There are as many different definitions of what it means to be Jewish as there are Jews in the world. Or at least nearly so. It can be a religious identity, a cultural identity, a historical identity, a political identity. And it’s inevitably some combination of those.
That said, most of the films being screened during the Northwest Film Center’s 24th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday, June 15, with the Moroccan drama “The Midnight Orchestra,” fall into one of three broad categories.
Rabbi Rebecca (Catherine de Léan) draws the interest of young Simon (Maximilian Ehrenreich) in the circumcision comedy “Time to Say Goodbye”