The National Center for Jewish Film is a unique, independent nonprofit motion picture archive, distributor, resource center and exhibitor. NCJF’s ongoing mission is the collection, preservation and exhibition of films with artistic and educational value relevant to the Jewish experience and the dissemination of these materials to the widest possible audience. NCJF exclusively owns the largest collection of Jewish content film in the world, outside of Israel. The Center’s 15,000 reels of feature films, documentaries, newsreels, home movies and institutional films date from 1903 to the present.

Founded in 1976, NCJF is recognized as a world leader in the collection, restoration and exhibition of Jewish art and culture. The center has led the revival of Yiddish Cinema, rescuing these languishing films from oblivion. NCJF’s priority is the preservation and restoration of rare and endangered film materials. To date, the Center has restored more than 100 rare and orphan films that document the diversity and vibrancy of Jewish culture, including 44 Yiddish films.

In the scope of its collections and the range of its activities, NCJF is the only organization of its kind. As the largest and oldest resource center for programming Jewish content film materials, NCJF is the world’s premiere resource for and about Jewish film. Each year, NCJF provides programming consultation and research assistance to 7,000 filmmakers, artists, educators, curators and organizations. The Center helped launched the now de rigueur programming of Jewish film festivals and is responsible, in part, for the development of Jewish and ethnic film as a subject for academic study and public exhibition. NCJF is also an exhibitor, producing programs for the public, including 17 Boston-area film festivals. Under its fiscal sponsorship program, NCJF provides a non-profit umbrella to independent filmmakers; thirteen documentary films are currently in production under NCJF’s aegis.

NCJF fosters cultural, artistic and educational programming worldwide through its extensive access programs. The Center is a major distributor of Jewish-content films and represents the work of 100 independent filmmakers from around the world. In all, more than 250 films–restored classics and contemporary independent films–are available for public exhibition and DVD purchase. Each year, NCJF provides films to over 400 venues world wide, as well as for television broadcast. NCJF film materials are used in thousands of classrooms and many hundreds of documentaries, TV newsmagazines and museum exhibitions.