George and Anya Ostrovsky fled Prague for Rio in 1939 and devoted themselves to philanthropy. In 1971 George, with his daughters Rose and Vivian, began looking for the right way to create a home for cinema, and reached out to leading figures in the film world. Among them were Wim (b. Amsterdam. 1913-1991)) and Lia van Leer (b. Balti. 1924-2015), Haifa-based collectors who had been showing films at pop-up screenings, sometimes arriving by jeep or in Wim’s crop duster, and whose collection had become the first Israel Film Archive. The two families met in Haifa in 1972 and then in New York and Europe. When George proposed a permanent home for cinema in Jerusalem, Lia hesitated, worried that outside support might bring interference. A year of his persistence and friendship won her over, and together they founded the Jerusalem Film Centre, which opened in 1981, months after George’s death. The Ostrovsky Family Fund has supported the Centre ever since, funding its 2009 expansion and continuing to champion film preservation.