The Cupertino Courier

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No Cupertino screens for Israeli Film Festival

By Cody Kraatz

Silicon Valley Israeli Film Festival organizers were excited about moving their festival to the new AMC 16 theaters at Cupertino Square (formerly Vallco Fashion Park).

However, they were recently informed that AMC could not guarantee that the theaters--slated to open April 27--would be ready in time for the festival dates in early May.

"The festival provided us with their targeted dates," said AMC spokesman Andy DiOrio. " We do support many film festivals throughout the country, but unfortunately this time the timing did not work out.''

The festival wanted to relocate from downtown San Jose because the bulk of the Israeli community lives north of San Jose.

"We were very excited to have it [at the Cupertino AMC]. That was our first choice. A large number of the Israeli population is right there in Cupertino and Sunnyvale," said Lorin Fink, vice president of the San Jose Jewish Film Festival.

Tamar Akov, a cultural attaché for the Israeli consulate in San Francisco, said there are 25,000 to 30,000 Israelis living in the Bay Area, and most live in the South Bay.

"Most of these Israelis are people who came here to work, mostly in the high-tech industry. This is the center, the world center for high tech. People come here from all over the world, not just Israel," said Akov.

Many are college graduates, work in technology fields and have families. Also, Stanford University is a hotbed for those who came looking for venture capital funds for entrepreneurial startups, and some come for education.

"Some of them think they're coming for a few years, but they stay much longer. You can't really call them Israeli-Americans because so many of them are not Americans," said Akov.

Some say that Israelis tend to live in a bubble, but another way to see it is as a "very strong Israeli bond," said Akov.

"We like to say if you meet another Israeli, within two minutes you find someone you know in common, a mutual friend or someone you served with in the military," she said.

For more information about the film festival, visit www.sjjff.org. For more about the South Bay Israeli community, visit www.israelemb.org/sanfran.