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THE JEWISH AMERICANS is a three-night documentary that explores 350 years of Jewish American history.
- Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin, THE JEWISH AMERICANS is a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the present.
- It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews.
- Focusing on the tension between identity and assimilation, THE JEWISH AMERICANS is quintessentially an American story, which other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar.
- Narrated by actor Liev Schreiber, this landmark series features Jewish Americans who have made significant contributions to American life – from Louis D. Brandeis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Henry Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg, Betty Friedan, Molly Goldberg, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, and Tony Kushner.
- However this story is also about Jewish American tailors and shopkeepers, soldiers and bankers, peddlers and merchants, labor organizers and civil rights activists, all of whom also helped shape the American landscape.
According to The Jewish Americans companion book, At the time of the American Revolution, more than a century after the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam, the Jewish population likely numbered about 2,000 out of a general population of roughly 2.5 million. Early on, Jews settled in cities mainly along the East Coast, but soon, Jewish immigrants were settling throughout the young nation.
Although America offered vast opportunities, Jewish immigrants faced enormous challenges. Becoming an American sometimes brought risks to maintaining Jewish traditions, especially within the family. Also, with assimilation came prejudice, despite America's promise.
Though Jewish Americans emigrated from many nations, once they were in the United States, there was a concerted effort to negotiate their place without sacrificing their Jewish identity. Many went to English classes at night, adopting American dress and customs. Ultimately, they were learning to fit in, to think like Americans, and to be American.
In the early 20th century, Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish-language newspaper, offered advice and encouragement to a generation of Jewish immigrants. His words assisted newcomers to assimilate and inform themselves about the issues of the day.
Learning English was a critical part of assimilation. At New York's Educational Alliance, countless Jewish immigrants took classes where they not only learned English, they also learned about American customs. Beth Wenger points out in the companion book, The quest to become American could also be seen in the numbers of Jews learning English and attending night classes; by 1906 Jews made up the majority of students enrolled in New York's evening schools. Many immigrants mastered only rudimentary English, but they sent their children to the public schools in overwhelming numbers. Although many families needed their children's income to survive, education was the key to mobility until the next generation. Most Jewish children did obtain at least an elementary education during the immigrant era.
Throughout many periods of American history, Jewish immigrants brought skills that were in sync with America's economic needs. Merchants and artisans filled an important niche during colonial times; peddler's who traveled the countryside, arrived in America during the years of geographic expansion in the mid-19th century; and garment workers arrived in the late 19th century during the industrial expansion.
Doing Well and Doing Good:
Known as the people of the book, Jews valued education long before migrating to the United States. In America, education is the great leveler; it is the one thing that Jewish Americans immediately embraced as a path to opportunity for themselves and their children. As the film clips illustrate, Jews across the board emphasized the importance of education for its own sake and also as a means to an end.
In addition to education, a vital pillar of Judaism is Tzedakah, which literally means righteousness -- doing the right thing. in judaism, giving to poor is not viewed as a generous or magnanimous act, it duty, their due. with this mind, philanthropic jews supported such institutions settlement houses, hospitals, and libraries, all of which served own community non-jews well.
Jewish Americans have flourished in America, enjoying immense freedom and opportunities. But like other minorities, Jewish Americans have also faced prejudice, especially during periods of economic hardship or war. During World War I and the Great Depression, Jews were often targeted as scapegoats.
The lynching of Leo Frank, a prominent Jewish businessman in Atlanta, alarmed Jewish Americans in 1915. He was falsely accused and convicted of killing a worker, Mary Phagan, in the pencil factory that he managed. After Georgia Governor John M. Slaton stayed Frank's execution because of a lack of evidence, a mob dragged him from the jail and lynched him. Though an isolated tragedy, it caused a ripple effect of fear. Decades later, in 1986, Frank was granted a posthumous pardon while evidence now points to the guilt of Jim Conley, a janitor in the factory who falsely accused Frank of the murder during the trial.
The Leo Frank incident also led to a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). By the mid-1920s, the KKK claimed to have four million members, more than all the Jews in the United States. In the midst of this turmoil and despite protestations at the time, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court in 1916. As the first Jew to serve on the Court, Justice Brandeis had to endure bitter taunts, particularly from fellow justice James C. McReynolds. In the 1920s, Henry Ford, who revolutionized mass production in American industry, relentlessly blamed Jewish Americans for many of the nation's ills in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. It was only after World War II that barriers to Jewish Americans began to dissipate in America.
During the 1930's, Americans began to read about growing anti-Semitism and discrimination against European Jews. At the start of World War II, in 1941, reports of atrocities against Jews began to be reported by eyewitnesses and in the media.
Here are film clips and excerpts from the companion book that reflect on how Jewish Americans responded to the Holocaust. Despite efforts by Jewish Americans, such as Rabbi Stephen Wise, the Roosevelt administration did not do everything in its power to respond to the reports of German atrocities against the Jews of Europe. President Roosevelt had many concerns while fighting the war, among them fearing the war would be misconstrued as a Jew war, as one commentator recalled. One extensive clip explores how the American government reacted at first to the news of the atrocities and how FDR, being pushed by Henry Morgenthau, then Secretary of the Treasury, tried to save the European Jews.
Before World War II, the idea of a Jewish State in Palestine had been debated for decades among Jewish Americans. Also highly controversial among the world's nations, a Jewish homeland took on increasing appeal to Jewish Americans in light of the millions of fellow Jews displaced after the war. Jewish Americans contributed political and financial support to the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. In 1948, the United Nations partitioned the former British protectorate of Palestine, and the State of Israel was founded. In the face of armed Arab resistance to the founding of Israel, Jewish Americans sent money and supplies to the fledgling state. Others went themselves to help in the struggle for Israel's existence.
During the late 19th century, before immigrating to America, many European Jews were socially active, speaking out about inequities of the day. When they arrived in America, many brought a tradition of political activism drawn from such diverse groups as socialists and anarchists. Reinforced by editorials in the Yiddish newspapers, Jewish Americans began to speak out against inequities in America.
