The Baltimore Jewish Film Festival's autumn Cinefest closes tonight with a movie that makes smart use of a fall classic. "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story," a jaunty, engaging documentary, chronicles Jewish-Americans' love for baseball and their talent for it, too, as shown by a string of stars from Lipman Pike in 1866 to Kevin Youkilis today. (It screens at 7:30 p.m. at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts, 3506 Gwynnbrook Ave, in Owings Mills.) Director Peter Miller brings affectionate, tough-minded observation to such fascinating luminaries as tight-lipped catcher Moe Berg, who worked for the OSS in World War II, and Marvin Miller, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966 to 1982. But the movie reaches dramatic twin peaks in the decisions of slugging superstar first baseman Hank Greenberg and nonpareil left-handed pitcher Sandy Koufax (left) not to play on Yom Kippur during, respectively, the 1934 and 1965 World Series. They sum up the movie's sane, refreshing view of the American "melting pot" -- a place where all people can share in the secular culture while staying true to their religious and personal beliefs and identities. In 1934, Edgar A. Guest wrote a poem for the Detroit Free Press celebrating Greenberg's choice to skip a World Series game. It ended with the lines, "Said Murphy to Mulrooney, 'We shall lose the game today!/We shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the bat,/But he’s true to his religion—and I honor him for that!' ” As for Koufax: he became a symbol of integrity as well as an inspiring athlete. Hearing him analyze his career in a rare interview is a pleasure; he's frank and unassuming. But watching him pitch in the clips: that's really poetry in motion.