Sunday is Oscar Night, but once again the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation has crashed the movie party with our fourteenth annual Film Festival last Thursday.  Dinner and a movie, The Debt, a 2011 spy thriller, were well received by a big crowd of over one hundred fifty.  With the addition of our catered dinners by Dave and Paula Binus of Catered Affairs for the last ten years, our International Jewish Film Festival has become quite the social, cultural and educational event.  We truly owe a debt of gratitude to the cold, lonely, and bored group of Jews who came to the Federation with this idea.

We also owe a big debt of gratitude to Len Zimmerman and his committee for making our Film Festival the Federation’s signature event.  It has become a community wide event and we now have as much participation from the general community as we do from the Jewish community, both at our dinners, as well as the movies.  Many of our community attendees also serve on our film selection committee.  Our Federation’s goal of community building has certainly exceeded our expectations in this regard and we are very pleased to share this event with our neighbors.

It is wonderful see our “regulars” each year at our four films and it is nice to see that they keep bring new friends to share the fun.  Of course, it wouldn’t be the seamlessly produced event without the efforts of our Executive Director, Bill Wallen.  If you missed The Debt, you owe it to yourself to come to the Altoona Heritage Discovery Center for dinner next Thursday, and then walk next door to the Penn State Devorris Downtown Center for our next excellent film.  We hope to see you next Thursday.