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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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Israeli Artist Forced to Close Mexico City Exhibit for ‘Safety Reasons’ After Antisemitic Harassment, Vandalism
Pro-Palestinian protesters and vandals hold a flag during a demonstration against Amir Fattal, an openly Zionist Israeli graphic artist. They later spray-painted the facade of the private KÖNIG GALERIE gallery, where he was exhibiting some of his AI-generated works. Photo: Gerardo Vieyra / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
An Israeli artist based in Berlin was forced to close his solo exhibition at a Mexico City gallery a week earlier than planned following continued antisemitic harassment, a protest at his exhibit, and vandalism of the gallery.
Artist and curator Amir Fattal shared the news on Instagram about the closing of his exhibit, “I’m Just Here For The Pool,” at the König contemporary art gallery. The show opened on Feb. 3 and was expected to close on April 1, according to the gallery.
On March 26, pro-Palestinian activists spray-painted antisemitic and anti-Israel messages and symbols across the outer walls of the König gallery. Swastikas, Star of Davids, the word “Nazi,” and more offensive messages were spray-painted along with the number “666.” The number is used by the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group, and it signifies the “number of the beast,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. On the door of the gallery, a vandal carved a swastika and the phrase “acqui hay terroristas,” which translates in English to “here there are terrorists.” The same phrase was written in chalk on the street in front of the gallery, according to photos shared by Reuters.
On March 21, during a guided tour of the gallery, roughly 15 demonstrators gathered outside, chanted against Fattal, and called him “a murderer” and “a Mossad agent,” according to Artnet.
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Israeli Forces to Expand Control in Southern Lebanon as Defense Chief Outlines Long-Term Security Plans
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in southern Lebanon, March 28, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will maintain security control over territory in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River even after active ground operations against Hezbollah conclude, signaling plans for a sustained Israeli security presence along the northern front.
During a press briefing, Katz pointed to a shift beyond limited cross-border raids, outlining plans for a long-term security presence and the creation of a buffer zone as part of a broader effort to reshape the security landscape in Lebanon.
Under this new plan, the IDF will move to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in border villages using operational methods similar to those employed in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, aiming to permanently eliminate the threat of cross-border raids and anti-tank fire targeting Israeli frontline communities.
“The return of more than 600,000 southern Lebanese residents who fled north of the Litani River will remain completely prohibited until the security of Israel’s northern residents is guaranteed,” the Israeli defense chief said.
Katz also announced the IDF plans to establish a new defensive line inside Lebanese territory once the ground campaign concludes.
“The IDF will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River, including all bridges, while fully neutralizing Radwan’s forces and destroying their weapons,” he said, referring to Hezbollah’s elite units.
“We are determined to separate Lebanon from Iran’s influence, to uproot the snake’s teeth, and eliminate Hezbollah’s threat capability,” Katz continued. “The situation in Lebanon will change once and for all — we will enforce security just as we do in Syria and Gaza.”
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined a tougher operational approach to the campaign in Lebanon, emphasizing shifts in battlefield tactics following the heavy toll the fighting has taken.
“I have ordered our soldiers to avoid entering buildings whenever possible, using mechanical engineering equipment and heavy weapons instead,” Netanyahu said, explaining that the goal is to “minimize casualties” and to safeguard soldiers on the ground.
With prospects of potential ceasefire negotiations with Iran to end the ongoing war still uncertain, Netanyahu said Israel is shaping a new security reality along its northern border and will act independently of any agreement possibly reached with Tehran.
“Even if an agreement is reached with Iran, a ceasefire in Lebanon cannot be imposed on us — that must be Israel’s own independent decision,” the Israeli leader said.
The Iranian regime backs and ultimately commands Hezbollah, having formed the Lebanese terrorist group in the 1980s and, since then, providing significant amounts of weapons, funding, and training.
Last week, Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem warned that negotiating with Israel while under fire would amount to forced surrender, adding that his fighters are prepared to continue operations “without limits.”
With a ground maneuver underway to expand a defensive zone in southern Lebanon, the IDF says it has eliminated over 850 Hezbollah terrorists since fighting began earlier this month, while continuing to dismantle the group’s command and weapons infrastructure.
Israel has intensified strikes targeting Hezbollah, particularly south of the Litani River, where the group’s operatives have historically been most active against the Jewish state. Hezbollah opened fire on Israel earlier this month, just a few days after the US and Israel launched their joint military campaign against Iran.
Israel has long demanded that Hezbollah be barred from carrying out activities south of the Litani, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
Although the overall number of attacks has decreased, Hezbollah continues to launch significant strikes against civilian areas while maintaining sustained operations targeting IDF forces in southern Lebanon.
In just the first month of the conflict, Israeli officials report that Hezbollah has carried out more than 900 coordinated attacks, marking a sharp increase in cross-border activity and a broader expansion of its operations across the region.
On Sunday, Israeli forces intercepted a Hezbollah a terrorist cell disguised as paramedics who tried to transport weapons in an ambulance.
For years, Hezbollah has embedded command posts, weapons depots, snipers, and troops within Shiite villages, situating them in the heart of civilian centers near schools, hospitals, mosques, and main roads to turn entire communities into battlefields.
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Newest Members of the IDF’s Ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade Get Their Berets
Illustrative: Members of the Hasmonean Brigade during their beret ceremony at the Western Wall on Aug. 6, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
The third set of soldiers in the Hasmonean Brigade, the Israel Defense Force’s first ultra-Orthodox brigade, completed eight months of training earlier this month and received their dark blue berets at the end of a beret march of approximately 40 kilometers, according to the Israeli news outlet Walla.
The troops will join the regular forces of the Hasmonean Brigade, which was established in 2024 and has participated in military operations in Syria, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and southern Lebanon. Members of the brigade live an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, and their blue berets reportedly symbolize the sky. The brigade is named after the Hasmonean Jewish dynasty that ruled Judea, and liberated Jerusalem and the Temple from oppressive Greek rule.
In February, members of the Hasmonean Brigade’s Yonatan Battalion completed its first-ever battalion-level exercise in the Golan Heights area, “marking the conclusion of the battalion’s operational certification process and its preparation for operational activity,” according to the military. During the exercise, the soldiers were trained in combat in open terrain, targeted operations, and urban warfare scenarios. It took place mere weeks after the start of the Israel-Iran war, also known as Operation Roaring Lion.
“You can be ultra-Orthodox and be a combat soldier – you are making history,” Commander of the Ground Forces, Major General Nadav Lotan, said at the time. “The Hasmonean Brigade continues to establish itself as a combat brigade within the ground forces. This exercise, along with the establishment of the battalions, marks another significant step forward. I am proud of you – the brigade’s troops and commanders. You operate at a high operational standard while preserving your unique identity.”