Some protests affected the immediate interests of the Jewish community. One early example was the Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902, which happened when many Jewish women in New York became furious that the price of kosher meat increased from twelve to eighteen cents per pound.
After the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911, Jewish activists worked long and hard to enact better working conditions for garment industry employees.
Other protests addressed broader demands for social and political justice. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s gripped the Jewish American community who understood the need for equal rights for all citizens. Like black leaders, Jewish Americans wanted the letter and the spirit of Constitutional law to be followed. They gave their support and marched alongside African-Americans, becoming deeply committed to and directly involved with the movement.
When the March on Washington forced a torn nation to look at itself in the mirror in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., provided the powerful words that still inspire the nation. Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a Holocaust survivor and fervent supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, also spoke to the marchers on that day. Rabbi Prinz reminded the marchers that Jewish Americans believed in their cause for civil rights. In part, he said, It is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is...a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience.... The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem is silence.
Beginning in 1970, Jewish Americans became deeply involved with women's rights and Soviet Jewry. Jewish American women were at the forefront of the women's rights movement and Jewish Americans consistently reached out to Jews in the Soviet Union who were not allowed to emigrate. In December of 1987, more than a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington on behalf of Soviet Jewry. After the Cold War, Jewish Americans offered assistance to Jews fleeing Eastern Europe and seeking to resettle in the U.S. or Israel.
What does it mean to be Jewish in America today? As Letty Pogrebin says in the film, it's a question of context. For many Jews, issues of identity are not relevant to their everyday lives. However for some, balancing ones Jewish American identity can be challenging. Are we American Jews, Americans without a hyphenated identity, or simply Jewish?
Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis makes the observation that when he was growing up, he went to synagogue because he was Jewish. Now, Rabbi Schulweis says, many Jewish Americans go to synagogue to become Jewish.
Younger Jewish Americans are discovering, interpreting and invigorating their cultural and religious identities. Such is the case with performer, Matisyahu, a Hassidic rapper.
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Web sites:
Jews in America
www.jewsinamerica.org
The Center for Jewish History in New York City houses different Jewish organizations, including The American Jewish Historical Society. The organization fosters the creation and dissemination of Jewish knowledge and to make the historical and cultural record of the Jewish people readily accessible to scholars, students and the broad public.
Southern Jewish Historical Society
www.jewishsouth.org
The Southern Jewish Historical Society is focused on learning about the Jewish experience in the American South from the Colonial period, through the Civil War to the present.
Through Our Parents' Eyes: History & Culture of Southern Arizona
parentseyes.arizona.edu
Through Our Parents' Eyes: History & Culture of Southern Arizona brings to the Web the history, culture and experiences of the many peoples who live in this vibrant region. Through the use of digital histories presented as images, text, audio, and video, Southern Arizona's history and culture is available to anyone with access to the Internet.
Texts:
- Challenge and Change: History of Jews In America (3 volumes), Shelley Kapnek Rosenberg (Behrman House, Inc., 2005)
- This Land of Liberty: A History of America’s Jews, Helene Schwartz Kenvin (Behrman House, 1986)
- A New Promised Land: A History of Jews in America, Hasia R. Diner (Oxford University Press, 2003)
- Forged In Freedom, Shaping the Jewish-American Experience, Norman H. Finkelstein (Jewish Publication Society of America, 2002)
- Zack, William Bell
- Witness, Karen Hesse
- Walker’s Crossing, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, Dana Reinhardt
- Triangle, Katherine Weber
- The Bread Givers, Anzia Yezierska
- The Jew Store, Stella Suberman
- The Chosen, Chaim Potok
- Up Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History Culture and Values Shaped The Comicbook Superhero, Simcha Weinstein
- Jews in America, A Cartoon History (revised edition), Daivd Gantz
- The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey, A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West, Steve Sheinkin 2006
- The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue (A Contract With God, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue), Will Eisner
- Heeding the Call: Jewish Voices in America’s Civil Rights Struggle, Norman H. Finkelstein (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1997)
Films:
- Paper Clips, 2004
- School Ties, 1992
- The Cantor’s Son, 1937 (available from the National Center for Jewish Film)
- White Terror, 2005
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The Importance of History in Jewish Life
There is no future for any identifiable group without a sense of their past. And if there is no future, the past is not remembered. As Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, once wrote in a letter to a friend, “The chain of tradition remains unbroken generation to generation.”
Memory is an important Jewish value. Whether or not they are historians, Jewish Americans are taught from an early age about the importance of knowing one’s history. Knowing history is for the sake of the future of the Jewish past.
From Yale and Yeshiva to Brandeis and Tulane, numerous institutions have their own library collection and archives related to Jewish history. In addition, there are numerous historical societies and foundations throughout the nation – all committed to remembering the past and working for the sake of the future.
The following is a list of resources for further study and research:
Sophie Tucker
© Bettmann/CORBIS
The American Jewish Archives
www.americanjewisharchives.org
Founded in 1947 and located on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College, the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives is committed “to preserving a documentary heritage of the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of American Jewry,” according to their web site.
The American Jewish Historical Society
Responsible for the Future of the American Jewish Past
www.ajhs.org
Founded in 1892, the American Jewish Historical Society fosters awareness and appreciation of the American Jewish heritage and serves as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and dissemination of materials relating to American Jewish history. The oldest national ethnic historical organization in the nation, the American Jewish Historical Society’s library, archives, photograph, and art and artifacts collections document the American Jewish experience.
The American Social History Project
www.ashp.cuny.edu
Founded in 1981, The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (ASHP/CML) aims to revitalize interest in history by challenging the traditional ways that people learn about the past. ASHP/CML produces award-winning print, visual, and multimedia materials about the working men and women whose actions and beliefs shaped American history.
