What does the JxJ festival celebrate? More than you might think.

The Washington Jewish Film Festival and the Washington Jewish Music Festival have been D.C. cultural fixtures for decades. But they won’t happen this year. Don’t worry: The two are now joined as JxJ, an amalgamation celebrating both art forms — and a few others as well.

“We’re exploring all these perspectives on the Jewish experience, and we’ve been doing it successfully through film and through music,” festival director Ilya Tovbis says. “We thought, ‘What better way to really expand that by having those conversations through both art forms?’ ”

Uniting film and music, Tovbis says, allows one medium to shed light on the other, as well as on the Jewish experience worldwide. The documentary “The Passengers,” for example, is about Ethiopian Jews and their struggle to immigrate to Israel, where it seems the government doesn’t want them. On the music side, singer Gili Yalo — an Ethiopian Jew now living in Israel — combines traditional Ethiopian rhythms and melodies with jazz, soul and funk techniques. The film will be shown on May 11 and 14, while Yalo will perform on May 12.

Read more at The Washington Post Express.