This article was originally published in The Examiner on Sept. 13, 2016.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
This Wednesday, Sept 14 at 7:30 p.m., the Ciesla Foundation will be presenting Aviva Kempner’s film Rosenwald at Jefferson Theater, along with an opportunity to meet the director.
The film is about the life of Julius Rosenwald, influential president of Sears & Roebuck and social justice activist at the turn of the 20th century. He partnered with Booker T. Washington during the Jim Crow era to fund education for African American communities after visiting Tuskegee in 1911 and joining the Board of Directors for the institute.
Rosenwald never finished high school, but he built over 5,300 schools in the rural South.
He “was inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah [charity] and tikkun olam [repairing the world] as espoused by his rabbi Emil Hirsch, so he decided to implement grants that focused on racial equality in America,” Kempner explains in her statement.
The film attempts to explain how Rosenwald, as part of a marginalized community, advocated for other marginalized groups.
Kempner says she was captivated by the story of “an enlightened businessman who wanted to repair the world.”
His efforts created change, but his social activism and philanthropy are not well known “because of his modesty,” according to a release.
“Rosenwald Schools were a household name in the Deep South,” Kempner said in her statement. “A portrait of Rosenwald would often hang on a schoolhouse wall along the side of Abraham Lincoln.”
Eleanor Roosevelt was a later trustee of the Rosenwald Fund, which awarded grants to well-known intellectuals and artists such as Marian Anderson and W.E.B. Du Bois. Poet Maya Angelou and playwright George Wolfe attended Rosenwald Schools.
One of the trustees of a Mississippi Rosenwald School was Oprah’s ancestor, Amanda Bullocks.
Kempner’s goal as a director is presenting “non-stereotypical images of Jews in history” and “untold stories of Jewish heroes,” according to the release. She was born in Berlin in 1946 to a Holocaust survivor and a US Army Officer. Her previous works include “Partisans of Vilna,” “The Life and Times of Hank Greenburg,” and “You-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg.”
Rosenwald’s granddaughter will also be attending the screening.
Temple Emmanuel is sponsoring this presentation.
Eleanor Skelton 