The Center for Jewish History
www.cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History in New York City houses different Jewish organizations, including The American Jewish Historical Society. The Center fosters the creation and dissemination of Jewish knowledge and to make the historical and cultural record of the Jewish people readily accessible to scholars, students and the broad public.”
Facing History and Ourselves
www.facinghistory.org
Since 1976, Facing History has been committed to teaching tolerance and being a change agent. Their work is focused on engaging students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
www.isjl.org
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) is dedicated to providing educational and rabbinic services to isolated Jewish communities, documenting and preserving the rich history of the Southern Jewish experience, and promoting a Jewish cultural presence throughout a twelve-state region.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
www.tenement.org
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum promotes tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America.
The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis
www.brandeis.edu/cmjs
The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University conducts scholarly work that can enhance understanding of the Jewish community. The Center is a multi-disciplinary research institute and an integral part of Brandeis University's distinguished programs in Jewish studies and communal service.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
www.mjhnyc.org
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City has a tremendous collection of resources and exhibits. The Museum is at once a museum devoted to the exploration of Jewish heritage and a living memorial to the Holocaust. It depicts in detail the lives and communities that shaped Jewish culture in the early part of the century, for it is only through an understanding of life before the Holocaust that one may truly begin to comprehend the magnitude of its destruction - and the sense of determination and courage that shaped the renewal of Jewish life after the war.
JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy
(An affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust)
www.JewishGen.org
JewishGen connects researchers of Jewish genealogy worldwide. The site includes a JewishGen Discussion Group, the JewishGen Family Finder (a database of 400,000 surnames and towns), the comprehensive directory of InfoFiles, ShtetLinks for over 200 communities, Yizkor Book translations, and databases such as the JewishGen Communities Database and the All Country Databases.
The National Center for Jewish Film
www.jewishfilm.org
The National Center for Jewish Film is a unique, independent, nonprofit motion picture archive, distributor, and resource center, housing the largest collection of Jewish-themed film in the world, outside of Israel. NCJF exclusively owns 10,000 reels of feature films, documentaries, shorts, newsreels, home movies, and institutional films, dating from 1903 to the present. NCJF has restored dozens of “orphan” films, including 36 Yiddish language feature films.
The National Museum of American Jewish History
www.nmajh.org
Since 1976, The National Museum of American Jewish History has been dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting artifacts pertaining to the American Jewish experience.
Southern Jewish Historical Society
www.jewishsouth.org
The Southern Jewish Historical Society is focused on learning about the Jewish experience in the American South from the Colonial period, through the Civil War to the present.
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
www.jhsgw.org
Founded by volunteers in 1960 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1965, The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and its Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum preserve, chronicle and present the story of the local Jewish community through archival collections, exhibits, educational programs, publications, and the restoration and preservation of the oldest synagogue building in the nation’s capital.
For Statistics and Analysis About Jews in America Today
American Jewish Yearbook
www.ajc.org
Produced by the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Year Book is a rich source for information and analysis about the American Jewish community, Jewish demography, Jewish history, and Jewish life worldwide.
The Jewish Virtual Library
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
A division of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, the Jewish Virtual Library is a comprehensive online Jewish encyclopedia, covering everything from anti-Semitism to Zionism. More than 13,000 articles and 6,000 photographs and maps have been integrated into the site. Their Vital Statistics section has an exhaustive list of current statistics and comparative data.
National Jewish Databank
www.jewishdatabank.org
The central repository of social scientific studies of North American Jewry, the Data Bank’s primary functions are to (1) acquire, archive, and disseminate quantitative data sets and reports, both contemporary and historical and (2) encourage utilization of the archive through training and provide information about methods for studying Jewish communities.
National Jewish Population Survey
www.ujc.org
The National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) is a representative survey of the Jewish population in the United States and is sponsored by United Jewish Communities and the Jewish federation system.
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
www.jhsgw.org
Founded by volunteers in 1960 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1965, The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and its Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum preserve, chronicle and present the story of the local Jewish community through archival collections, exhibits, educational programs, publications, and the restoration and preservation of the oldest synagogue building in the nation’s capital. The Museum is located in the historic 1876 Adas Israel Synagogue—the oldest in the Washington, DC, area. The synagogue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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David Grubin
DAVID GRUBIN
David Grubin is a producer, director, writer and cinematographer who has won every major award in his field, including three George Foster Peabody awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards and nine Emmy Awards.
As a writer, he has won an Emmy Award and received four awards from the Writers Guild.
As a director, he has received three Emmy Award nominations.
As a cinematographer, he has received one Emmy Award and five Emmy Award nominations.
As the president of David Grubin Productions, Inc., Mr. Grubin has produced more than 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art and poetry to science.
Mr. Grubin’s biographies of American presidents for “American Experience” on PBS have been widely acclaimed:“FDR,” his four-and-a-half-hour biography of Franklin Roosevelt, has won many prizes, including awards from the International Documentary Association, the American Historical Association and the National Education Association.
“LBJ,” his four-hour biography of Lyndon Johnson, won the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award among many other prizes and was chosen as one of the best documentaries of 1992 by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Newsday and People magazine.
“TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt,” his four-hour biography of Theodore Roosevelt, won a host of awards including two Emmy Awards and a Christopher Award.
“Truman,” his four-and-a-half-hour biography of the 33rd president, received a Primetime Emmy Award and the Writers Guild Award for best documentary script.
“Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided,” his six-hour biography of the Lincolns, has won many prizes and wide acclaim from critics across the country.
Some of Mr. Grubin’s recent films for television include:“Destination America” (four hours)
“RFK” (two hours)
“The Secret Life of the Brain” (five hours)
“Napoleon” (four hours)
“Marie Antoinette” (two hours)
Mr. Grubin’s five-part series for PBS, “Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers,” has won many awards, and the companion book, for which he was executive editor, rose to number one on The New York Times Best Sellers list, remaining on the list for 32 weeks.
