"That's How You Make a Torah": A Short Film Screening and Discussion

About this event

Men have been scribing Torah since 3 BCE but finally in 2007, Jen Taylor Friedman became the first woman known in history to scribe a Torah. In this documentary short – being featured in the Boston Jewish Film Festival in November – meet Taylor Friedman and fellow trailblazing scribe Rabbi Linda Motzkin, learn about the obstacles they overcame to achieve this dream, and - as a Jewish woman - how their work affects the filmmaker personally.

At this screening, join Director Lauren Greenhall and Soferet Rachel Jackson for a Q+A and discussion around the themes of the film as well as the history and future of female and non traditional scribes.

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Lauren Greenhall is an award winning filmmaker whose work explores how joy is a catalyst for lasting social change and self-realization.

Most known for her independent film work, she has created TV and Video for Nat Geo, VICE x HBO, The New Yorker, The New York Post, CBS Interactive, HuffPost, Amazon Originals, and Inside Edition.

Currently she is traveling around the world with her short documentary "That's How You Make a Torah" (2025) funded by the DCJCC Matthew Harris Ornstein JxJ Short Film Fund. In winter 2026 it was featured in the Jewish Sacred Materials exhibition at the prestigious Berlin State Library as a nod to where the future of scribing is headed. This is the fifth piece she has directed about everyday women navigating modern religion. The success of her series "The Meaning of Jihad" landed her the opportunity to speak at NYU about the relationship between religion and the media.

Other projects of note include her narrative feature debut Perfectly Good Moment (2023), a "good for her" psychological thriller that can be watched on Tubi, Amazon, and Verizon Fios through Buffalo 8 Distribution, the critically acclaimed Imouhar Music Video that played on a loop in Times Square, and the Miss Quarantine Pageant, a scripted comedy parody of beauty pageants that was featured in the New York Times as a critics pick, Wall Street Journal, NY1, and The Stranger. It was one of the first virtually directed scripted pieces to be released in the pandemic.

Greenhall is a proud member of Film Fatales, Video Consortium, and the Jewish Film Institute where she was a resident of their doc lab in 2021.

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