In the January issue of Boca magazine, I spoke with Wendy Honig, artistic director of the Boca International Jewish Film Festival, which has ballooned in attendance and programming in the three years since she’s been involved. While we won’t know the full lineup of movies selected for the festival until its “Big Reveal” on Jan. 14 at Movies of Delray, Honig shared three bookings in advance that showcase the depth and breadth of genres and styles present at the festival: a documentary about a pioneering Jewish activist, a contemporary psychological drama about a relationship on the brink, and a period comedy about a World War II deserter.
In this Web Extra, Honig reveals why she chose these titles for the 2026 festival, which returns to Cinemark Paradise in Boca Raton Feb. 21-28.
On “Henrietta Szold: Labors of Love”: Henrietta Szold was amazing. She was the greatest feminist icon that you never heard of. She created the road map for confronting the continued challenges of our time with compassion. She was hugely undervalued for four decades of her life. The filmmaker, Abby Ginsburg, is the granddaughter of Louis Ginsburg, and Louis Ginsburg was a professor that had a relationship with Henrietta Szold. She translated his writings. They had Shabbat dinner every Sabbath together. He was 13 years younger than her, but she was very much in love with him. The love was not returned. Louis Ginsburg considered Henrietta Szold a friend, and he ended up marrying somebody else, and who he married was the filmmaker Abby Ginsburg’s grandfather. So that’s her connection.
I want to tell you a little bit about her accomplishments. She created night schools for immigrants in Baltimore that served as the template for modern English as a Second Language programs. She founded and secured finances for the Henrietta Szold School of Nursing. She set up a system of midwives. She reduced the mortality of babies and mothers, and in 1912 founded the Hadassah Hospital for Christians, Muslims and Jews. She also promoted the Youth Aliyah operation in the 1930s when she was in her 70s. This effort rescued 11,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Europe and brought them to safety in Palestine.
Here’s a woman who had no children but was the mother to thousands. She was there when they arrived in Israel. She was there to tuck them into bed. She was there to help them with everything.
Her prediction was that if both sides, Arabs and Jews, continued clinging to absolutist positions, it would inevitably lead to open war between Jewish and Arab worlds—a position that, sadly, history has borne out. One of the things that she said that I particularly love, is “Don’t wait—just do something.” So many people, especially as they’re aging, wonder what they can do. So she’s just incredible. Abby Ginsburg will be one of the speakers at our festival, and I’m very excited about it.
On “Dead Language”: Sarah Adler is one of my favorite actresses. “Dead Language” was expanded from the 2012 Oscar-nominated short “Aya.” And it’s interesting; the Israeli directors are a married couple, Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun. It’s a 40-minute short, and I loved it. Now it’s made into a full-length film.
The title, “Dead Language,” comes in two ways to us through the film. Sarah Adler’s husband in the film is a post-doctorate famous for dead languages; that’s what he wrote about. But the filmmaker says, although that would be the obvious choice as to how they got the title, they’re saying no—it’s the death of love. So Aya and Aviad have a relationship that seems to have fizzled. It doesn’t have the spark it did, and their love is dying.
On “Lucky Star”: This was a favorite comedy for me. I will tell you why I loved it so much. This is about a man, Jean Chevalin, and he went AWOL and deserted the French army [during World War II]. And if he’s caught, as he finds out after he already deserts, he will be shot by a firing squad. So he decides to pass himself off as Jewish in order to benefit from the help of smugglers and reach the unoccupied zone. And he feels, in his own little prejudiced world, that Jews always come out on top. So he’s going to be a Jew. I loved that the director Pascal Elbé, also is in the cast, and he did such a great job directing it. The lead actor, Benoît Poelvoorde, is just sensational.
He ends up going through one thing after the next that is totally funny, crazy, whatever. But in the end, he learns about Jews, and his prejudice is no longer. He saves a Jewish family. This ploy leads his family on a journey that would gradually dismantle their prejudices. What better thing could we have in this world than a comedy that shows you that we’re more alike than not?
This Web Extra is from the January 2026 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
