Ruth Perlmutter, professor, film scholar, and cofounder of the Jewish Film Festival, has died at 96

Ruth Perlmutter, 96, professor, film scholar, cofounder of the Jewish Film Festival, and for 50 years the spark plug of local movie culture, died Saturday, March 15, at Symphony Square retirement community in Bala Cynwyd of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

With her fire-red hair, dancer’s posture, model’s cheekbones, artisanal wardrobe, and ethnic jewelry, Mrs. Perlmutter cut a striking figure. She taught film history at Temple University and other local colleges. She was a board member of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and its successor, the Philadelphia Film Society.

Born Ruth Jacobs in the Bronx on Sept. 24, 1928, she was raised in Brooklyn and a graduate of Brooklyn’s James Madison High. She received her bachelor’s degree in literature at New York University.

In 1947, she wed Archie Perlmutter, then a chemical engineer. “It was love at first fight,” she quipped. She intended to volunteer for the Democratic Party; he felt she should work for the provisional state of Israel.

She was pregnant with their third child in 1954 when they braved Hurricane Hazel on their way to Philadelphia by way of Reading. By the time they arrived at their new home in Penn Valley, they had a daughter, Bonnie; a son, David, and the newborn, Sharon.

During the Vietnam era, Bonnie remembers her mother’s car with its “Make Love, Not War” bumper sticker. Sharon recalls her mom’s advice never to marry a Republican. David can’t forget how his mother persuaded Jean-Luc Godard, one of her favorite filmmakers, to show his new film, Numero Deux, in Philadelphia. The print arrived, but not the director. So David’s parents explained the enigmatic film to the audience.

“A fascinating team,” is how Ralph Hirshhorn, founding member of the Chestnut Hill Film Group, described Mrs. Perlmutter and her husband. He traveled with them to film festivals, watched movies with them, and likened them to comedians Mike Nichols and Elaine May, “intellectuals with terrific senses of humor.” He said: “She was vivacious, athletic, and witty. And always was organizing things.”

Things like book clubs, film clubs, and film festivals. In 1975, she cofounded, with Stuart Samuels, the Walnut Street Theater Film/Video program. In 1981, she cofounded the Jewish Film Festival. In 2008, she founded the citywide movie program “One Film, One Philadelphia,” which screened Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat at public schools and libraries to stimulate conversations about history and art.

At the age of 40, Mrs. Perlmutter enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania for graduate studies in literature. It happened to be the same year that daughter Bonnie entered Penn as an undergraduate. Despite her doctorate, Mrs. Perlmutter found it hard to get a university-level position. Recognizing that interdisciplinary studies were in vogue, she applied to the NYU graduate program in Cinema Studies. For two years she commuted between Philadelphia and New York for class.

Armed with academic credentials in literature and film history, she joined Samuels in programming avant-garde world cinema at Walnut Street, where both led discussions about the films. Before long she was employed by Temple, where she taught for 25 years. In between teaching, board meetings, and chasing down hand-colored prints of D.W Griffith movies, she made time to write journal articles for Camera Obscura, Film Comment and Wide Angle. Mrs. Perlmutter recruited students to babysit her grandchildren.

In 1981, the Perlmutters and Judith Golden cofounded the Jewish Film Festival. Its Saturday night screenings at the Gershman Y attracted audiences of 600 or more and the likes of Wolf Blitzer, Thomas Friedman, and director Joan Micklin Silver as speakers. In 1984, the Perlmutters moved to Society Hill Towers, less for its views of the Delaware River than for its proximity to the Ritz Five. In the 1980s, they accompanied Penn students to the Cannes Film Festival, where, after seeing a movie, they debated its form and meaning.

When Andrew Greenblatt became CEO of the Philadelphia Film Society in 2008, he called upon Mrs. Perlmutter, now a widow, to serve on the board. “She was one of the few members who had a background in film. She gave us continuity and legitimacy,” he said, fondly recalling her eye-popping collections of spectacles and handbags.

Libby Harwitz remembered the first time they met. Mrs. Perlmutter took one look at her necklace of oversize rubber grapes and said, “I want that.” Harwitz took it off, exchanging it for the necklace of wooden animals hanging around Mrs. Perlmutter’s neck. “She was my hero, my mentor,” said Harwitz. “She loved connecting people, loved connecting with people.”

In 2018, Mrs. Perlmutter’s family celebrated their matriarch’s 90th birthday at Trinity Church near Rittenhouse Square. There was music, movie clips, former students, and friends from the Jewish and Philadelphia Film Festivals. Of course, the celebrant looked half her age.

She danced with two great-granddaughters clad in white dresses. Their Nana now had macular degeneration yet retained her balance and rhythm. And if she couldn’t see movies, she could hear them just fine. And if they weren’t in English or French, she’d bring a friend who whispered the subtitles in her ear.

“Ruth was exuberant,” said fellow Film Society board member Laurada Byers. “A joyful creature,” recalled Hirshhorn. “There’s not a person who didn’t like her.”

In addition to her children, Mrs. Perlmutter is survived by her sister, Judy Rappaport, five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and the Jewish Film Festival, now in its 44th year.

Donations in her name may be made to the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, 101 S. Independence Mall East, Philadelphia, Pa. 19106, and the Philadelphia Film Society, 1412 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19102. A memorial is planned for May 23 at the Weitzman Museum.