The 27th Annual Rutgers Jewish Film Festival - Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford, Safe Roo

SAPIRO V. FORD: THE JEW WHO SUED HENR FORD

Country: USA
Year: 2026
Director: Gaylen Ross
Run Time: 68 minutes
Language(s): English

Henry Ford was a beloved titan of American industry; he was also a vocal antisemite. When young Jewish lawyer Aaron Sapiro challenged Ford with an unprecedented libel lawsuit, it was the first time that antisemitic hate speech was challenged in an American court of law. Speaking incisively to our nation's ongoing battle against rampant antisemitism, director Gaylen Ross's documentary is a rousing call to action for the present and future.

SAFE ROOM

Country: USA
Year: 2026
Director: Haley Geffen
Run Time: 73 minutes
Language(s): English and Hebrew with English subtitles

On October 7, Dr. Gedalya Fendel set up a makeshift hospital on the streets of southern Israel. As the roads grew increasingly unsafe, he welcomed a group of displaced survivors--a pair of grandparents, a pregnant couple, and two children whose parents were murdered--into his safe room. What followed is an inspiring story of strangers who, in the most traumatic of times, transformed into a family.

DOUBLE PANTHER

Country: Israel
Year: 2026
Director: Marco Carmel
Run Time: 97 minutes
Language(s): Hebrew with English subtitles

SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW

In 1970s Jerusalem, criminal nightclub owner Yaakov Elbaz is recruited by police to be an informant within Israel's rapidly rising Black Panther movement. Though reluctant at first, Elbaz slowly begins to side with the Black Panther's cause--civil rights for Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews--only for his double life to put it all in jeopardy. Based on historical events and starring Israeli Oscar-winner Yaakov Zada Daniel, Double Panther is a moving political thriller about collective action and social justice in the early years of Israeli statehood.

Presented by: The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life with support from The Karma Foundation