His four-hour series for PBS, “Destination America,” was named the best nonfiction program of 2005 by John Leonard of New York Magazine. His biography of Marie Antoinette, for which he won his fourth Writer’s Guild Award, premiered at Versailles in October 2005 and aired on PBS in September 2006. Currently Mr. Grubin is producing a six-hour series for PBS, “THE JEWISH AMERICANS,” and, also for PBS, a three-hour series titled “The Mysterious Human Heart.”
A member of the executive committee of the Society of American Historians, Mr. Grubin has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Hamilton College. He is a member of the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild and serves on the board of directors of the Film Forum.
He is married to the artist Joan Grubin and lives in New York City.
DALTON DELAN
Dalton Delan has been executive vice president and chief programming officer of WETA Washington, D.C., the major producing station for PBS and the flagship public television station in the nation’s capital, since 1998. Delan directs WETA’s national production department, creating reality, history, science, lifestyle, performance, and news and public affairs programming. His responsibilities also include overseeing syndication and marketing of WETA’s productions to the 349 PBS stations across the country, as well as work with cable networks.
Prior to joining WETA, Delan was executive vice president of programming and creative director for Sundance Channel, where he helped launch the channel for independent films in a highly competitive media environment. There, Delan worked directly with network founder Robert Redford in developing the network’s creative vision.
Delan’s prior positions include senior vice president for programming and production at the Travel Channel in Atlanta, where he headed the relaunch of the network; director of program development at Lifetime Television in New York; director of documentary programming at Home Box Office; member of the producing staff of the ABC News Closeup documentary unit; and writer/editor with Time-Life Books.
Delan graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University.
JEFF BIEBER
Jeff Bieber is Vice President and Executive Producer for National News and Public Affairs programming at WETA. He is responsible for creating and managing weekly series, documentaries, specials and breaking news. In April 2007, Bieber executive produced America at a Crossroads, a twelve-hour, six-night primetime series examining America’s war in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism, five years after 9/11. Hosted by Robert MacNeil, production partners included The New York Times, Frontline, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, ABC News, Newsweek and companies in London, New York, Toronto, Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Winner of the 2008 Columbia-DuPont Award for Jihad, the first program in the series, Crossroads was called “the most important and distinguished journalism to appear anywhere since 9/11” (Detroit Free Press). Forging media partnerships with David Grubin Productions, JTN Productions and WNET, Bieber helped create The Jewish Americans, broadcast in January 2008. Narrated by Liev Schrieber, this 6-hour broadcast, along with a companion book and website, examines 350 years of Jewish American history, from the first settlement in 1654 to present day. Bieber also oversees Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal. During the 2008 Election season, Washington Week will produce special audience road shows in nine cities around the country. Other programs and partnerships have included: Avoiding Armageddon, an 8-hour series called “…disturbing, frightening and must-see television” (Scripps/Howard), examined weapons of mass destruction, produced in partnership with Ted Turner Productions; Rough Science, “the most fun anyone had learning science” (St. Louis Dispatch), a reality science series with the BBC; a series of dramatic films with HBO; Flashpoints, quarterly specials with Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill; Unfiltered with Tucker Carlson; Nightly special reports covering 9/11, the War In Iraq, Supreme Court Hearings.
Prior to his current position, Bieber served as a producer, director and writer on numerous award winning documentaries, music specials and breaking news events. Awards include 2 Emmys, 6 CINE Golden Eagles, an Ohio State Award, Chris Award and New York Festivals Medal, and other accolades. In a prior life, Bieber was a clarinetist freelancing with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Opera and other groups. Bieber has a Masters in Music from the Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelors of Music for the University of Maryland. He lives in Columbia, MD with his wife and two children.
JAY SANDERSON
Jay Sanderson has been a proven leader in television, the Arts, and the Jewish community for over 25 years. He has been the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer of JTN/JTN Productions since 1989.
JTN Productions is the leading producer of Jewish-themed programming in North America. Its series and specials are aired nationally, by both broadcast and cable networks, and internationally, in countries including Canada, Israel, Hungary, China, and Panama.
Sanderson is the Executive Producer of the landmark six-hour PBS series The Jewish Americans scheduled to air January 2008, as well as a dynamic slate of documentaries, comedies and dramas currently in development.
This year under Jay’s entrepreneurial leadership, JTN Productions launched one of the internet’s first broadband channel www.jewishtvnetwork.com.
Sanderson has created, produced and written over 700 hours of award-winning television programming, including the powerful documentary on the effects of terrorism on average citizens, No Safe Place: Six Lives Forever Changed, narrated by Kelsey Grammer. Among his other credits are a number of Public Television specials and series, including: A Passover Celebration, A Chanukah Celebration, Simple Wisdom, Alef...Bet...Blast-off! (winner of a Parents’ Choice Award and nominated for a national Cable ACE Award), New Jewish Cuisine, The 92nd Street Y Presents, and HomeStyles.
Sanderson is a creative and visionary executive who raised over millions of dollars iand built one of Hollywood’s most esteemed Boards of Directors including Jeff Sagansky, Nina Tassler, Michael Lynton, Gary Newman, David Kissinger, Garry Hart and Gary Ginsberg.
Sanderson received his BA in Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. Sanderson is a popular speaker across the country. His topics include "The Image of Jews on Television," "The News Media and the Jews," and "Israel and Its Public Image." He coordinated and served as a panelist for the USC/American Jewish Committee’s conference, “Jews in Prime-Time Television.”
STEPHEN SEGALLER
Stephen Segaller is director of news and public affairs programming at Thirteen/WNET, the flagship station of PBS and one of America's most prominent producers of noncommercial news and documentaries. He oversees the development and production of newsmagazines such as Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and NOW, documentary series such as Extreme Oil, Red Gold, and Local News, as well as the films of Frederick Wiseman and Roger Weisberg. In 2002, he created the primetime international documentary series Wide Angle, which has just completed its sixth season. His newest series is Exposé – a weekly look at recent groundbreaking investigative journalism – which was recently honored with its first Emmy. A journalist and television producer since 1975, Segaller has also written three books: on terrorism, analytical psychology, and the history of the Internet.
