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Available Mar 26 to Apr 3

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Named Reader's Choice Best Western Documentary by True West Magazine


The wagon trains that moved westward with Jewish families traveled for the same reason as many settlers: opportunity. Western Jewish pioneers, those of the silver screen and real life, are a largely forgotten chapter in US History. And yet, they played a definitive role shaping the expansion of the United States. There were nationally known names such as Levi Strauss, Samsonite founder Jesse Shwayder and the Guggenheim family, who built their great fortunes through grit and determination in California and Colorado.


A young Golda Meir spent formative years in Denver. And there were also lesser-known characters such as Solomon Bibo, a Prussian immigrant, who became a non-Native American tribal leader in New Mexico and Solomon Carvalho, a Sephardic painter and photographer who spent the mid-1800s documenting the territories of Kansas, Colorado and Utah. Wyatt Earp’s wife, Josephine Marcus Earp, was a Jewish actress whose beauty is rumored to have triggered the fight at the OK Corral. And by the end of the 19th Century nearly every notorious Wild West town had a Jewish mayor.


Introduction by Filmmaker Click Here


Q&A with Filmmaker Click Here


Sponsored by Wendy Honig & Lesley Rich and Bernice & Ed Wenger

  • Year
    2021
  • Runtime
    83 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Premiere
    Boca Raton/Delray Beach
  • Director
    Amanda Kinsey
  • Screenwriter
    Amanda Kinsey
  • Producer
    Amanda Kinsey
  • Cinematographer
    Dan Anderson, Dan Edblom, Joseph Friedman, Domingo Lamarre
  • Editor
    Molly Paul