, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

EPHI'S TAKE: Halisa is, in many ways, the perfect companion to The Milky Way. Both are Israeli and both explore the challenges modern women face in wanting a child without the emotional or financial support of a partner. But unlike The Milky Way, this is an intimate, deeply human drama that takes us inside a real neighborhood in Haifa – a mixed-ethnic, working-class community where every personal struggle echoes a larger social truth. If you’re thinking, Nah, sounds like a bummer – think again. It’s heartbreaking in the best way: tender, raw, and utterly absorbing. 

Sponsored by Marriott Hartford Downtown

Coexistence, My Ass!

Tuesday, February 24 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 95 min

Followed by a Reel Talk 

In this bold and urgent documentary, comedian Noam Shuster‑Eliassi trades traditional peace activism for uproarious stand-up, launching a one-woman show called Coexistence, My Ass! that takes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with razor-sharp wit and unflinching honesty. Filmed over five tumultuous years, the journey follows her upbringing in the deliberately integrated village of Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace), her time at the UN, and then a dramatic pivot to live comedy as violence, politics, and protest collide around her.

The film is the winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression at Sundance Film Festival (2025), the Golden Alexander Award for Best Documentary at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (2025) and recipient of the CDS Filmmaker Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (2025).

EPHI'S TAKE: Comedy is born from tragedy — which might explain why Jews are often so damn funny. But when the stakes are as high as they are now, can Jewish political comedy be the glue that holds us together… or will it only expose how divided we’ve become? This daring documentary — a true knockout with a potent punch — dives headfirst into that question. Whether you love her or not, there’s no denying Noam Shuster-Eliassi’s courage. With compassion, unflinching honesty, and razor-sharp wit, she dismantles the easy clichés of “coexistence” and forces us to confront what happens when the deck is already stacked.

Soul of a Nation

Thursday, February 26 | 7:00pm | Mandell JCC
Running Time: 105 min

Followed by a Reel Talk with Jessica Cooperman, Director for Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, UCONN

Director Jonathan Jakubowicz delivers a panoramic yet intimate portrait of Israel’s most perilous chapter: the judiciary reform upheaval, the horror of the October 7 attack, and an unexpected surge of national solidarity that followed. Featuring exclusive interviews with figures such as Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni and Michael Oren, Soul of a Nation invites viewers deep into the heart of a society reckoning with its soul. It doesn’t merely catalogue the crisis; it asks what happens when a national identity is frayed, how it might knit itself anew, and whether unity born from adversity can endure.

The film was the Opening Night World Premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival and the recipient of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film at the same festival.

EPHI'S TAKE: This intrepid documentary examines Israel not just as a political entity but as a living, evolving soul — a nation wrestling with its moral core, artistic spirit, and contradictions. It moves the conversation beyond the diaspora to the psyche of Israel itself, inviting us to explore the layered and often paradoxical role of Zionism: a force that has both unified and divided, inspired and unsettled. What makes Soul of a Nation so vital is its refusal to preach. Instead, it creates space for Israel’s full chorus of voices – religious and secular, left and right, Jewish and Arab, artists and soldiers – allowing viewers to listen, question, and feel. And if that isn’t the point of this festival, what is?

Sponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, Veterinary Emergency Center and the Rona Gollob Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation

CLOSING NIGHT

Comedy for Peace

Saturday, February 28 | 8:00pm | $36
Event Duration: 90 min
Followed by a Panel Discussion and Reception

After six weeks of emotional, thought-provoking films, we’ll wrap this festival up with a night of laughter. Comedy for Peace is an inter-faith comedy initiative founded in March 2019 that brings Muslim, Jewish, and Christian stand-up comedians together on the same stage to build community through laughter. No preaching, just punchlines — and a reminder that sometimes the best SOS is LOL.

Ellen Karis

Widely known as “The Greek Goddess of Comedy”—has performed stand-up across North America and released three comedy specials, including her latest, Dreams Don’t Come True, featured on the Dry Bar Comedy Channel. Beyond stand-up, Ellen is an accomplished actress, best recognized for her recurring role as a waitress on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, where she appeared for four seasons. She also hosts the popular weekly podcast Sweet and Salty with Ellen Karis, blending sharp humor with thoughtful, engaging conversations. In addition, Ellen is the author of the children’s book Special People: Godparents in the Orthodox Christian Faith, a heartfelt celebration of tradition, faith, and family.

 Erik Angel
An Israeli-Jewish-American comedian and the founder of Comedy for Peace. Angel delivers comedy with heart, edge, and a global perspective. Born and raised in Israel and now based in New York, Erik has performed in over 100 cities across the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries worldwide. He’s opened for headliners like Maz Jobrani and Zarna Garg, appeared on NBC, and has been featured in numerous comedy festivals. His stand-up — which has racked up over 3 million views on TikTok — is sharp, high-energy, and deeply personal, tackling the hilarity and chaos of life as a recent immigrant, a Jewish newlywed in his forties, and someone who proudly speaks English-Falafel 24/7.

Gibran Saleem
Born in North Carolina, raised in Virginia in a Pakistani Muslim household, Gibran Saleem brings a unique voice and cross-cultural sensibility to the stage. He’s the only comedian ever to be a finalist for both Stand-Up NBC and the NBC Late Night Writers Program, and his sharp, introspective humor has earned him features on MTV, TV Land, Popcorn Flix, PBS, VOA, Elite Daily, and Cosmopolitan. Gibran made his stand-up television debut on Gotham Comedy Live for AXS TV and has since become a favorite on college campuses and comedy tours nationwide.

 Natan Badalov  

A Bukharin-American comedian and writer based in New York City. Born in Uzbekistan, he immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s. His sharp, original comedy has been featured on Adult Swim and showcased at major festivals, including the New York Comedy Festival, Y’all Comedy Festival, and the Chosen Comedy Festival. In 2025, he released his debut comedy special, Connect the Dots, now available on YouTube.

EPHI’S TAKE: Organized by founder Dotan Malach and headquartered in New York City, Comedy for Peace has toured across the U.S., Canada, and online. What I love most about Comedy For Peace is that the comedians have a post-show discussion to get into their origin stories and the challenges of merging comedy and religion in today’s political climate. With all we’ve been through lately, this is just what the doctor ordered!