Director Aviva Kempner scheduled to speak at Book Talk

by | Feb 1, 2015 | Aviva Kempner

On Sunday February 8th at 1:00pm, notable filmmaker and founder of the Washington Jewish Film Festival will speak alongside authors Menachem Rosensaft and  Michael Brenner. They will have a discussion about the book God, Faith and Identity from the Ashes, an anthology of testaments from 88 children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors by written by Rosensaft. This year marks 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Panelists will talk about the legacy’s impact on their personal lives.

The Book Talk will take place at the Politics and Prose Bookstore (5015 Connecticut Ave N.W., Washington DC).

Erica Marshall, Winter Intern

Rosenwald Schools director Aviva Kempner appears at Jewish Folk Arts Festival

by | Dec 10, 2014 | Aviva Kempner

On Saturday, Aviva Kempner, director of upcoming documentary The Rosenwald Schools, joined an excellent list of workshop presenters at the 2014 Jewish Folk Arts Festival in Rockville, Maryland. A great audience packed the room to see Aviva present the work in progress version of The Rosenwald Schools, and gave the screening a warm reception. Other than a little mishap on the way there (Aviva and our editor, Marian Hunter got lost) it was a great day. Thanks to the Jewish Folk Arts Festival for putting on a great event!

Aviva Kempner to appear at Jewish Folk Arts Festival in Rockville, MD

by | Dec 3, 2014 | Aviva Kempner

From The Washington Post:

Jewish Folk Arts Festival The festival continues Sunday with an excerpt from Aviva Kempner’s latest historical documentary, synagogue choirs and cantors, Klezmer bands, art exhibits, university and youth a cappella groups, children’s craft activities, a teen lounge and music jam, Israeli dancing, kosher food and workshops. 1-6 p.m. Sunday at the Universities at Shady Grove, 9630 Gudelsky Dr., Rockville. 301-587-1739. www.jewishfolkartsfestival.com. $10, seniors and students $5, preschoolers free, family maximum $4

Aviva Kempner to lead discussion at Jewish Study Center event

by | Nov 17, 2014 | Aviva Kempner

Tuesday night (11/18), Aviva Kempner will be the instructor for a class at The National Museum of American Jewish Military History in Washington D.C. (1811 R Street NW) sponsored by the Jewish Study Center. Ms. Kempner, director of the upcoming documentary The Rosenwald Schools, will show excerpts from her film and discuss her film’s subject, Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald.

You can read more about Tuesday night and other upcoming Jewish Study Center courses here.

Aviva Kempner sits in on Nashville Film Festival panel discussion

by | Apr 23, 2014 | Aviva Kempner

Women in Film and Television, Nashville, gathered together a great panel of filmmakers for the Nashville Film Festival last weekend. Along with Aviva Kempner, other panelists included Joanna Lucchesi, Sr Vice President, Entertainment Division, City National Bank of Beverly Hills, who has more than 30 plus years of experience in the film and television industry, Guy Noffsinger, Senior Producer, Multimedia Specialist NASA, Washington, DC with multiple credits as producer, director and writer of NASA released Television and Film projects such as; Space Shuttle, NASA Remembers Neil Armstrong and Friendship 7, 50th Anniversary and Beth Harrington, multi award-winning independent producer, director and writer, who has been making media professionally since 1977.

Harrington premiered her new film, The Winding Stream at the festival. The Winding Stream – The Carters, The Cash Family and The Course of Country Music is a music history and performance film. Her film features members of the Carter and Cash families and includes an interview with the legendary Johnny Cash who was interviewed by Ms. Harrington 3 weeks before his death in 2003. Local television personality Demetria Kalodimos emceed the program. Kempner also showed the two work in progresses of The Rosenwald Schools to an enthusiastic audience.


Guy Noffsinger, Beth Harrington, Deborah Gordon, Demetria Kalodimos, Joanna Lucchesi, and Aviva Kempner

Thanks to Women in Film and Television, Nashville, for putting together a great event!

Before “The Rosenwald Schools”… “Becoming American” at Philly’s Jewish Culture Museum

by | Mar 18, 2014 | Aviva Kempner

I had a wonderful time last week at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. I visited the museum for the opening of “Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American,” a great new exhibit that shows how the game of baseball has impacted American minority communities over the past century. My 1999 film, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, commemorates the uncommon devotion Jews had for the first great Jewish slugger, Hammerin’ Hank. NMAJH’s new exhibit strikes a similar tone, commemorating the reverence for Jewish ballplayers felt by lifelong fans. We were thrilled that the exhibit asked for two key interviews from my film and its DVD extras.

I was also honored to write the chapter on Hank Greenberg for the companion book to the exhibit, Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American. Josh Perelman edited together a great group of essays about “Becoming American” through baseball for the book. I contributed a chapter to the book entitled “Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg: Call Him the Hero of Heroes.” You can get more details about the book–and also buy yourself a copy–here.

Here are some snapshots of the exhibits featuring Hank Greenberg:


A display of Hank Greenberg memorabilia


The headline image for the exhibit, Hank admiring a long ball off his own bat


An excerpt from my interview with Arn Tellem that appeared in The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg


A “ladder” of the great Jewish ballplayers comes down to a face-off between Hank and Sandy Koufax. This chart was made by baseball aficionado Dan Okrent who went to school with me in Detroit.

By Aviva Kempner