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How an encounter with Guillermo del Toro led to NYC’s first Mexican Jewish Film Festival
(JTA) — When Deborah Koenigsberger Gutierrez attended a small cocktail reception with the celebrated Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro last December, she didn’t expect to leave with an idea for a synagogue fundraiser.
But in a conversation with del Toro and a few other guests at the event, which was in honor of the premiere of his latest feature, “Pinocchio,” the famed filmmaker made a remark that stuck with her.
“He said something that really hit my heart,” recalled Koenigsberger Gutierrez, the president of Tribeca Synagogue. “He said, ‘Every Mexican outside of Mexico is an ambassador of the culture of Mexico.’”
Koenigsberger Gutierrez, who was born in Mexico City, had been on the lookout for creative ways to engage young families at her congregation, something beyond a traditional silent auction and gala dinner. She landed on a program that would draw an audience and pay tribute to del Toro’s craft, and began organizing the synagogue’s first-ever Mexican Jewish Film Festival, which will begin on Sunday, April 2.
“I basically said to myself, ‘How can I make a big event that brings in people and also celebrates Mexican Jews?’” Koenigsberger Gutierrez said. “And everybody loves going to the movies.”
The festival will feature 10 films with English subtitles over the course of three days, all of which were directed, made, written or acted in by Mexican Jews. The Jews highlighted in the festival come from a variety of Jewish backgrounds, including Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Syrian, and the films span a variety of genres, including horror, comedy and drama.
In addition to movie screenings, the festival will feature Q&As with two of the directors: Guita Schyfter, who directed “Like a Bride,” a coming-of-age story about two young women in 1960s Mexico City; and Isaac Ezban, who directed two horror movies, “Evil Eye” and “The Similars.” It will also feature a performance from the Nashir! chorus, pop-up artisan shops in the social hall, coffee from Mexico’s Chiapas region and cocktails and kosher Mexican food from the restaurant Carlos & Gabby’s.
The film screenings will conclude on April 4, and the festival will host a final day of events on April 5, the eve of Passover, including a “bread party” where attendees can munch on leavened products traditionally prohibited on the holiday. Vendors will sell Mexican folk art and kosher Mexican cookies.
The Tribeca Synagogue, which until a decade ago was called the Synagogue for the Arts, often rents out its sanctuary space, and hosted the 2022 NYC Bicycle Film Festival in November. It can place a giant screen at the front of the sanctuary, turning it into a makeshift theater. All it took to organize the Mexican Jewish Film Festival, Koenigsberger Gutierrez said, was selecting the films and getting the rights to screen them (and in one case, subtitling one of the films, the 2008 drama “3:19,” in English for the first time ever.)
Other films screening at the festival include the 1955 comedy “The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz,” about a wannabe serial killer who keeps plotting murders but can’t quite execute any of them; “One for the Road,” a 2014 film about three octogenarian friends who take a trip together; and the 2007 comedy “My Mexican Shivah,” about a family dealing with their secrets being revealed as they mourn their patriarch.
Beyond her own synagogue community, which has fewer than 100 active memberships, Koenigsberger Gutierrez is expecting a diverse turnout for the festival. Jorge Islas Lopez, the Mexican consul general in New York, will give an address and is inviting Mexicans in New York to attend. The American Sephardi Federation and the Syrian Jewish group Kanisse have also partnered with the festival.
Koenigsberger Gutierrez hopes the films enable viewers to see beyond popular U.S. conceptions of Mexico on screen, which she says focus too much on violence fueled by drug cartels.
“We are not one genre,” Koenigsberger Gutierrez said. “We’re not only El Chapo and all these you know, drug dealers, and the things you see [in] Hollywood a lot. We are much more than that. The film festival is to celebrate Mexican Jews and their work.”
She added, “People tend to think that Jews look a certain way. And I can say that people think that, also, Mexicans look a certain way.”
When Koenigsberger Gutierrez came to the United States for her master’s degree eight years ago, she was surprised to see that people doubted her nationality.
“In Mexico, nobody ever questioned that I was Mexican,” she said. “There was no question. But when I got to America, people would be like, ‘You’re not really Mexican because you’re Jewish.’ And that was kind of like, really something I’ve never, never dealt with. I was like, ‘What do you mean? I’m 100% Mexican, I’m 100% Jewish.’ I’m Mexican and I’m Jewish.”
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Eisenkot has backing of 67 seats, but not yet allowed to form Israeli government
(JTA) — Yashar Party head Gadi Eisenkot inched closer to wresting the premiership from Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, as he secured the majority support of 67 out of 120 parliamentarians, but was not yet granted the mandate to form a government.