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Religious Groups Studies
›
Jewish
Hardcover
$52.89
Other Used and New from $40.68
$52.89$52.89
Beth S. Wenger
The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America Hardcover – 23 October 2007
by Beth Wenger (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (8)
What was it like for the first Jews to arrive in the New World? How did a Bavarian immigrant’s crockery business expand into one of the nation’s top department stores? How did Yiddish theater and humor influence Hollywood and mainstream entertainment? How has Israel affected American Jewish identity? This magnificently illustrated book, companion to the major PBS television documentary produced by David Grubin, tells the history of Jews in America in a captivating and accessible collection of first-person accounts, interviews, distinguished scholarly writings, and profiles of prominent Jews as well as ordinary Jewish immigrants.
The text and images trace more than three hundred years of American Jewish history— from the first arrival of Jews in colonial America in 1654 to the social movements of today—and everything in between. The book chronicles the mass immigration of Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the innovations of American Jewish culture, responses to anti-Semitism, and transition from immigrant to middle-class neighborhoods. It tells the story of the Jewish presence in sports and entertainment, the transformative watershed events of World War II and the Holocaust, the impact of the establishment of Israel, the emergence of new forms of American Jewish identity, and the responsibilities of the Jewish community today.
This comprehensive and often surprising look at the growth, difficulties, and accomplishments of the Jewish American community is further enhanced by the intimate first-person accounts of several generations of American Jews. Activists, musicians, spiritual leaders, politicians, and so many others come to life through their photos, correspondence, and interviews. They lend faces and personal experiences to the movements and events they lived through, and they remind us that the story of Jews is the story of America. Carving out a life for themselves in the free and open society of the United States, Jews maintained their identity while
The Importance of History in Jewish Life
There is no future for any identifiable group without a sense of their past. And if there is no future, the past is not remembered. As Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, once wrote in a letter to a friend, “The chain of tradition remains unbroken generation to generation.”
Memory is an important Jewish value. Whether or not they are historians, Jewish Americans are taught from an early age about the importance of knowing one’s history. Knowing history is for the sake of the future of the Jewish past.
From Yale and Yeshiva to Brandeis and Tulane, numerous institutions have their own library collection and archives related to Jewish history. In addition, there are numerous historical societies and foundations throughout the nation – all committed to remembering the past and working for the sake of the future.
The following is a list of resources for further study and research:
Sophie Tucker
© Bettmann/CORBIS
The American Jewish Archives
www.americanjewisharchives.org
Founded in 1947 and located on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College, the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives is committed “to preserving a documentary heritage of the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of American Jewry,” according to their web site.
The American Jewish Historical Society
Responsible for the Future of the American Jewish Past
www.ajhs.org
Founded in 1892, the American Jewish Historical Society fosters awareness and appreciation of the American Jewish heritage and serves as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and dissemination of materials relating to American Jewish history. The oldest national ethnic historical organization in the nation, the American Jewish Historical Society’s library, archives, photograph, and art and artifacts collections document the American Jewish experience.
The American Social History Project
www.ashp.cuny.edu
Founded in 1981, The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (ASHP/CML) aims to revitalize interest in history by challenging the traditional ways that people learn about the past. ASHP/CML produces award-winning print, visual, and multimedia materials about the working men and women whose actions and beliefs shaped American history.
The Center for Jewish History
www.cjh.org
The Center for Jewish History in New York City houses different Jewish organizations, including The American Jewish Historical Society. The Center fosters the creation and dissemination of Jewish knowledge and to make the historical and cultural record of the Jewish people readily accessible to scholars, students and the broad public.”
Facing History and Ourselves
www.facinghistory.org
Since 1976, Facing History has been committed to teaching tolerance and being a change agent. Their work is focused on engaging students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
www.isjl.org
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) is dedicated to providing educational and rabbinic services to isolated Jewish communities, documenting and preserving the rich history of the Southern Jewish experience, and promoting a Jewish cultural presence throughout a twelve-state region.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
www.tenement.org
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum promotes tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America.
The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis
www.brandeis.edu/cmjs
The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University conducts scholarly work that can enhance understanding of the Jewish community. The Center is a multi-disciplinary research institute and an integral part of Brandeis University's distinguished programs in Jewish studies and communal service.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
www.mjhnyc.org
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City has a tremendous collection of resources and exhibits. The Museum is at once a museum devoted to the exploration of Jewish heritage and a living memorial to the Holocaust. It depicts in detail the lives and communities that shaped Jewish culture in the early part of the century, for it is only through an understanding of life before the Holocaust that one may truly begin to comprehend the magnitude of its destruction - and the sense of determination and courage that shaped the renewal of Jewish life after the war.
JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy
(An affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust)
www.JewishGen.org
JewishGen connects researchers of Jewish genealogy worldwide. The site includes a JewishGen Discussion Group, the JewishGen Family Finder (a database of 400,000 surnames and towns), the comprehensive directory of InfoFiles, ShtetLinks for over 200 communities, Yizkor Book translations, and databases such as the JewishGen Communities Database and the All Country Databases.
The National Center for Jewish Film
www.jewishfilm.org
The National Center for Jewish Film is a unique, independent, nonprofit motion picture archive, distributor, and resource center, housing the largest collection of Jewish-themed film in the world, outside of Israel. NCJF exclusively owns 10,000 reels of feature films, documentaries, shorts, newsreels, home movies, and institutional films, dating from 1903 to the present. NCJF has restored dozens of “orphan” films, including 36 Yiddish language feature films.
The National Museum of American Jewish History
www.nmajh.org
Since 1976, The National Museum of American Jewish History has been dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting artifacts pertaining to the American Jewish experience.
