January 30 | Doors open at 5:30pm, screening at 6:30pm
In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, join filmmaker Aviva Kempner for a screening of her newest project, A Pocketful of Miracles: A Tale of Two Siblings.
Come early for a light reception at 5:30 pm, and Kempner will introduce the film at 6pm. Executive Director Rebekah Sobel will moderate a discussion with Kempner and Rabbi Michael Cahana after the screening. The film’s run time is approximately 90 minutes.
Funding for this program has been generously provided by the Herbert and Ella Ostroff Endowment Fund with support from Ira Wagner and Kim Rosenberg.
Aviva Kempner has been making award-winning documentaries for more than 40 years with an emphasis on rediscovering and celebrating lesser-known Jewish heroes. These include The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998, named Best Documentary by the NY Film Critics Circle, National Society of Film Critics, National Board of Review, Peabody Award, etc.), about the baseball player who faced antisemitism during the 1930s. Kempner is the creator of The Ciesla Foundation, an educational organization, and she launched the SEW: Sports Equality for Women website, to amplify the stories and voices of women in sports.
Kempner recently co-directed and co-produced Imagining the Indians, a documentary about the movement to remove Native American names, logos, and mascots from the world of sports. She is also the co-writer and producer of Casuse, about the young Native American activist who kidnapped the Mayor of Gallup, New Mexico to draw attention to the plight of the Navajo people and to expose the hypocrisy of the establishment.
Based in Washington, DC, she created the Washington Jewish Film Festival. She is a statehood advocate for Washington, D.C., and a board member of DC Vote. Her awards include: 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship; 2000 DC Mayor’s Art Award; 2001 Women of Vision award from D.C.’s Women in Film and Video chapter; 2001 Media Arts award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture; 2009 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival’s Freedom of Expression Award; Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of the District of Columbia (2018) and the Creativity Award from Moment Magazine (2020). She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana joined Congregation Beth Israel in July 2006, becoming the 18th Senior Rabbi to serve the congregation. Prior to moving to Portland, Rabbi Cahana led synagogues in the Midwest and the East Coast, and strived to create vibrant and inclusive Jewish communities.
Born in Houston, Texas, Rabbi Cahana comes from multiple generations of rabbis including his late father, Rabbi Moshe Cahana, and his older brother, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Rabbi Cahana began with a career in theater, including acting, directing, and theatrical design. He later earned an MFA in Architectural Lighting from Parson’s School of Design. Soon, however, family tradition of the rabbinic life called him, leading to his ordination in 1994, becoming the first Reform rabbi in his family’s long rabbinic history.
In 1999, Rabbi Cahana was featured, along with his family, in the critically acclaimed documentary “The Last Days.” The film tells the true stories of five Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust, including Rabbi Cahana’s mother – the renowned Holocaust artist Alice Lok Cahana (z”l). “The Last Days,” which was produced by Steven Speilberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, won the 1999 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Rabbi Cahana is highly engaged in social action, embracing the concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) to make our community and nation better. He serves on the leadership team of Lift Every Voice Oregon, an interfaith movement to pass gun safety legislation in Oregon. He is also an at-large member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.