Showcasing an incredible story while raising funds for the March of the Living, the 8th annual Kristallnacht Film Forum (KFF) will feature the widely acclaimed, award-winning documentary Blessed is the Match: the Life and Death of Hannah Senesh at 7:00 pm on Sunday, November 8. The film will be shown at Sunrise Cinemas-Mizner Park in downtown Boca Raton.

The Forum is sponsored by the Jewish Education Commission (JEC) of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. Individual film tickets for adults are available for a $10 donation in support of the local March of the Living Scholarship Fund. Group and Student rates are also available.

“This year is the 71^st anniversary of Kristallnacht, which many consider the real beginning of the Holocaust. Seeing the world hardly protest the riots, destruction and deaths, Hitler proceeded with his plan to exterminate Jews,” said Jack Rosenbaum Director of the Southern Region of the March of the Living.

“Eight years ago a group of March of the Living adult alumni and committee members realized that the KFF would be a fitting vehicle to help raise scholarship funds for the March of the Living participants,” added KFF founding chair and current committee member, Debbie Rudmann. “This year, our efforts are more important than ever, because the costs of the March have skyrocketed,” continued Rudmann. “We already have many impressive applicants, and we must make to make it possible for local high students to participate in this transformative two-week experience.”

"Blessed is the Match brings together in one place all the disparate parts of Hannah’s life, of which we’ve seen only pieces over the years,” said KFF Co-chair Rabbi Jessica Spitalnic Brockman. “One realizes that everything in her life was a struggle - the early loss of her father; her hard work as a pioneer; her training and her ultimate capture, torture and death. Yet her spirit shone through, leaving a legacy of a smiling face; strong, forward facing eyes; and a depth of strength that inspires us to wonder if we too could summon  that makes one wonder if they could summon it as she did." (See below for additional information about the film)

Immediately before the film, at 5:00 pm on November 8, Forum donors of $180 or more to the March of the Living Scholarship Fund are invited to an opening reception in honor of Marianne Bobick, a child survivor and former president of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.  Held at the ZED451, near the theater in Mizner Park, the reception will feature a commemoration of Kristallnacht and honor Ms. Bobick for her tireless efforts on behalf of the Jewish community at large and her contributions to local Jewish and Holocaust education. (See below for more information about Marianne Bobick)

"I was fortunate to participate in the 2009 March of the Living along with my 17 year old daughter, Kirby", said Susie Straus Jacobs, KFF Co-chair. "The experience of marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau, with 7500 teenagers, educators and survivors from all over the world, and then celebrating Israel Independence Day in our homeland is indescribable." Jacobs added, "Now more than ever, we need financial assistance from our community so that every child who has the commitment and desire to go on this unbelievable journey can do so even in these difficult economic times. Attending the film or donating to the March of the Living Scholarship Fund at many available levels will ensure that our children will be able to honor those who perished during the Holocaust by bearing witness to the atrocities they experienced and passing the stories on to future generations."

About Honoree Marianne Bobick

Marianne Bobick is a child survivor of the Holocaust. A Founder of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County in 1979, she served as its President from 1983-1986. She has also been President of Donna Klein Jewish Academy, and chaired the Jewish Community Relations Council as well as numerous missions to Israel and fundraising campaign events. She has served virtually every Federation beneficiary agency over the past three decades. 

Marianne’s early dedication and leadership to the South Palm Beach Jewish community has had a lasting impact, as she is also responsible for much of the fundraising to build the Federation campus west of Boca Raton.  Her volunteer efforts in the community also include leadership at Temple Beth El, Caldwell Theater, Israel Bonds and the Boca Raton Fire Rescue Squad, where she was awarded Volunteer of the Year in 2002. A survivor of cancer, she has also been Chair of the Go Pink Luncheon.

About the Film, Blessed is the Match

Narrated by Joan Allen, Blessed Is the Match is the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. Shockingly, it was the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by the Nazis. Incredibly, her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal - first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter.

With unprecedented access to the Senesh family archive, and through interviews, eyewitness accounts and the prolific writings of Hannah and Catherine Senesh, Blessed Is the Match recreates Hannah's mission and imprisonment. The film explores Hannah's childhood against the backdrop of significant historical events resulting in a rich portrait with several interlocking strands.

The film shows British-controlled Palestine and explores how the Kibbutz Movement drew Hannah and other idealistic Jews there in the hopes of building a Jewish state. Israeli President Shimon Peres, who knew Hannah as a young pioneer in the 1940s, appears on camera.

Blessed Is the Match retraces the perilous mission of Hannah and 31 other Jewish-Palestinian parachutists. Two of Hannah's fellow parachutists, Reuven Dafni and Surika Braverman, along with renowned historian Sir Martin Gilbert, appear on camera and recount the mission's aims, successes and failures.

Finally, through Hannah's diary entries and poetry - and through her correspondence with her mother - Blessed Is the Match looks back on the life of a uniquely talented and complex girl who came of age in a world descending into madness. 'God, may there be no end,' Hannah writes in her 1942 poem Eli Eli, ...to sea, to sand, water's splash, lightning's flash. The prayer of man.'

WINNER, Audience Award, Best Documentary:
    - New Jersey Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - Seattle Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - Houston Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival (2009)
    - Denver Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - San Diego Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - Tucson Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (2009)
    - Washington Jewish Film Festival (2008)
    - Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival (2008)

WINNER, Best Documentary, Garden State Film Festival (2009)

WINNER, Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival (2008)