Source: The National Center for Jewish Film
Founded in 1976 and located on the campus of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, the National Center for Jewish Film holds an estimated 10,000 cans of film and thousands of master videotapes. This collection of Jewish themed feature films, documentaries, fiction and non-fiction short films, newsreels, home movies, and institutional films includes material dating from 1903 to the present.
The Center’s collection includes studies of past and present Jewish communities around the world, travelogues depicting Jewish life in Poland before World War II, U.S. government World War II newsreels, studies in Israeli history, Yiddish-American feature films and much more.
NCJF's primary mission is the preservation and restoration of rare and endangered films, NCJF has preserved and restored 36 Yiddish feature films, making them available for the public in numerous formats. It has also preserved numerous rare home movies documenting the way of life in several small communities of Eastern Europe, Jewish chicken farmers in New Jersey and many other aspects of Jewish life around the world.
NCJF is also involved in film distribution, producing public programs, and providing programming, consultation, and research assistance to individuals and institutions.
The Center’s rare film materials are made available to scholars, curators, journalists, teachers, authors, artists, filmmakers, and the general public, and have been exhibited and screened worldwide.
The Center produces and sells videocassettes and DVDs of its titles for both home and educational use and licenses its films for television broadcasts.
NCJF began producing its own film festival -- Jewishfilm-- in 1998 at Brandeis University.
The Center provides an online catalogue of its titles and holdings in distribution on its website.