Tag archives: Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival

Cyndi Silverman Leads the Way
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 4, 2025

Cyndi Silverman’s first months as executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara led into the pandemic, which of course forced cancellation of the organization’s annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival (SBJFF). Five years later, Silverman, now CEO, is understandably proud of her accomplishments, most notably spearheading a complete remodel of the Jewish […]

Film Fests from Around the World
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 31, 2023

The Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival returns to the New Vic Theatre November 1-5 at a tense time in Israel and around the world, but aside from beefing up security at the theater, the festival is focusing on what it does best, which is to present some of the finest international cinema about the Jewish […]

Film Festival Fever Downtown and in Ojai 
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 8, 2022

There are a lot of highlights of this year’s Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival, which returns for its first post-pandemic gathering back at The New Vic Theatre November 2 through November 6, including Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life, which screens at 5 pm on November 3. The documentary about the 2018 […]

Focus on Film: SBJFF Checks into New Vic
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 1, 2022

The annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival kicks off at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, November 2, with an opening reception onstage at The New Vic Theatre downtown. Toast the return of the five-day event boasting films that span from documentaries and dramas to romantic comedies from around the world, plus guest speakers, morning coffee-and-bagels meetups, […]

PAC It In: Advice for Parents of Adult Children
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 30, 2020

Veteran Santa Barbara resident Barbara Greenleaf founded the Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival and served as vice-chancellor at Antioch University. But writing has also been her longtime profession with a particular focus on how the way families behave has changed through time yet have endured for centuries. Now partway through her eighth decade on the […]

Film Festival Fever
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2020

With SBIFF barely six weeks gone, the time seems ripe for more film fests to find local favor, as three different offerings arrive in town this week. The fifth annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival since the event was resurrected by the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara takes place March 11-15 at the New […]

Dance Beyond Description as Joffrey Returns
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 28, 2019

Local dance lovers are in for a treat this week when the Joffrey Ballet, the veteran company considered among America’s elite, returns to the Granada for the first time in more than half a decade for two different programs spanning seven works. That’s a tall order even for one of the country’s most revered troupe […]

Jewish Film Fest’s New Math: 11 = 3
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 15, 2018

The Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival (JFF) got its start back at the turn of century, when Barbara Greenleaf and her husband, Jon, decided Santa Barbara needed its own fest devoted to Jewish films to add to the cultural community after attending a similar one in San Francisco. The fest ran for more eight years […]