EBIJFF Speaker Presentations

Greg Laemmle is the President of Laemmle Theaters, a family-owned and operated company which has been exhibiting movies in Los Angeles since 1938. The chain was started by Greg's grandfather Max and his brother Kurt. Both Max and Kurt got their start in the industry working for Carl Laemmle, the legendary founder of Universal Studios, who was their father's first cousin. Greg is the third generation to run the company, having taken over in 2004 from his father Robert. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Greg is one of less than a handful of exhibitors honored with membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Eran Kaplan is the Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Israel Studies at SF State. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University. Before coming to San Francisco, he taught at Princeton, Cincinnati, and Toronto.In addition to his scholarly publications, he contributed articles to Haaretz and Tikkun. At SF State, Professor Kaplan teaches courses on Modern Israel, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israeli Cinema, Modern Hebrew Culture and the History of Jerusalem.

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The director of Schachten, Thomas Roth, was born in 1965 in Graz, Austria. He is also a screenwriter and is known internationally for directing episodes of TV series Trautmann, Tatort, and Wolfgang Bauer. 

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Gioia is the author of three historical novels, four biographies, and a play. Her writing, which focuses on women's lives, has been praised for combining rich storytelling and literary grace with deep research to bring alive worlds as varied as Jazz Age Paris and nineteenth century Chicago, Belle Epoque Paris and disco era Manhattan. As a journalist, Gioia has written for many publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Town & Country, and Vanity Fair. She also teaches writing and has taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design and DePaul and Northwestern Universities.

Jake Marmer is a poet, performer, and educator. He is the author of three poetry collections: Cosmic Diaspora

(Station Hill Press, 2020), as well as The Neighbor Out of Sound (2018) and Jazz Talmud (2012), both from The Sheep Meadow Press. He also released two klez-jazz-poetry records: Purple Tentacles of Thought and Desire

(2020, with Cosmic Diaspora Trio), and Hermeneutic Stomp (Blue Fringe Music, 2013). Jake is the poetry critic for Tablet Magazine. Born in the provincial steppes of Ukraine, in a city that was renamed four times in the past 100 years, Jake moved to the US when he was 15. His family still lives in Ukraine.

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Author and historian Fred Rosenbaum grew up in Queens, New York in a family that was "marked by the Holocaust". His mother fled Poland and escaped to the United States. His father had earlier emigrated from Poland and became a sergeant in the United States Army, and fought in Europe during World War II. Rosenbaum earned a bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1968, and then studied the history of Nazi Germany as a Fulbright fellow in West Germany. He earned a master's degree in European history at the University of California Berkeley. He was the founder of Lehrhaus Judaica (now functioning as New Lehrhaus) in Berkeley, California.

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Jake Marmer is a poet, performer, and educator. He is the author of three poetry collections: Cosmic Diaspora

(Station Hill Press, 2020), as well as The Neighbor Out of Sound (2018) and Jazz Talmud (2012), both from The Sheep Meadow Press. He also released two klez-jazz-poetry records: Purple Tentacles of Thought and Desire

(2020, with Cosmic Diaspora Trio), and Hermeneutic Stomp (Blue Fringe Music, 2013). Jake is the poetry critic for Tablet Magazine. Born in the provincial steppes of Ukraine, in a city that was renamed four times in the past 100 years, Jake moved to the US when he was 15. His family still lives in Ukraine.

Author and historian Fred Rosenbaum grew up in Queens, New York in a family that was "marked by the Holocaust". His mother fled Poland and escaped to the United States. His father had earlier emigrated from Poland and became a sergeant in the United States Army, and fought in Europe during World War II. Rosenbaum earned a bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1968, and then studied the history of Nazi Germany as a Fulbright fellow in West Germany. He earned a master's degree in European history at the University of California Berkeley. He was the founder of Lehrhaus Judaica (now functioning as New Lehrhaus) in Berkeley, California.

Eran Kaplan is the Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Israel Studies at SF State. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University. Before coming to San Francisco, he taught at Princeton, Cincinnati, and Toronto.In addition to his scholarly publications, he contributed articles to Haaretz and Tikkun. At SF State, Professor Kaplan teaches courses on Modern Israel, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israeli Cinema, Modern Hebrew Culture and the History of Jerusalem.

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