O tO Cou r te sy o f
Left: Matisyahu, the popular Chasidic rapper who combines
hip-hop music with traditional Jewish themes.
Top Right: Jewish immigrants.
PBS series documents key personalities
and pivotal events of more than 300 years
of Jewish American history.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
A
Yom Kippur decision gave baseball legend
Hank Greenberg special status in the Detroit
Jewish community. Instead of joining his Tiger
teammates for a critical game in the 1934 pennant race,
Greenberg attended services at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
Locally, reminders of the star slugger resurface each
year with annual activities planned by the Michigan
Jewish Sports Foundation that benefit the Hank
Greenberg Oncology Fund for Cancer Research, part
of the Detroit-based Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer
Institute and the Radiation Oncology Program at
Beaumont Hospital in Oakland County.
The core of Greenberg's story — a minority member
able to realize a dream and then become linked with ini-
tiatives to benefit the larger community — is told briefly
and echoed through many other celebrities profiled in
The Jewish Americans. The six-hour documentary series,
divided among three Wednesday evenings, Jan. 9-23, will
air on PBS, including Detroit Public Television-Channel 56.
"The series is not just about the contributions Jews have
made to America:' says Jay Sanderson, executive producer.
"It's also about the contributions America has made to
Jewish life. Each program explores firsthand experiences."
Documentary episodes go back to the first Jewish set-
Photo cou r te sy of Jean Soman
Bottom Right: Garment factory workers on New York's Lower East Side.
tiers in America and move into the
21st century. Jewish actor-director Liev
Schreiber narrates the series.
Each time a topic is raised in the
series, a person representative of that
topic is profiled.
Just a small group of those dis-
cussed include Joseph Spiegel, founder of the Spiegel
Catalogue Co.; Abraham Cahan, a founder of the Jewish
Daily Forward; Jack Warner, film studio mogul; Henry
Morgenthau Jr., treasury secretary under Franklin
Roosevelt; and Betty Friedan, feminist writer.
The diverse personalities commenting in the segments
about current times reach from Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Chassidic reggae rocker Matisyahu.
"The theme of the series is the tension between main-
taining identity as a Jew and being an American, but the
film was made for all Americans:' says writer-director
David Grubin, who prepared for the documentary by com-
pleting 100 interviews, collecting more than 10,000 archi-
val photos and looking at 150 hours of historical film.
"I think Jews are going to find their own places in the nar-
rative because of the many ways of being Jewish in America
today. I believe other Americans will understand [it]
because other minorities also have struggled and flourished
as they became part of the mainstream of American life'
The series, summarized in a companion book of the
Marcus Spiegel, who fought and
died for the Union and whose
brother later founded the Spiegel
Catalogue Co.
same title (Doubleday; $40) by Beth
Wenger, begins on Jan. 9 and covers
two time periods: "They Came to
Stay:' which explores the years 1654-
1880, and "A World of Their Own:'
which spans 1880-1924.
"They Came to Stay" presents the
plight of 23 Jews who fled from Brazil to New Amsterdam
in 1654 and goes on to cover early experiences of reli-
gious observance, the development of the Reform move-
ment, social issues, business initiatives and exclusion by
other groups. "A World of Their Own" chronicles a new
wave of immigrants, the westward movement, the pursuit
of rights for women, the Yiddish stage and philanthropy.
On Jan. 16, "The Best of Times, the Worst of Times"
explores activities occurring between 1924 and 1945.
Reconstructionism, community leadership, business
development and entertainment moving into the main-
stream are covered.
The final segment, airing Jan. 23, is titled "Home and
goes from 1945 to the present, offering insight into the
establishment of Israel, the literary world, political activ-
ism and feminist activities.
Jay Sanderson, who recently launched the Jewish
Television Network on the Internet, explains that atten-
The Jewish Americans on page C4
January 3 • 2008 Cl