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Idina Menzel, antisemitic theories and terror: Your guide to Jewish films at the DOC NYC festival
(New York Jewish Week) — With over 200 screenings and dozens of related events, DOC NYC — which bills itself as America’s largest documentary film festival — is now underway.
This year, the festival features in-person screenings at various theaters through Thursday, Nov. 17, and continues online through Sunday, Nov. 27.
In addition to “Queen of the Deuce,” which traces the unlikely story of Chelly Wilson, a Jewish refugee who fled Greece in 1939 to become an owner of several Times Square porn theaters — check out our interview with director Valerie Kontakos here — there are several more screenings of films of Jewish interest. Among them:
1. “Closed Circuit”
Director: Tal Inbar
This Israeli documentary tracks the harrowing 2016 terror attack in Sarona Market in Tel Aviv. Using raw footage from closed circuit cameras, the film leads audiences through the events of that night. Testimony from Jewish and Arab survivors illuminates their experiences and the personal repercussions of this kind of trauma.
2. “The Conspiracy”
Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin
This timely-as-ever animated documentary, narrated by Mayim Bialik, offers a look at the age-old conspiracy theory that Jews run the world. The film brings viewers through more than 200 years of antisemitic ideology, and investigates why and when these theories take hold, especially during times of uncertainty. With voice acting from Liev Schreiber, Lake Bell, Jason Alexander and Ben Shenkman. The film’s world premiere will be at the festival’s closing night on Thursday, Nov. 17.
3. “Dear Thirteen”
Director: Alexis Neophytides
A tender portrait of 13-year-olds across the globe, including a Jewish boy preparing for his bar mitzvah, this documentary trains its eye on a generation coming of age in an especially complicated time.
4. “Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage”
Director: Anne McCabe
This Disney+ documentary follows the Tony Award-winning Jewish actress and singer Idina Menzel — famous for her performances in Broadway’s “Rent” and “Wicked,” as well as Elsa in “Frozen” — as she tours the country in preparation for her debut headlining Madison Square Garden. Interviews include intimate stories from the performer’s life, including her experiences with IVF.
5. “Last Flight Home”
Director: Ondi Timoner
An intimate and deeply personal story of the filmmaker’s father as he chooses to end his own life, legally, in California at age 92. The film features the director’s older sister, Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, who in the trailer grapples with her role as both family member and clergy. Check out JTA’s interview with the director here.
DOC NYC runs Nov. 9-17 in person at multiple New York theaters; films are available for online screening through Nov. 27.
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The post Idina Menzel, antisemitic theories and terror: Your guide to Jewish films at the DOC NYC festival appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.