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January 10, 2018Schenectady JCC’s Jewish Film Festival: January 13/14: Rosenwald highlights the remarkable story of a Jewish partnership with African American communities
JFF_Rosenwald: Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, stands in the center of a group of African American students who benefitted from his sense of tikkun olam in the documentary Rosenwald .
Angelicia Morris of the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission
will lead the discussion after the screening on Saturday, January 13.
Janie Garnett, Assistant Director of Chaplaincy of the Jewish Federation of NENY
will lead the discussion after the screen on Sunday, January 14.
On Saturday, January 13 at 7:15 pm (film and discussion) and on Sunday, January 14 at 2:00 pm, Schenectady JCC will show the fifth film of 2017-2018 Jewish Film Festival series, Rosenwald, at the Robert and Dorothy Ludwig Schenectady JCC on the Golub Family Campus at 2565 Balltown Road in Niskayuna. The film showings are co-sponsored with Hadassah Capital District.
Rosenwald (2015, 95 minutes, English) tells the story of Julius Rosenwald, son of an immigrant peddler, who rose to become the President of Sears and used his wealth to become one of America’s most effective philanthropists.
Influenced by the writings of the educator Booker T. Washington, Rosenwald became a silent partner of the Pre-Civil Rights Movement. He joined forces with African American communities during the Jim Crow South to build more than 5,300 schools that providing 660,000 black children with access to education in the segregated American South. Rosenwald also built YMCAs and housing for African Americans to address the pressing needs of the Great Migration.
Also, Rosenwald awarded fellowship grants to a who’s who of African American intellectuals and artists of his day so that they could pursue their scholarship and art. They included: contralto Marian Anderson, author James Baldwin, the father and uncle of civil rights leader Julian Bond, political scientist and diplomat Ralph Bunche, historian and activist W. E. B. DuBois, dancer Katherine Dunham, author Ralph Ellison, historian John Hope Franklin, poet Langston Hughes, author Zora Neale Hurston, photographer Gordon Parks, artist Jacob Lawrence, and sculptress Augusta Savage.
Inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing the world) and a deep concern over racial inequality in America, Rosenwald used his wealth to become one of America’s most effective philanthropists. Because of his modesty, Rosenwald’s philanthropy and social activism are not well known today. He gave away $62 million in his lifetime.
Directed, written and produced by Aviva Kempner, Rosenwald is part of a body of work that investigates non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and celebrates the untold stories of Jewish heroes. Her subjects vary and have included a documentary on Jewish resistance against the Nazis (Partisans of Vilna), the Jewish ballplayer who fought anti-Semitism in the 1930s and 40s (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg), and Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, a humorous and eye-opening story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg. Kempner’s Rosenwald is an inspiring story of this historical partnership as well as the modern-day attempts to restore the schools.
After the screening on Saturday, Angelicia Morris, Executive Director, Schenectady County Human Rights Commission will lead the post-film discussion.
After the screening on Sunday, Janie Garnett, Assistant Director of Chaplaincy of the Jewish Federation of NENY will lead the post-film discussion.
Films are $5 per Schenectady JCC members and $10 per person for community members. Admission is free for students with school ID. Admission includes film, discussion, and light refreshments.
The Schenectady JCC’s 2017-2018 Jewish Film Festival is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY. This program was made possible through the generous support of the Epstein Jewish Cultural Fund, Meyer & Mary Kurland/Gebell Fund, Jonas and Edith Fleminberg Jewish Cultural Fund, Schenectady JCC Friends of the Arts, and by a grant from the Schenectady County Legislature through its County Initiative Program.
For more information and to register, call Judy Ben-Ami at 518-377-8803.