Southern Jewish Historical Society
www.jewishsouth.org
The Southern Jewish Historical Society is focused on learning about the Jewish experience in the American South from the Colonial period, through the Civil War to the present.
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
www.jhsgw.org
Founded by volunteers in 1960 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1965, The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and its Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum preserve, chronicle and present the story of the local Jewish community through archival collections, exhibits, educational programs, publications, and the restoration and preservation of the oldest synagogue building in the nation’s capital.
For Statistics and Analysis About Jews in America Today
American Jewish Yearbook
www.ajc.org
Produced by the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Year Book is a rich source for information and analysis about the American Jewish community, Jewish demography, Jewish history, and Jewish life worldwide.
The Jewish Virtual Library
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
A division of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, the Jewish Virtual Library is a comprehensive online Jewish encyclopedia, covering everything from anti-Semitism to Zionism. More than 13,000 articles and 6,000 photographs and maps have been integrated into the site. Their Vital Statistics section has an exhaustive list of current statistics and comparative data.
National Jewish Databank
www.jewishdatabank.org
The central repository of social scientific studies of North American Jewry, the Data Bank’s primary functions are to (1) acquire, archive, and disseminate quantitative data sets and reports, both contemporary and historical and (2) encourage utilization of the archive through training and provide information about methods for studying Jewish communities.
National Jewish Population Survey
www.ujc.org
The National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) is a representative survey of the Jewish population in the United States and is sponsored by United Jewish Communities and the Jewish federation system.
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
www.jhsgw.org
Founded by volunteers in 1960 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1965, The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and its Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum preserve, chronicle and present the story of the local Jewish community through archival collections, exhibits, educational programs, publications, and the restoration and preservation of the oldest synagogue building in the nation’s capital. The Museum is located in the historic 1876 Adas Israel Synagogue—the oldest in the Washington, DC, area. The synagogue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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David Grubin
DAVID GRUBIN
David Grubin is a producer, director, writer and cinematographer who has won every major award in his field, including three George Foster Peabody awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards and nine Emmy Awards.
As a writer, he has won an Emmy Award and received four awards from the Writers Guild.
As a director, he has received three Emmy Award nominations.
As a cinematographer, he has received one Emmy Award and five Emmy Award nominations.
As the president of David Grubin Productions, Inc., Mr. Grubin has produced more than 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art and poetry to science.
Mr. Grubin’s biographies of American presidents for “American Experience” on PBS have been widely acclaimed:“FDR,” his four-and-a-half-hour biography of Franklin Roosevelt, has won many prizes, including awards from the International Documentary Association, the American Historical Association and the National Education Association.
“LBJ,” his four-hour biography of Lyndon Johnson, won the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award among many other prizes and was chosen as one of the best documentaries of 1992 by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Newsday and People magazine.
“TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt,” his four-hour biography of Theodore Roosevelt, won a host of awards including two Emmy Awards and a Christopher Award.
“Truman,” his four-and-a-half-hour biography of the 33rd president, received a Primetime Emmy Award and the Writers Guild Award for best documentary script.
“Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided,” his six-hour biography of the Lincolns, has won many prizes and wide acclaim from critics across the country.
Some of Mr. Grubin’s recent films for television include:“Destination America” (four hours)
“RFK” (two hours)
“The Secret Life of the Brain” (five hours)
“Napoleon” (four hours)
“Marie Antoinette” (two hours)
Mr. Grubin’s five-part series for PBS, “Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers,” has won many awards, and the companion book, for which he was executive editor, rose to number one on The New York Times Best Sellers list, remaining on the list for 32 weeks.
His four-hour series for PBS, “Destination America,” was named the best nonfiction program of 2005 by John Leonard of New York Magazine. His biography of Marie Antoinette, for which he won his fourth Writer’s Guild Award, premiered at Versailles in October 2005 and aired on PBS in September 2006. Currently Mr. Grubin is producing a six-hour series for PBS, “THE JEWISH AMERICANS,” and, also for PBS, a three-hour series titled “The Mysterious Human Heart.”
A member of the executive committee of the Society of American Historians, Mr. Grubin has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Hamilton College. He is a member of the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild and serves on the board of directors of the Film Forum.
He is married to the artist Joan Grubin and lives in New York City.
DALTON DELAN
Dalton Delan has been executive vice president and chief programming officer of WETA Washington, D.C., the major producing station for PBS and the flagship public television station in the nation’s capital, since 1998. Delan directs WETA’s national production department, creating reality, history, science, lifestyle, performance, and news and public affairs programming. His responsibilities also include overseeing syndication and marketing of WETA’s productions to the 349 PBS stations across the country, as well as work with cable networks.
Prior to joining WETA, Delan was executive vice president of programming and creative director for Sundance Channel, where he helped launch the channel for independent films in a highly competitive media environment. There, Delan worked directly with network founder Robert Redford in developing the network’s creative vision.
Delan’s prior positions include senior vice president for programming and production at the Travel Channel in Atlanta, where he headed the relaunch of the network; director of program development at Lifetime Television in New York; director of documentary programming at Home Box Office; member of the producing staff of the ABC News Closeup documentary unit; and writer/editor with Time-Life Books.
Delan graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University.
