The Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival, which began screening 14 feature films in six locations May 21, will close its curtains Thursday with the presentation of An American Pickle. Starring Seth Rogan, it follows an immigrant who works in a pickle factory in New York, but gets accidentally preserved in a barrel for 100 years, waking up in modern-day Brooklyn.
“I feel that standing up as being Jewish and proud is more important than ever,” said festival director Paul Drescher. “We have seen such an increase in antisemitic beliefs and actions that it’s important to stand up as a Jew in defense of my people.”
Drescher, 72, is a vibrant force in the community, passionate about Jewish culture, film and music. He moved to Santa Cruz in 1980 after college.
“I love movies,” said Drescher, who studied acting and film through the Sundance Institute online, in New York and at Emerson College in Boston. Drescher is active in improv and performs occasionally with the Fun Institute in Santa Cruz. He also hosts a jazz series at his house every Saturday starting at the end of May, after the close of the festival. “I’ve always been Jewish,” said Drescher. “But being Jewish hasn’t always been easy.”
Growing up in a small town in Michigan, he was the only Jewish kid in class. Moving to Santa Cruz after college, he “more or less disassociated with being Jewish for 30 years,” he said. It wasn’t until meeting his wife in 1989 at Temple Beth El that he became involved in Jewish life. They raised three boys, all of whom became Bar Mitzvah at 13, as is tradition. The Jewish coming-of-age ritual marks a boy’s transition to adulthood.
In 2013, a member of the board of the Jewish Community Center of Santa Cruz at Temple Beth El, in Aptos, asked Drescher to take over the film festival. The Santa Cruz festival, which started in the year 2000, led by Marilyn and Dave Rigler. At the time, his wife, Roberta Friedman (originally from Queens, New York) had just passed away. Organizing the film festival was a good distraction, said Drescher. Since Oct. 7, 2023 —the day of the Hamas massacre of Israelis and Americans at a music festival —“it’s become the most important thing I do,” he says.
The film screenings this year were decidedly uplifting, while also educational, according to a participant in the coordination of screenings at the Capitola library. Eight of the fourteen films were from Israel; four of those centered on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Partnering with the Chadeish Yameinu Jewish Renewal of Santa Cruz and Friends of Santa Cruz Public Libraries Capitola, and supported by the Temple Beth El the festival hopes to bring Jewish and non-Jewish people together through film to bring awareness to the struggles of Jewish people and help develop a better understanding of Jewish culture and history.
“Bringing in the younger audiences has always been a challenge for Jewish film festivals,” said Dresher. “I’ve been to other Jewish film festivals, including San Francisco’s Jewish film festival —the granddaddy of Jewish Film festivals in the world—and the audience does skew older.”
With just under a thousand people in his email roster, Drescher is looking to increase his numbers and to reach younger audiences.
Jewish organizations like the Santa Cruz chapter of Hillel report the Jewish student population at UCSC is around 1,200, or roughly 7% of the overall student body. Cabrillo College and CSU Monterey Bay are estimated to have a Jewish student population of 300 and 150, respectively, according to SantaCruzHillel.org. Drescher says the festival wanted to partner for this year’s festival with Hillel–the Jewish student association at UCSC– but that did not come to fruition. Off-campus groups are not allowed to screen films at UCSC unless it is for a designated class or sponsored by a UCSC department.
For future editions, Drescher aims to recruit additional youth volunteers to participate in reviewing films and assisting with putting on the festival. He is happy to mentor volunteers interested in reviewing films to be selected for next year’s festival.
An American Pickle screens Thursday, May 28, from 3-6pm at the Capitola Branch Library. Entry is free and refreshments will be served.
To be informed of upcoming SCJFF films and events, send an email to SCJFFin**@***il.com, or visit www.SCJFF.org.
