Jewish rock musician Dan Nichols, the focus of the documentary Road To Eden, and the film’s director, Doug Passon, will attend Temple Beth Or’s screening of the movie as part of a Sukkot celebration on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 6:45 p.m.

Road To Eden shows Nichols and his band, Eighteen, in October 2011 when they toured the deep South during the festival of Sukkot.

On the journey, they encounter a homeless congregant of a temple in Florida, undocumented aliens in Alabama, sing with a black gospel choir in Birmingham, and celebrate the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Temple Beth Or’s Rabbi Judy Chessin said the program will benefit the Dayton Food Bank and the Jewish Federation Food Pantry.

“The cost of admission is a non-perishable food item or a cash donation,” she said. “The program is the brain child of congregant David Char, who attended a screening of the movie last December and really wanted to do this as a gift to the Dayton community.”

Char, whose vision is impaired, attended the film’s premiere at a fund-raiser for Ethan Kadish, a boy from Cincinnati who was struck by lightning in 2013 at Goldman Union Camp Institute in Zionsville, Ind.

“Although I couldn’t see a single frame of the film, I was incredibly moved by the audio portion and what the movie really had to say,” Char explained. “It speaks of the world’s unending journey for peace and the quest of all people to find the

Promised Land, and the journey we must embark on to reach that destination.”

Nichols will also lead a Shabbat celebration at Beth Or on Friday, Oct. 17, with a reception in the Sukkah at 6:30 p.m. and services at 7:30 p.m.

For more information about the programs, call 435-3400. — Marshall Weiss

To read the complete October 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.