Daily News

Elms to Host Film Screening for Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival

CHICOPEE — Elms College will host a screening of the film Raise the Roof, part of the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival, tonight, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the college’s Alumnae Library Theater. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers.

Raise the Roof is an inspiring story of how combined talents in art and science revived an artifact that was once lost to history. Inspired by images of the magnificent wooden synagogues of 18th century Poland — the last of which were destroyed by the Nazis — Boston artists Rick and Laura Brown set out to reconstruct a replica of the stunning, mural-covered Gwoździec synagogue. Working with a team of 300 artisans and students from around the world, using only hand tools and techniques from the period, the Browns finally realized their dream: in 2014, the reconstruction of the Gwoździec synagogue roof was unveiled as the centerpiece of the new POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

The post-screening panel discussion will include filmmakers Yari and Cary Wolinsky, Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener of Temple Israel in Greenfield, and Scott Hartblay, associate professor of Social Work. The panel will be moderated by Martin Pion, director of the Institute for Theology and Pastoral Studies at Elms College.

This event is free for Elms students and faculty, $10 for general admission, and $8 for seniors. For tickets and more information, visit pvjff.org.