Jewish Film Series

The Levys of Monticello

Many have visited Monticello near Charlottesville, VA and have been introduced to the property as the impressive residence of Thomas Jefferson. Few realize, however, that when Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind millions in debts which forced his heirs to sell the Monticello mansion in 1836 to raise money to pay his debts. One owner bought the property and then quickly sold it after two years. Another owner then bought the property, and he and his heirs held it until 1923 when the private nonprofit Thomas Jefferson Foundation purchased it. The recently-released documentary The Levys of Monticello tells the story of the Levy family, a Jewish family living in the American South who not only purchased the property from the Jefferson family but invested heavily over almost a century to restore and maintain it prior to selling it in 1923.This fascinating documentary tells us the fascinating backstory on preserving Monticello, but also much about the Levy family’s experience as Jews in the American South during the 19th century forced to confront ongoing antisemitism as well as their own conflicted relationships with slaveholding in the antebellum South. This film is a masterfully directed documentary that feels like a detective story.

Directed by Steven Pressman
70 minutes
2023

Crossfire

From the 1930s to the 1940s, Hollywood studios avoided making films that seemed “too Jewish.” However, following WWII, a brief thaw emerged in the late 1940s, allowing some films to address sensitive Jewish themes. Two notable films from 1947, Gentleman’s Agreement and Crossfire, tackled antisemitism in American society directly. 

While both received critical acclaim, Crossfire has garnered less public attention since. Based on Edward Brooks’ novel The Brick Foxhole, this film noir mystery follows the murder of a Jewish American serviceman. As the story unfolds, a fellow GI and police investigator confront the antisemitism linked to the murder and its cover-up. Known for popularizing the phrase “hate is like a loaded gun,” Crossfire was captivating in 1947 and remains powerful today..

Directed by Edward Dymtryk
86 minutes
1947

Almonds and Rasins:
A history of the Yiddish Cinema

In 1927, Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer, a film that revolutionized motion pictures through the introduction of sound. “Talkies” immediately came to be the industry standard. Yet The Jazz Singer also launched another movement, specifically, the launch of Yiddish films in America. With its melodramatic story of a cantor’s son who chooses to go into show business rather than follow his father’s footsteps and become a cantor, The Jazz Singer attracted a high proportion of Jewish viewers anxious to see Jewish American life on the movie screen. But in 1927, much of the American Jewish audience spoke Yiddish more fluently than English. A handful of producers saw the market for Yiddish films focused on Jewish themes, and a sub-industry emerged that flourished from 1927 to 1939. Almonds and Raisins presents the story of the Yiddish film movement in America. Through a captivating narrative illustrated liberally with excerpts from most of the major Yiddish films of the era, we are transported back to a unique era in American Jewish film. Notably, the filmmakers Russ Karel and David Edelstein call attention to the approach of Jewish American movie moguls who ran Hollywood in the 1930s who downplayed Jewish identity and showcased assimilation and show, by contrast, the Yiddish filmmakers who embraced and celebrated Jewish identity. Come see this movie to learn about and revisit the classics of the American Yiddish film movement that thrived during the late 1920s and 1930s.

90 minutes
Directed by Russ Karel and David Edelstein
1985

Casablanca

Casablanca as a Jewish movie? On the surface, this film does not appear to be so. For most, this movie is a love story or WWII film. Yet a deeper look at this movie reveals profound Jewish connections, a meaning that lifts it far beyond a mere love story. The story follows Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) a worldly and cynical saloon owner in Casablanca, Morocco during the early years of WWII. Rick is unabashedly neutral regarding the war in Europe. Until his old love, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks into his bar. And with Lisa and her husband Victor Lazlso, who is fleeing from the Nazis, comes an entirely new human view of the war for Rick. Yet the movie rises above its basic plot line. First, it is not only about Rick and Ilsa. Many of the characters in this film - and indeed almost all the actual actors - were refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. Many of these actors were Jewish as were the writers, Philip and Julius Epstein and Howard Koch, and the director, Michael Curtiz. The larger message of the film is actually a metaphor for the United States, which stood decidedly neutral towards the war in Europe in 1942. The film turns upon the evolution of Rick Blaine from an isolated disinterested individualist who tells Ilsa, “I’m not fighting for anything anymore, except myself. I’m the only cause I am interested in” to a committed  partisan, willing to sacrifice his only love to further an abstract political cause, which he comes to see as the highest ideal. The writers, director, and actors of Casablanca almost uniformly saw this film as a political movie aimed at awakening the conscience of America and catalyzing political action on behalf of the Allies against Hitler. The Jewish values of social responsibility and tikkun olam radiate through this film if you look just beneath the love story and look at the larger picture of who made the movie when they did and why they did - an effort they hoped would motivate the United States to take action as the only nation left in the world that could oppose Nazi aggression.

Directed by: Michael Curtiz
102 minutes
1942