JEFF BIEBER
Jeff Bieber is Vice President and Executive Producer for National News and Public Affairs programming at WETA. He is responsible for creating and managing weekly series, documentaries, specials and breaking news. In April 2007, Bieber executive produced America at a Crossroads, a twelve-hour, six-night primetime series examining America’s war in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism, five years after 9/11. Hosted by Robert MacNeil, production partners included The New York Times, Frontline, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, ABC News, Newsweek and companies in London, New York, Toronto, Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Winner of the 2008 Columbia-DuPont Award for Jihad, the first program in the series, Crossroads was called “the most important and distinguished journalism to appear anywhere since 9/11” (Detroit Free Press). Forging media partnerships with David Grubin Productions, JTN Productions and WNET, Bieber helped create The Jewish Americans, broadcast in January 2008. Narrated by Liev Schrieber, this 6-hour broadcast, along with a companion book and website, examines 350 years of Jewish American history, from the first settlement in 1654 to present day. Bieber also oversees Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal. During the 2008 Election season, Washington Week will produce special audience road shows in nine cities around the country. Other programs and partnerships have included: Avoiding Armageddon, an 8-hour series called “…disturbing, frightening and must-see television” (Scripps/Howard), examined weapons of mass destruction, produced in partnership with Ted Turner Productions; Rough Science, “the most fun anyone had learning science” (St. Louis Dispatch), a reality science series with the BBC; a series of dramatic films with HBO; Flashpoints, quarterly specials with Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill; Unfiltered with Tucker Carlson; Nightly special reports covering 9/11, the War In Iraq, Supreme Court Hearings.
Prior to his current position, Bieber served as a producer, director and writer on numerous award winning documentaries, music specials and breaking news events. Awards include 2 Emmys, 6 CINE Golden Eagles, an Ohio State Award, Chris Award and New York Festivals Medal, and other accolades. In a prior life, Bieber was a clarinetist freelancing with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Opera and other groups. Bieber has a Masters in Music from the Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelors of Music for the University of Maryland. He lives in Columbia, MD with his wife and two children.
JAY SANDERSON
Jay Sanderson has been a proven leader in television, the Arts, and the Jewish community for over 25 years. He has been the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer of JTN/JTN Productions since 1989.
JTN Productions is the leading producer of Jewish-themed programming in North America. Its series and specials are aired nationally, by both broadcast and cable networks, and internationally, in countries including Canada, Israel, Hungary, China, and Panama.
Sanderson is the Executive Producer of the landmark six-hour PBS series The Jewish Americans scheduled to air January 2008, as well as a dynamic slate of documentaries, comedies and dramas currently in development.
This year under Jay’s entrepreneurial leadership, JTN Productions launched one of the internet’s first broadband channel www.jewishtvnetwork.com
.Sanderson has created, produced and written over 700 hours of award-winning television programming, including the powerful documentary on the effects of terrorism on average citizens, No Safe Place: Six Lives Forever Changed, narrated by Kelsey Grammer. Among his other credits are a number of Public Television specials and series, including: A Passover Celebration, A Chanukah Celebration, Simple Wisdom, Alef...Bet...Blast-off! (winner of a Parents’ Choice Award and nominated for a national Cable ACE Award), New Jewish Cuisine, The 92nd Street Y Presents, and HomeStyles.
Sanderson is a creative and visionary executive who raised over millions of dollars iand built one of Hollywood’s most esteemed Boards of Directors including Jeff Sagansky, Nina Tassler, Michael Lynton, Gary Newman, David Kissinger, Garry Hart and Gary Ginsberg.
Sanderson received his BA in Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. Sanderson is a popular speaker across the country. His topics include "The Image of Jews on Television," "The News Media and the Jews," and "Israel and Its Public Image." He coordinated and served as a panelist for the USC/American Jewish Committee’s conference, “Jews in Prime-Time Television.”
STEPHEN SEGALLER
Stephen Segaller is director of news and public affairs programming at Thirteen/WNET, the flagship station of PBS and one of America's most prominent producers of noncommercial news and documentaries. He oversees the development and production of newsmagazines such as Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and NOW, documentary series such as Extreme Oil, Red Gold, and Local News, as well as the films of Frederick Wiseman and Roger Weisberg. In 2002, he created the primetime international documentary series Wide Angle, which has just completed its sixth season. His newest series is Exposé – a weekly look at recent groundbreaking investigative journalism – which was recently honored with its first Emmy. A journalist and television producer since 1975, Segaller has also written three books: on terrorism, analytical psychology, and the history of the Internet.
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Religious Groups Studies
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Jewish
Hardcover
$52.89
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Beth S. Wenger
The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America Hardcover – 23 October 2007
by Beth Wenger (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (8)
What was it like for the first Jews to arrive in the New World? How did a Bavarian immigrant’s crockery business expand into one of the nation’s top department stores? How did Yiddish theater and humor influence Hollywood and mainstream entertainment? How has Israel affected American Jewish identity? This magnificently illustrated book, companion to the major PBS television documentary produced by David Grubin, tells the history of Jews in America in a captivating and accessible collection of first-person accounts, interviews, distinguished scholarly writings, and profiles of prominent Jews as well as ordinary Jewish immigrants.
The text and images trace more than three hundred years of American Jewish history— from the first arrival of Jews in colonial America in 1654 to the social movements of today—and everything in between. The book chronicles the mass immigration of Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the innovations of American Jewish culture, responses to anti-Semitism, and transition from immigrant to middle-class neighborhoods. It tells the story of the Jewish presence in sports and entertainment, the transformative watershed events of World War II and the Holocaust, the impact of the establishment of Israel, the emergence of new forms of American Jewish identity, and the responsibilities of the Jewish community today.
This comprehensive and often surprising look at the growth, difficulties, and accomplishments of the Jewish American community is further enhanced by the intimate first-person accounts of several generations of American Jews. Activists, musicians, spiritual leaders, politicians, and so many others come to life through their photos, correspondence, and interviews. They lend faces and personal experiences to the movements and events they lived through, and they remind us that the story of Jews is the story of America. Carving out a life for themselves in the free and open society of the United States, Jews maintained their identity while
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세진님, 요청하신 PBS 다큐멘터리 <유대인계 미국인(The Jewish Americans)> 3부작에 대한 요약과 평론을 시작하겠어. 이 시리즈는 1654년 뉴암스테르담에 도착한 23명의 유대인부터 현대에 이르기까지, 소수 민족이 어떻게 미국이라는 국가의 정체성을 형성하며 동시에 자신들의 신념을 지켜왔는지를 깊이 있게 다룬다.
