Last year, Larry Ferber watched a lot of movies.

It’s his job. As director of the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, he screened about 125 films for possible inclusion. Then the festival’s screening committee took a look and whittled the field down further, ultimately yielding the 28 on the schedule that runs through Sunday, Jan. 27 at theaters from Delray Beach to Palm Beach Gardens.

It’s a lot of work. But for Ferber and everyone who makes the annual festival happen, it’s all worth it.

“As we’re looking, you see something that is gonna work,” Ferber says. The festival, which began Thursday with the award-winning documentary “Hava Nagila” and featured an appearance by gold medal Olympic gymnast Aly Reisman, continues its county-wide commitment to offering a diverse selection of films representing the Jewish experience.

“It’s not a glamorous not-for-profit, but it has to be done,” says Stacey Levy, past president of the JCC and a volunteer with the film festival. “If not us, who?”

This year’s line-up includes “AKA Doc Pomus,” about the nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn who overcame polio to become one of rock and roll’s greatest composers, “Max Schmeling,” about the life of the famous German boxer who was held up as a hero of the Third Reich but supported Jewish people, and “Yossi,” about a closeted gay doctor.

For 2013, in conjunction with the JCC and the Jewish Federation, the festival is presenting five Israeli films with Partnership 2gether, which connects Israeli cities. Palm Beach’s sister city is Rosh Pina, and several of the films will be introduced by people from Israel, including Eyal Reiss, the director of the International Center for Tzfat Kabbalah.

“We shot special introductions to all of these films. There’s one called ‘The Violinists’ about a woman, Ana Rosnovski, who was with the Israel Symphony Orchestra with Zubin Mehta, who had retired and moved to Rosh Pina. She didn’t go there to look at the sunset - she developed a school for young violinists, feeds them - they’re from a very poor area - getting them placed in programs all over the world. She will introduce the film on video,” Ferber says.

Levy says that the festival prides itself in presenting films that might show a challenging aspect of the Jewish culture, so that “we don’t just show positive films. If there is a film that makes Israel or the political state or the religion look bad, it better be shown by us. We have lectures to explain the films, and put them into context.

“If the world was perfect, we wouldn’t have to try to teach people about prejudice.”