PHILADELPHIA — A Montgomery County judge on Tuesday ordered a Main Line theater to screen a film about an Israeli musician — part of the Israeli Film Festival of Philadelphia — that had been canceled the day before amid mounting objections to the festival from organizations critical of Israel.
The film, " The Child Within Me," about Yehuda Poliker, was shown Tuesday night at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute as part of the ongoing festival, now in its 28th year.
The institute on Monday said it was canceling the screening.
“Bryn Mawr Film Institute is not a political organization. We don’t endorse or oppose any causes,” the institute said in a statement on Monday.
“In past years, we have not regarded hosting a screening from the Israeli Film Festival as a political partnership or taking a stance on any issues. This was our feeling when we arranged the 2024 screening many months ago,” the institute said.
“However, as the situation in Israel and Gaza has developed, it has become clear that our showing this movie is being widely taken among individuals and institutions in our community as an endorsement of Israel’s recent and ongoing actions. This is not a statement we intended or wish to make. For this reason, BMFI is canceling the sole screening of the music documentary, The Child Within Me,” the institute said.
Groups including the Bi-Co Jewish Voice for Peace had opposed the screening because the festival benefits from fundraising for the state of Israel through one of its sponsors, Israeli Bonds.
After the theater said on Monday that it was canceling the screening, those same groups cheered the decision and called off a planned protest at the theater Tuesday night.
But lawyers for the film festival went to court arguing that the cancellation was a breach of contract, and Judge Richard P. Haaz of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas agreed.
“‘The Child Within Me’ has nothing to do with current events in Israel or the war currently ongoing in the Middle East,” the lawyers wrote in their complaint.
After the court order was issued Tuesday, the Israeli Film Festival posted on its website: “This attempt to censor the arts and culture of Israel was not successful.”
Lori Lowenthal Marcus, an attorney for the film festival, called the judge’s order “an extraordinary remedy … to right an extraordinary wrong.” The theater’s earlier decision to cancel the screening, Marcus said in a statement Tuesday, “was a cowardly response to bullying.”
Bi-Co Jewish Voice for Peace, which described itself as “Anti-Zionist Jews of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges,” could not be reached for comment Tuesday night about the court order.
The Philly Palestine Coalition, which also demanded that the film screening be canceled and took issue with the festival being sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel, could not be reached for comment about the court order.
The initial cancellation of the film screening prompted condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League of Philadelphia and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
“Although BMFI states that this decision was made in an attempt to avoid controversy, this action only serves to blacklist Israeli culture, playing into the hands of antisemites who try to deny the Jewish people their voice and existence,” both organizations said in a joint statement.