President Isaac Herzog said that Eisenkot had more backing than the 46’s parliamentarians who favor Netanyahu, after the president held two days of consultations with all the political parties that will be sworn in next week at the opening of the 26th Knesset.
Herzog, who is tasked with deciding which parliamentarian has the power to form a government, told the media he would not make a choice until Sunday.
“The results of the consultations may appear clear, but the authority vested in me by law is to determine who has the ability to form a government, and that is not entirely clear,” Herzog said, adding that he would continue to hold talks with the party leaders.
Eisenkot has the expected support of the Jewish-Israeli parties, B’Yachad, Israel Beytenu and the Democrats, which gives him a potential coalition of 48 parties. The Arab-Israeli party Ra’am, with eight seats, also recommended him, as did the Joint List, which has 11 seats. The Joint List is expected to support Eisenkot from outside the government. This means the party would vote with the government block to allow it to govern, but would not formally be part of its coalition.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Eisenkot has backing of 67 seats, but not yet allowed to form Israeli government appeared first on The Forward.
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Montreal Jewish-owned bakery devastated by suspected arson attack
(JTA) — A Montreal kosher bakery burnt down following an suspected arson attack on Wednesday morning. This incident was the second of two alleged arson attempts directed at the Jewish-owned bakery, Mimimelon, within 48 hours. In both cases, the bakery was empty and no injuries were reported.
The Montreal police said there is no evidence yet that the incident was motivated by antisemitism. However, the hate crimes and arson units have been assigned to investigate the case, given the bakery’s ties to the Jewish community.
The first incident took place on the night of Monday, Nov. 2, when Mimimelon co-owner Jennie Volfson received a security notification that someone was attempting to open the bakery’s back door. When Volfson checked her business’ security cameras, she saw flames and immediately called Montreal police and firefighters. Upon arrival, firefighters were able to control the fire and keep damage to the bakery minimal.
Volfson, who owns Mimimelon with her husband and father-in-law, said she received a second notification from the bakery’s security system around 12:30 AM on Wednesday, Nov. 4. When she checked Mimimelon’s security cameras, Volfson saw a flash of light and “an explosion,” before the live feed cut out.
This time, Volfson said the blaze could not be contained. “I expected that the damage would be bad, but it’s complete destruction. There is nothing to rebuild. We’re going to have to scrap everything,” said Volfson, adding that she was uncertain of the future for the bakery.
Based on the shop’s security footage, Volfson surmised, “There was a person who was able to get inside the bakery this time, probably because the door was compromised from the day before.”
Mimimelon, located in the historically Jewish Saint-Laurent neighbourhood, has previously been the target of acts of antisemitism. In September, a masked man entered the bakery and yelled “All the Jews will burn,” before running off.
The attack on Mimimelon comes at a time when B’nai Brith’s 2026 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents found that antisemitic incidents nearly tripled in Quebec from 2025-2026. In August, a Montreal kosher restaurant was gutted by fire which police investigated as arson.
“People do pass by sometimes on the street and yell disgusting things, and especially around October 7th. We were on high alert the whole Jewish High Holiday period, but then the holidays finished and nothing happened” said Volfson.
“B’nai Brith has called for law enforcement across Canada to consider hate motivations whenever a Jewish home or business is targeted,” Paola Samuel, B’nai Brith Canada Regional Director of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, wrote on X. “With the number of antisemitic incidents rising in Canada, a hate motive, unfortunately, cannot be ruled out.”
“We don’t really have competition as we’re a very niche business,” said Volfson. “We’ve been here for 11 years, and I don’t understand where this is coming from now.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Montreal Jewish-owned bakery devastated by suspected arson attack appeared first on The Forward.
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Jews cared more about Israel and antisemitism this election – but it didn’t change their votes much, exit poll shows
Jewish voters overwhelmingly backed Democrats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, even as concerns about Israel and antisemitism played a growing role in their political decisions, according to a new exit poll published on Thursday.
The GBAO Strategies survey of 800 Jewish voters found that 72% of Jewish respondents supported Democratic candidates for Congress, compared with 24% who voted Republican. The poll, sponsored by J Street, a progressive pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy group, was conducted via text message from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3 and had a reported margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The Democratic share was slightly lower than in previous midterm elections, when Democrats received 74% of the Jewish vote in 2022 and 76% in 2018. In the 2020 presidential election, 77% of Jewish voters backed Joe Biden, according to GBAO’s polling. These findings differ from a national NBC News exit poll, which found that 68% of Jewish voters supported Democrats this year and 31% backed Republicans, compared with 78% who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. (The national surveys used different methods, making it harder to say how preferences actually changed.)
