Worker Walkout, Community Outcry Shake Jacob Burns as It Screens Antisemitism Film

By Andrew Vitelli

The Jacob Burns Film Center held its long-awaited screening of October 8, a documentary on the rise of antisemitism in the United States, with the film playing to a packed theater on Thursday. 

The screening, and a question-and-answer session with the film’s director which followed, earned a warm reception from the crowd in attendance. But the event is unlikely to quell frustration, primarily among the Jewish community, over the theater’s hesitancy in showing the film as well as its reaction to accusations that a Jewish couple was harassed when trying to buy tickets. 

The Burns, meanwhile, is also facing something of a staff revolt. Before the screening, a woman who identified herself as a recent employee at the Burns handed out pamphlets outside the theater saying theater staff had resigned en masse to demand better working conditions. The first complaint cited in the pamphlet was the termination of a “trusted and considerate employee,” presumably the clerk accused of berating the Jewish couple who had asked to buy tickets to October 8 more than a month prior.  Roughly eight to ten people had resigned, the former employee said, citing overall working conditions at the theater.

Faced with anger from both members and employees over its quiet separation with the clerk, the JBFC seems set on staying silent. The theater is not planning to issue a statement on the clerk’s apparent termination or the incident itself, according to the family of the couple that has alleged harassment by the clerk. Approached by The Examiner following the screening, JBFC Executive Director Mary Jo Ziesel declined to comment on the resignations, the incident with the clerk, or the decision of whether to screen the film. 

The screening 

The documentary, which examines the rise of antisemitism since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, played Thursday to a nearly full house. Many of the attendees showed their support by donning yellow ribbon pins or dog tags to support the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Wendy Sachs, the film’s director, acknowledged that she was largely preaching to the converted, while her goal is to reach a broader audience, the 65% or so without deep knowledge or strong feelings either way. 

“I really made it for non-Jews to understand what is going on,” Sachs said during a question-and-answer following the movie. “I really made it for people to understand that today, anti-Zionism is the modern form of antisemitism, full stop.”

Sachs is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist whose work has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. Her documentary SURGE, which premiered on Showtime in 2020, follows women candidates as they run for office and help flip red districts to blue in the 2018 midterm elections.

October 8 was released in theaters in mid-March, and members of the local Jewish community immediately pushed for the Burns – a venue with a significant Jewish contingent which hosts an annual Jewish Film Festival – to show the documentary. The push escalated into a letter-writing campaign, but the Burns’ management initially said it would not screen the film. Eventually, JCFB agreed to the single May screening, followed by a discussion with Sachs and Myra Clark-Siegel, Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee Westchester/Fairfield.

The day the screening was announced, March 28, Pleasantville residents Robert and Francine Goldstein went to the theater to see if tickets were on sale. The box office clerk, they allege, became belligerent, saying he would never sell any tickets to the film, and in a heated exchange that followed called the couple murderers. Robert Goldstein, 68, believes the clerk was referring to the fact that the Goldsteins are Jewish.

Robert Goldstein wrote to the Burns, asking that the employee be fired. CFO Patrick Saxton responded apologetically, but the statement initially released by the theater offered no such apology, instead saying, “We require both our staff and patrons to treat each other with respect.”

It took around three weeks, but the theater eventually told a lawyer working with the Goldstein family that the clerk is no longer with the Burns. The family has said the clerk’s departure – it is not clear whether he was fired – is not enough; they are asking for a public statement apologizing for their handling of the incident and condemning antisemitism. Without that apology, many customers, the Goldsteins included, are unlikely to return to the Burns. 

No Apologies

But according to the couple’s daughter, no such statement – apology or otherwise – appears forthcoming. That’s the message communicated to the family by a lawyer representing the Burns, the daughter told The Examiner.

Many Burns members and theatergoers have expressed as much frustration with the theater’s silence as with the incident itself.

“The response from the Jacob Burns has been very disappointing, especially for an organization that in the past has played an active role as a supporter of the Jewish community through the production of their Jewish Film Festival,” Ben Serebin, president of Pleasantville Community Synagogue, told The Examiner in an email. “One wonders if this is a business decision to run the Festival, or if they are a true supporter of the Jewish community. I hope the Jacob Burns Film Center will publicly address this past incident and clarify how they will prevent such incidents from occurring again in the future.”

The saga has led some longtime Burns members to cancel their memberships and vow not to return to the theater. After Thursday’s screening, Chappaqua resident Anne Angowitz told Ziesel that the screening was bittersweet; the Burns had long been a second home for her, but she knew this would likely be the last time she ever set foot in the theater, unless a statement was made apologizing for the clerk’s behavior. 

But others angered by the Burns’ actions are not abandoning the theater altogether. Sena Baron, a Sleepy Hollow resident who helped organize the letter-writing campaign calling for October 8 to be screened, said that she would rather continue trying to effect positive change than abandon the theater altogether. 

While the Burns held just one screening of the documentary, other local theaters including the Bedford Playhouse held multiple showings. 

After the screening, Sachs said she only found out about the controversy at the Burns when her mother, who lives in Florida, learned about it from a social media post and brought it up to her. 

“I am super grateful,” she said. “When you make noise and we stand up and we’re vocal, things change. It just shows what a difference you can all make.”

May Day 

But if the patrons inside the theater were angry that not enough had been done about the clerk’s alleged outburst, the (perhaps former) staffers handing out fliers outside the theater were upset that the clerk had been let go at all. The pamphlet said the organization’s senior leadership “wrongfully terminated a trusted and considerate employee with no conversation or discussion based on targeted, false, and malicious accusations from a customer.”

The pamphlet also listed demands of higher wages and safer working conditions, and said that senior leadership harasses employees and dismisses their concerns. It also noted that leadership does not work on holidays, but expects staff to do so. 

The employee, who did not give her name, said roughly eight to ten people had participated in the walkout. Asked whether the discussion over whether to show October 8 at the theater had divided the theater’s staff, she acknowledged that it had, as it has caused division within the community. However, she stressed that the walkout was centered on working conditions rather than the one incident or the debate over the documentary. She stressed the connection between the May 1 date, May Day, and her advocacy for workers’ rights. 

The employee would not discuss the incident with the clerk, saying she was not there to speak to the media. The Examiner reporter on the scene provided contact information and urged her to pass it along to the clerk, or any other employee willing to speak about the incident. However, no one contacted The Examiner. 

JBFC did not respond to an inquiry earlier today about the walkout or about whether the theater planned to issue a statement over the Goldsteins accusations or the request to publicly condemn antisemitism.