Film about the history of San Francisco's Jewish community
with Q&A by Professor Ellen Eisenberg of Willamette University
AMERICAN JERUSALEM: Jews and the Making of San Francisco tells the remarkable story of the pioneering Jews of San Francisco. Drawn to California by the Gold Rush, Jews were welcomed in San Francisco. They went on to build a thriving community, at one time the second largest Jewish community in the United States after New York. With a newfound freedom, Jews played a central role in the transformation of this once-sleepy maritime village into the largest metropolis in the American West. As Jews integrated into mainstream San Francisco society, they reinvented what it meant for them to be Jewish. Their creation was a new kind of Jew – a San Francisco Jew.
The people of this story came to California from Germany during the Gold Rush and were instrumental in building the city. The roles they were relegated to in Germany, peddler and petty merchant, were highly valued in the Gold Rush. Therefore, because of the openness of Gold Rush California, these Jews were far more assimilated into and had a greater impact on the building and defining of a major city than any other Jewish community in America. But this acceptance came at a price, as assimilation put this community in danger of losing its Jewish identity.
AMERICAN JERUSALEM premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival before a sellout crowd of 1400 at the Castro Theater on July 31, 2013. Since then it has screened to sellout crowds in Palo Alto, Los Angeles and Berkeley. It has also been shown at various film festivals including the Odessa (Ukraine) Jewish Film Festival and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
After the film, there will be a Question and Answer session with Professor Ellen Eisenberg of Willamette University.