It’s not surprising nowadays to go to a movie that was either made by Jews, stars Jews or is about Jewish themes. To think it all started in 1927 with The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, which highlights the life of a Jewish cantor. Since cinema is such a powerful source of inspiration and entertainment, I want to honor what I think are the top 10 Jewish films of all time. My favorites were selected based on their critical acclaim, staying power and the Jewish subject matter that’s made an impact on the world. Although these films are full of Jewish flavor, they have mainstream appeal and relate to humanity as a whole.

10. Cabaret
This 1972 musical film, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey, is set in Berlin in the 1930s. In a way, Cabaret is like Rent—both are over-sexed dramatic Broadway films. This is Liza Minnelli’s most famous work; she plays the role of an American singer, Sally Bowles, who falls for two men, one of whom is bisexual, while trying to make ends meet by singing at the Kit Kat Club while the Nazis rise to power around them.

9. Kissing Jessica Stein
This is a 2001 independent romantic comedy written and co-produced by the film’s stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The film is about a straight, single young woman, Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt), a New York City-based journalist exhausted by the dating scene. After being left with a broken heart from too many failed dates that her overbearing mother arranged, Jessica finds herself intrigued by dating ads for women seeking women. That’s when Jessica decides to try something new. Over the course of a few weeks, she attempts to form a meaningful relationship with a woman. This film seems to have paved the way for shows like Showtime’s The L Word and was hailed by critics upon its release.

8. Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 crime drama directed by Martin Scorsese that follows the rise and fall of three gangsters spanning three decades. Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta, it’s full of romance between Henry (Ray Liotta), an Irish-Italian gangster, and Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a nice Jewish girl. This movie makes my list because it portrays a Jewish woman shifting between her roles as a housewife and the wife of a gangster and player.

7. Live and Become 
Released in 2005, this film is about an Ethiopian Christian boy who disguises himself as an Ethiopian Jew to escape famine and immigrate to Israel. This movie feels like a modern-day Exodus, but it also battles many teen issues. Shlomo begins his voyage as a youngster when his mother says, “Go, live and become.” The film exhibits his struggles being raised as a Jew after having been born a Christian. As a teen, Shlomo is an outcast from his peers but finds comfort in the Jewish family who adopted him. He eventually develops a crush on Sara, who accepts him for everything he is and is not. Live and Become is an enticing romantic tale of loving someone unconditionally.

6. Life is Beautiful
Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) is an Italian Jew daring to laugh in the face of the Nazis in the 1930s. He discovers love with Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), the aristocratic beauty who isn’t Jewish. He charms his way into her life, and just when it looks like life will be lived happily ever after, both Guido and their son, Giosué, are arrested and transferred to a concentration camp. Dora goes too, determined not to separate the family. In the midst of the horrors of the camp, Guido protects his son by pretending that survival is an elaborate game that Giosué must play or risk being sent home. This film isn’t afraid to explore the dark side of humanity to highlight the power of good.

5. Marjorie Morningstar
Starring Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood, Marjorie Morningstar is a 1958 coming-of-age story about a young Jewish girl in New York City in the 1950s. Although she has hopes of becoming a starlet, her parents have something more conventional in mind. Marjorie still attempts to become an artist through her relationship with actor and playwright Noel. The central conflict in the movie revolves around the traditional models of social and religious behavior expected by New York Jewish families and Marjorie’s desire to follow an unconventional path. This film is notable for its inclusion of Jewish religious scenes, including a Passover meal, synagogue sequence and Jewish icons in the house.

4. Exodus 
Directed and produced by Otto Preminger, Exodus is a 212-minute screen adaptation of Leon Uris’s best-selling novel. The film focuses on the emergence of Israel as an independent nation in 1947. The first half shows the efforts of 611 Holocaust survivors to defy the blockade of the occupying British government and sail to Palestine on the sea vessel Exodus. Paul Newman, as Ari Ben Canaan, a leader of the Jewish underground movement, is willing to sacrifice his own life and the lives of the refugees rather than be turned back to war-ravaged Europe, but the British finally relent and allow the Exodus safe passage. Once this victory is assured, 30,000 more Jews previously locked up by the British flood into the Holy Land. This movie is Zionism at its best.

3. Funny Girl
This 1968 musical film is an ethnic beauty. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life of comedienne and Broadway and film star Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. The screen adaptation, directed by William Wyler, paired Barbra Streisand (reprising her Broadway role) with Omar Sharif and was a commercial and critical success, winning Streisand an Academy Award for Best Actress. It became the top-grossing film of 1968, receiving seven Oscar nominations.

2. Schindler’s List
This film truly brings to life the nightmare that was a reality known to too many during the Holocaust. Liam Neeson portrays Oskar Schindler in a beautiful, larger-than-life way. Based on a true story, Schindler’s List is Steven Spielberg’s epic drama of World War II Holocaust survivors and the man who unexpectedly came to be their knight in shining armor. Unapologetic womanizer and war profiteer Schindler used Polish Jews as cheap labor to produce cookware for the Third Reich. But after witnessing the violent liquidation of the walled ghetto in which Krakow Jews were forced to live, Schindler slowly began to realize the immense evil of Nazism.  Schindler eventually managed to get 1,100 people released from a work camp and brought instead to the safety of his weapons factory in Czechoslovakia. Spielberg’s glorious film is wondrously reminiscent, visually stunning and emotionally inspiring.

1. Fiddler on the Roof
Directed by Norman Jewison (his real name!), this 1971 film won three Academy Awards, including one for arranger-conductor John Williams. It was also nominated for several more, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Chaim Topol and Best Supporting Actor for Leonard Frey. The film follows the plot of the stage play closely, taking place in the Jewish village of Anatevka in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It centers on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his daughters’ marriages. As Tevye says in the introductory narration, the Jews have relied upon their traditions to maintain the stability of their way of life for centuries, but as times change, that stability is threatened on a small scale by Tevye’s daughters’ wishes to marry men not chosen in the customary way by a matchmaker, and on a large scale by pogroms and revolution in Russia. Fiddler on the Roof shows the Old World with vibrant images and is actually quite relevant to modern-day Jewish teen life, in that we continue to face decisions about interfaith and interracial relationships.

Michele Pinczuk is a teen journalist who freelances for several publications, including The New York Times. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area. Michele loves New York and Saturday Night Live. Her role models are Gilda Radner, Golda Meir, her grandmom, mom and Aunt Sylvia. She’s also an executive member of the JVibe Teen Advisory Board.