EBIJFF Speaker Presentations
During our Festival in 2025, we will present the films listed below with speakers who will enhance your cinematic experience by sharing their knowledge and expertise with you in pre-recorded videos.
For in-theatre screenings, you will receive an email within a day of the film's showtime to watch its related presentation.
For virtual screenings, the programs will begin immediately after the feature film ends. You will not need to purchase a second ticket or attend a Livestream.


His Own Way: The Cinema of Avi Nesher
In-theatre: Tuesday, February 25
Online: March 9-14
Eran Kaplan
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.
He is the author of The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and its Ideological Legacy and of The Origins Of Israel: A Documentary History with Derek Penslar (both published by the University of Wisconsin Press). In 2016, he published Beyond Post-Zionism with SUNY Press. His most recent scholarly work, Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen, appeared with Rutgers University Press in 2020. 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.


Kissufim
In-theatre: Monday, February 24
Online: March 9-14
Eran Kaplan
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.
He is the author of The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and its Ideological Legacy and of The Origins Of Israel: A Documentary History with Derek Penslar (both published by the University of Wisconsin Press). In 2016, he published Beyond Post-Zionism with SUNY Press. His most recent scholarly work, Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen, appeared with Rutgers University Press in 2020. 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.


Soda
In-theatre: Thursday, February 27
Fred Rosenbaum
Fred Rosenbaum is an American author, historian and adult educator. He founded and directed Lehrhaus Judaica, described as "the largest Jewish adult education center in the western United States"
Rosenbaum grew up in Queens, New York and earned a bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis. Subsequently, he 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.
An award-winning author, he has written numerous books, including Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area, and co-authored several memoirs of Jewish partisans.
Fred has also been the traveling scholar for 25 study tours throughout the world and his next will be Alsace, France and the Rhine Valley in September.


The Stronghold
In-theatre: Wednessday, February 26
​Online: March 15-20
Fred Rosenbaum
Fred Rosenbaum is an American author, historian and adult educator. He founded and directed Lehrhaus Judaica, described as "the largest Jewish adult education center in the western United States" Rosenbaum grew up in Queens, New York and earned a bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis. Subsequently, he 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.
An award-winning author, he has written numerous books, including Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area, and co-authored several memoirs of Jewish partisans. Fred has also been the traveling scholar for 25 study tours throughout the world and his next will be Alsace, France and the Rhine Valley in September.