On Thursday, May 1, the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey will present a special event about a very important issue that especially affects women and young girls: eating disorders and body image. The Foundation will be screening Beauty Mark (www.beautymarkmovie.com), a new feature-length independent documentary that was recently chosen by the National Eating Disorders Association as the “edu-tainment” at their upcoming annual conference in September.

Told through the eyes of Diane Israel, a recovering anorexic and former champion triathlete who nearly killed herself in order to become the perfect female athlete with the perfect body, Beauty Mark asks some tough questions: How do our families influence our relationships with our own bodies? How do popular culture “standards” get inside of our hearts and heads? In what ways can sports actually make us unhealthy?

After the film, Israel – the executive producer and co-producer of the film who also works as a trained psychotherapist in Boulder, Colo. – and her co-producer and co-director, Carla Precht, who is also an educator at Brooklyn Friends School, will talk to the audience. Dr. Ira Sacker, a nationally recognized expert on eating disorders, will also speak. There will be a questions and answer session. Together, Israel, Precht, and Dr. Sacker will give us a balanced program with both the personal and the professional points of view.

As Precht stated, “Our film is not meant to provide one definition of a body image disorder or a road map to overcoming neurosis. It is meant to give the audience a place to begin thinking and talking honestly about these issues. The main point is that there is no one factor or person to blame and recovery is possible.”

The evening will be chaired by Laurie Levy of Mountain Lakes and Natalie Peck of Essex Fells. Peck spoke about the power of film to convey an important message about the problem of eating disorders.

“I think film is a powerful medium for bringing social issues to a public forum. Eating disorders are so widespread and so rampant that we need to understand the causes and how to support and treat people who have them. Everyone knows someone who has an ‘eating disorder’ and there are even more people who have ‘disordered eating.’ The problem affects us all.”

Levy agreed and emphasized the importance of educating young women about the dangers of eating disorders. “I will be bringing my own 14-year-old daughter to see the film and listen to Diane Israel. This is going to be a wonderful evening, and an important one.”

The program will take place from 7 – 9:30 p.m., at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, 110 South Orange Ave., Livingston. Tickets for the evening are $5 in advance, $7.50 at the door. Students can enter free of charge.

To pre-register, contact Marsha Atkind at (973) 929-3091 or .

The program is made possible by a grant from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. Co-sponsors are the New Jersey Jewish News and The Livingston Municipal Alliance.