Jim Gerstein, GBAO’s pollster and a Democratic campaign consultant, cautioned against reading too much into the change over time. “You’d have to squint really hard to try and see that that is a shift or anything really meaningful,” Gerstein told the Forward during a press briefing. He noted that Republican support also fell, from 25% in the 2022 midterms to 24% this year. Gerstein suggested that strong opposition to President Donald Trump during his first term, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, may help explain the higher Democratic numbers in 2018 and 2020.
He also noted that campaigns and outside groups have spent significantly more money targeting Jewish voters in the past two election cycles. “These are really negligible, and we don’t look at this as much shifting,” he said.
Even as Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans did appear to make gains among Jewish voters in some closely watched races amid a divide over U.S. support for Israel. Several outspoken critics of Israel won seats in the House, including five members of the Democratic Socialists of America. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Troy Jackson of Maine, two new senators who made criticism of Israel a major part of their campaigns, also won highly contested races.
The exit poll suggests that disagreements over Israel have not fundamentally changed how American Jews vote.
The future of American democracy remained the top concern for Jewish voters, with 44% naming it as one of the two most important issues influencing their vote, followed by 34% who said the cost of living was among their leading concerns. But Israel and antisemitism became more important than in previous elections. Twenty-one percent named antisemitism as one of their top two issues, up from 11% in 2024. Israel ranked sixth, cited by 14% of voters, compared with just 4% in 2022.
Compared to previous elections, Israel and antisemitism moved up the list of priorities — 21% identified antisemitism as one of their top two issues, up from 11% in 2024. Israel was ranked six with 14%, compared with just 4% in 2022.
Gerstein argued that rising antisemitism and the debates over support for Israel serve as a basic test for candidates rather than the deciding factor in most elections. “I think we see candidates in both parties passing that threshold quite easily,” Gerstein said.
Asked which positions expressed by candidates during the campaign they agreed with most, 30% chose unconditional support for Israel, while 39% favored support tied to Israel’s compliance with American interests and values. Another 31%, including 60% of voters between the ages of 18 and 34, agreed with the statement that Israel has committed genocide and should no longer receive U.S. aid.
Orthodox voters, representing 9% of the sample, voted Republican by a 63-34 margin.
A Jewish split on Israel
The survey also found a Jewish electorate that itself is becoming more divided over Israel.
Thirty-nine percent said their sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were primarily with Israelis, compared with 23% who sided with Palestinians. Another 38% sided with both. Among younger Jews, 49% said they sympathized more with Palestinians, compared with 20% who sided with Israelis.
A majority — 51% — said it supported continuing $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military assistance to Israel, while 49% opposed it. However, 44% also said arms sales should be conditioned on compliance with U.S. law.
Jewish voters showed greater agreement on how criticism of Israel should be treated and whether Israel’s policies directly impact them.
Sixty percent said Jewish organizations that label harsh criticism of Israel as antisemitic are using concerns about antisemitism to defend unpopular Israeli policies. About two-thirds said AIPAC’s spending against candidates critical of Israel increases antisemitism in the United States, while 80% said Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank contribute to antisemitism. An overwhelming majority of 76% support sanctions against violent Israeli settlers.
The survey also found that 39% of Jewish voters, including 63% of those under 35, said that spending by AIPAC to defeat Israel critics this election cycle made them less likely to support candidates backed by the pro-Israel group.
Mamdani scores high
One of the more striking findings was that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was more popular among Jewish voters nationwide than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his criticism of Israel and strained relationship with some Jewish organizations.
The poll found that 49% of respondents viewed Mamdani favorably, compared with 43% who viewed him unfavorably. Netanyahu received a favorable rating of just 20%, while 72% viewed him unfavorably. That marks a 12% decline in two years for the Israeli leader, who is struggling to form a government after the last Israeli election ended in deadlock.
In an interview with CNN Wednesday night, Mamdani pointed to his approach to governing as an example of how elected officials can represent Jewish voters even when they disagree with them on Israel.
“I represent the most Jewish city in the United States of America, and I know that there are some Jewish New Yorkers, for example, that may have a different set of opinions on Israel and Palestine as I do, and that doesn’t mean that I work any less hard to deliver for them across the board,” Mamdani said. “I think that’s the same truth for anyone who was elected last night.”
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