제1부: <그들은 집을 찾아왔다 (1654-1910)>
요약
1654년, 브라질에서 쫓겨난 23명의 세파르디 유대인이 뉴암스테르담(현재의 뉴욕)에 도착하며 미국 유대인 역사가 시작된다. 초기 정착민들은 반유대주의적 성향을 보인 페터 스토이브산트 총독의 반대에 부딪혔으나, 네덜란드 서인도 회사의 개입으로 정착에 성공한다. 미국 혁명기에 들어서며 유대인들은 <종교적 자유>라는 헌법적 가치 아래 시민권을 획득한 최초의 근대 국가를 경험하게 된다.
19세기 중반, 독일계 유대인들이 대거 유입되면서 이들은 <개혁 유대교>를 통해 미국적 삶과 신앙의 조화를 꾀한다. 하지만 1880년대 이후, 동유럽과 러시아의 포그롬(유대인 박해)을 피해 수백만 명의 아슈케나지 유대인들이 엘리스 섬을 통해 들어온다. 이들은 뉴욕 하단 동부(Lower East Side)의 열악한 공동주택에 모여 살며 의류 산업의 노동자로 전락하지만, 강인한 교육열과 공동체 의식으로 생존을 도모한다.
평론
제1부는 <생존과 동화 사이의 긴장>을 탁월하게 묘사한다. 초기 정착이 단순한 경제적 이주를 넘어 '권리 쟁취'의 과정이었음을 보여줌으로써, 유대인이 미국의 건국 이념인 다원주의에 기여한 바를 증명한다. 특히 독일계 유대인의 세련된 동화 방식과 동유럽 유대인의 처절한 생존 투쟁을 대비시킨 점이 인상적이다. 이는 유대교라는 종교적 틀 안에서도 계급과 출신 성분에 따른 갈등이 존재했음을 가감 없이 드러내며, '유대인'이라는 단일한 정체성 뒤에 숨겨진 복잡한 층위를 성공적으로 해체한다.
제2부: <약속의 땅 (1910-1946)>
요약
20세기 초, 미국 유대인들은 사회적 상승을 시도하지만 여전히 대학 입학 제한(Numerus Clausus)과 클럽 가입 거부 등 보이지 않는 벽에 부딪힌다. 이 시기 유대인들은 주류 사회에서 배제되자 자신들만의 영역인 할리우드 영화 산업과 대중음악(브로드웨이)을 개척한다. 루이 B. 메이어와 같은 제작자들은 영화를 통해 '가장 미국적인 꿈'을 시각화하며 미국 문화의 핵심을 장악한다.
대공황과 제2차 세계대전은 유대인 공동체에 가장 큰 시련을 안긴다. 유럽에서 홀로코스트의 비극이 전개될 때, 미국 유대인들은 루스벨트 정부에 영향력을 행사하려 노력하지만 가시적인 성과를 거두지 못하는 무력감을 경험한다. 전쟁이 끝난 후, 유럽 유대 문명의 몰락은 미국 유대인들에게 세계 유대인의 중심지로서 막중한 책임감과 이스라엘 건국에 대한 강력한 지지를 끌어내는 계기가 된다.
평론
제2부는 <외부자로서 정의한 내부의 문화>라는 역설을 예리하게 포착한다. 사회적으로 배척당하던 유대인들이 오히려 '가장 미국적인 가치(가족, 성공, 자유)'를 영화를 통해 전파했다는 사실은 미국 문화사에서 가장 흥미로운 지점이다. 다큐멘터리는 이들의 성공 이면에 가려진 홀로코스트 당시의 무력감과 죄책감을 배치함으로써, 성공 가도를 달리는 소수 민족이 겪는 심리적 외상을 깊이 있게 성찰한다. 이는 미국 유대인이 단순한 성공한 이민자가 아닌, 역사적 비극을 짊어진 운명 공동체임을 강조한다.
제3부: <집을 찾아서 (1946-현재)>
요약
전후 미국 유대인들은 레비타운(Levittown)과 같은 교외 지역으로 진출하며 주류 백인 사회에 완전히 편입된다. 1960년대 민권 운동의 중심에서 흑인들과 연대하며 정의를 외쳤고, 페미니즘 운동에서도 베티 프리단 같은 인물들이 두각을 나타낸다. 하지만 주류 사회로의 완전한 통합은 역설적으로 <유대인 정체성의 위기>를 불러온다. 타 민족과의 혼인율이 급증하고 종교적 색채가 옅어지면서, '무엇이 우리를 유대인으로 만드는가'라는 질문이 대두된다.
현대 파트에서는 전통을 중시하는 정통파(Orthodox)의 부활과 세속적 유대인들의 정체성 고민을 교차시킨다. 유대인들은 이제 정치, 경제, 문화 전반에서 막강한 영향력을 발휘하는 집단이 되었으나, 이스라엘 정책에 대한 견해 차이와 새로운 형태의 반유대주의라는 과제에 직면해 있다. 다큐멘터리는 유대인이 미국인이 되는 과정이 끝난 것이 아니라, 끊임없이 재정의되는 진행형임을 시사하며 마무리된다.
평론
제3부는 <동화의 끝에서 마주한 자아>를 다룬다. 차별이 사라진 세상에서 오히려 정체성을 잃어가는 아이러니를 통해, 소수 민족의 성공이 반드시 문화적 보존과 일치하지 않음을 냉철하게 비판한다. 특히 흑인 민권 운동과의 연대와 갈등을 다룬 부분은 미국 내 인종 정치의 복잡성을 이해하는 데 필수적인 통찰을 제공한다. 마지막으로 다큐멘터리는 유대인이 미국이라는 용광로 안에서 녹아 없어진 것이 아니라, 자신들의 색을 지키며 국적이라는 캔버스에 새로운 색을 덧칠했음을 보여주며 보편적인 이민자 서사로 확장된다.
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