Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

The Jewish Film Festival’s next film, titled Souvenirs will be showing today and tomorrow. See details below

The winner of the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary, Souvenirs is a charming, funny and touching father-son journey in search of the ’souvenirs’ the father may have left with two Dutch women during his service in the Jewish Brigade while stationed in Amsterdam during World War II. With humor and compassion, Souvenirs exposes a complex father-son relationship and raises universal questions about the myth of bravery and the gap between memory and historical truth. 75 minutes, in Hebrew with English subtitles.
Wed., Nov. 12, 7:15 p.m., Boulevard Cinemas, Petaluma
Thu., November 13, 1:00 p.m. & 7:15 p.m., Rialto Cinemas Lakeside, Santa Rosa

Speaking of The Netherlands, if you ever plan to visit I recommend to check out A guide to Jewish Amsterdam by Jan Stoutenbeek and Paul Vigieveno. Its 156 pages are filled with hundreds of pictures and informative text about its history, architecture, language, customs… The book covers nine walks in the city and two excursions outside of it. The index and series of maps will help you navigate through Amsterdam. I wish I had this book when I visited the city 2 years ago. I only managed to the Frank house (as in Anne Frank) and the synagogue complex of the High German community, containing the smaller Grote Shul and the larger Neie Shul. Now I know that there is so much more in the city’s Jewish history to visit. Maybe next time.