The Levys of Monticello

Guest Speaker: Director Steven Pressman
Screening followed by discussion with documentary filmmaker, journalist and author Steven Pressman, whose 2013 film, 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Programming.In 2020, Pressman presented his film Holy Silence at the Gordon in partnership with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Thomas Jefferson was heavily in debt when he died on July 4, 1826. His beloved home, Monticello, was nearly in ruins when it was purchased a few years later by Uriah Phillips Levy, a Jewish officer in the United States Navy. Over the course of the next 90 years, the Levy family not only owned Monticello but saved it from ruin on two different occasions. Along the way, however, the family endured the brunt of antisemitism, while also being confronted by the stain of slavery that existed at Monticello before the Civil War.

[ Documentary | 2022 | 71 minutes | English ]

Part of Midday Movies: Food, Flicks & Friends, a new film appreciation series exploring films of Jewish interest, with enlightening discussions with filmmakers and scholars and casual conversation with other film enthusiasts. Kosher lunch or brown bag options available.

Presented by the William & Irene Weinberg Family Baltimore Jewish Film Institute