Court Orders Philadelphia Theater to Screen Israeli Film That It Had Cancelled in the Face of Protests
10th April 2024
In one of the more dizzying episodes of controversy surrounding Jewish cultural events since the Israel-Hamas war, a court ordered a Philadelphia-area movie theater Tuesday to move forward with screening an Israeli film less than a day after the theater’s Jewish director tried to call it off.
The injunction issued by Montgomery County Court instructed the Bryn Mawr Film Institute to move forward with its planned screening of “The Child Within Me,” a documentary about the Israeli musician Yehuda Poliker. The Israeli Film Festival of Philadelphia had reportedly filed a last-minute lawsuit against the theater, alleging breach of contract after it announced Monday night that it was no longer planning on screening the film owing to what its director called the “current climate.”
Local Jewish groups, enraged by the cancellation, had planned to stage a protest against the nonprofit theater Tuesday evening. The protest was still moving forward, organizers told Haaretz, in a show of support for the festival.