The White House screened the documentary “Rosenwald,” about the Jewish philanthropist who worked with blacks to build schools throughout the South, to mark Jewish American Heritage Month.
Several dozen invitees attended the May 16 screening of the documentary about Julius Rosenwald at the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.
Aviva Kempner, a Washington, D.C., documentarian, directed the film.
Rosenwald, the CEO of Sears Roebuck, joined with black educators and community leaders to build more than 5,000 schools during the first part of the 20th century, when Southern blacks were often consigned to rundown, one-room schools, if they were availed of any schooling at all. An estimated 600,000 children graduated from Rosenwald’s schools.
Rosenwald also established a fund that dispensed grants to young artists, including authors James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison, and photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks. — jta