JFilm 2025 Guests

Amnon is an award-winning director, producer, and editor with a decade of experience in animation and film production. He also works as a film educator with the NYC Department of Education.

Ben is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and producer. He serves as a founding film instructor and Work-Based Learning Coordinator at Motion Picture Technical High School in New York City.

Sandi DuBowski is an award-winning director and producer known for his impactful documentaries, including Trembling Before G-d, which explores LGBTQ Jewish identities and has influenced discussions on faith and sexuality. His films have screened at major festivals such as Sundance and Berlin, and he has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his contributions to the documentary field. As Co-Founder of The Creative Resistance, DuBowski continues to work on political and social justice campaigns, creating award-winning media that drives change.

Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) is a Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) and a bi-racial, queer Jewish person who delights in serving as davennatrix (shlichat tzibbur), lifespiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, consultant, facilitator, teacher, liturgist, and songstress. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with Beloved, The Jewish Studio Project, Kirva, the Avodah Institute for Social Change, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, among other national Jewish organizations. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.

Dr. Rachel Kranson is the director of Jewish Studies and associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. A scholar of post-WWII American Jewish history, gender, and sexuality, she is the co-editor of A Jewish Feminine Mystique: Jewish Women in Postwar America (2010, National Jewish Book Award finalist) and Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America (2017, Immigrant and Ethnic History Society First Book Award finalist). Dr. Kranson has held fellowships at the Frankel Center for Advanced Jewish Studies at the University of Michigan and Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, and her writing has appeared in such venues as The Washington Post, Lilith, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, American Jewish History, Journal of Jewish Identities, the T&T Clark Reader in Abortion and Religion, among others. Dr. Kranson has held leadership positions at the Jewish Women’s Archive, the Center for Jewish History, the American Jewish Historical Society, and the Association for Jewish Studies. Her current book manuscript, tentatively titled Religious Misconceptions, focuses on American Jewish engagement in abortion politics during the era of Roe V. Wade.

Lindsay Malin serves as JSP’s Assistant Director, Film Granting and Artist Programs. Before joining JSP in 2022, she served as a Program Officer at The Covenant Foundation, a New York City-based organization that supports innovation in Jewish education. Previously, she was the Manager of Membership Initiatives at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, where she curated programs exploring Jewish culture and the history of the Holocaust. Lindsay holds a BA in Jewish Studies from American University and an MA in Holocaust Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London. It is her firm belief that exploring diverse stories through film is vital to securing a better, more empathetic future.

Life-long Pittsburgh resident and Center of Life’s CEO, Tim Smith, is affectionately known as “PT” (short for Pastor Tim). His roots in Hazelwood run deep and he’s worked and volunteered in the community since the 1980s. His passion for connecting with families led him to create Center of Life in 2001 as a nonprofit and community empowerment organization founded on PT's personal philosophies that guide the organization’s direction and impact: giving people the tools they need to not only succeed, but to lead economic revitalization in Hazelwood and similar communities in the face of generational and economic discrimination; providing every person with a sense of belonging, significance, and security; and connecting an individual’s inherent natural talent with meaningful opportunity and education. When asked his favorite thing about Hazelwood, PT says, “The people… Because everything is about people. The people [in Hazelwood] are my professors and Hazelwood is the university.”

Dr. Jonathan Zisook is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a sociologist of religion and a scholar of the Holocaust and its aftermath in East Central Europe. Jonathan is the editor of From Centre to Periphery and Beyond: The History and Memory of National Socialist Camps and Killing Sites (2024). He is also currently completing a monograph on the politics of Holocaust memory in contemporary Poland and co-authoring a work on Holocaust museums and Jewish identity in the United States. Jonathan’s research has been supported by the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.