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Join the Jewish Federation of Western CT Community Wide Federation Mission to Israel

The Federation is excited to announce our upcoming trip to Israel in the fall of 2023 as Israel continues to celebrate its 75th Anniversary.

Although we are still working on the specifics of our itinerary, we wanted to let you know that we will leave from New York on Sunday, October 15 and return on Wednesday, October 25. We hope that community members from all corners of Western and Northwestern Connecticut will plan to be with us. Please feel free to contact Federation President, Pauline Zimmerman at ‭203-910-9501‬ or CEO, Gary Jones at 203-267-3177 Ext. #304 with any questions.

More information to follow!

Beckerman Jewish Cultural Series with author, Wayne Hoffman - Thursday, February 23 at 7PM

We invite you to join us for our virtual Beckerman Jewish Cultural Series with author, Wayne Hoffman. Wayne will discuss his book, “The End of Her: Racing against Alzheimer’s to solve a Murder. This is one of many authors from the Beckerman Jewish Cultural Series that we are proud to jointly present with the JCC of Greater New Haven.

Fee: $5.00

Rosh Chodesh and the Arrival of Spring - Thursday, March 23 at 7PM

Celebrate Rosh Chodesh and the arrival of Spring with its new beginnings with award winning recording artist and performer Ellen Allard.

More information to follow.

Women’s Seder - Thursday, March 30 at 7PM

We will host our virtual Women’s Seder led by Cantor Penny Kessler of the United Jewish Center.

More information to follow.

Directed by Norman Jewison | Documentary

USA, 2022 | English

88 minutes

Viewing Dates: January 9 – 15

The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called "the most powerful movie musical ever made." Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. The film includes behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters).

Lynda Cohen Loigman "The Matchmaker's Gift"

Thursday, January 19, 2023 | 7 PM
Via Zoom

Is find­ing true love a call­ing or a curse? As a child in 1910, Sara Glik­man knows her gift: she is a mak­er of match­es. But Sara’s voca­tion is dom­i­nat­ed by devout old­er men — men who see a tal­ent­ed female match­mak­er as a dan­ger­ous threat to their tra­di­tions and liveli­hood. In her will Sara bequeathed her jour­nals, with all the details of her match­es, to her grand­daugh­ter, Abby, a suc­cess­ful Man­hat­tan divorce attor­ney. How much is she will­ing to sac­ri­fice in order to keep her grandmother’s mys­te­ri­ous promise to a stranger? And is there real­ly such a thing as love at first sight?

Arielle Silverman, “Just Human”

Thursday, February 7, 2023 | 7 PM
Via Zoom & In-Person

Arielle is a dis­abled activist who is pas­sion­ate about improv­ing pub­lic under­stand­ings of life with dis­abil­i­ties. Born without sight, Dr. Arielle Silverman has never missed the visual. Being blind never bothered her much but, as she grew, she discovered others saw her blindness very differently. Many people saw her as either helpless or inspirational, but rarely did they see her as just human, with the same capacities and desires as her peers.

Arielle explores ways to foster respect and inclusion for all whose bodies or minds differ from the norm.

Wayne Hoffman "The End of Her"

Thursday, Ferbuary 23, 2023 | 7 PM
Via Zoom

Part mem­oir and part mys­tery is how to best describe Wayne Hoffman’s book, The End of Her: Rac­ing Against Alzheimer’s to Solve a Mur­der. Hoff­man recounts his quest to solve the mur­der of his great-grand­moth­er, killed in her sleep in Win­nipeg in 1913, and to share his find­ings with his moth­er before her mind is rav­aged by Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. In the process, the author’s search for truth explores issues of Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, the immi­grant expe­ri­ence, famil­ial oblig­a­tion, love, and loss.

As The End of Her con­tin­ues, Hoff­man weaves chap­ters about his mother’s decline and his fam­i­ly his­to­ry into a sin­gle nar­ra­tive. He unrav­els fam­i­ly mys­ter­ies and paints a vivid pic­ture of life in Winnipeg’s thriv­ing Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in the peri­ods before and after World War One and the influen­za out­break of 1918. He also explores the rela­tion­ship between the immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties of Win­nipeg and the dis­trust, anti­semitism, and bias­es that per­sist­ed among the groups that set­tled in Canada.