Monticello, the longtime and cherished home of Thomas Jefferson, had fallen into a state of serious disrepair by the time of Jefferson’s death on July 4, 1826. Jefferson was heavily in debt when he died, and his heirs had no choice but to sell Monticello within a few years.  

The Levys of Monticello tells the astonishing, and little-known, story of a Jewish family that came to own Monticello beginning in the 1830s and lasting until the 1920s. Along with owning Monticello longer than Jefferson and his descendants, members of the Levy family also devoted themselves to the restoration and preservation of Jefferson’s iconic home. In the course of doing so, the family wound up saving the house from ruin on two separate occasions. 

While focusing on the story of the Levy family’s 89-year ownership and preservation of Monticello, The Levys of Monticello also tells a broader story about anti-Semitism that runs throughout the course of American history, right up to the present day. The film also addresses the pivotal role that enslaved people played at Monticello, during both Thomas Jefferson’s and Uriah Levy’s years as owners.