“Neshoma” is the Yiddish word indicating someone’s “soul” or “spirit.” Sandra Beerends’ beautiful and bittersweet film Neshoma captures the spirit and soul of Amsterdam’s Jewish community between the first and second World Wars, using a unique mix of authentic archival footage that is woven together by a fictional correspondence, letters between 17-year-old Rusha, who writes about daily life in the city to her older brother Max, who has emigrated to the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. This cinematic tapestry creates a lively portrait of a thriving center of Jewish life that was to be severely tested by an economic depression and then the rise of fascism. The film is about a lost way of life, but also about a vibrant spirit that still remains.