Film Schedule:

5 - 7 PM: Jews of the Wild West

Over two million Jews fled continuous cycles of anti-Jewish oppression, deadly violence, and forced poverty in Europe to seek out a better life in America. But big-city tenements didn’t offer the respite many were seeking. The wagon trains that moved westward with Jewish families traveled for the same reason as many settlers: opportunity. By 1912, it is estimated that over 100,000 Jews had migrated to the Wild West. These pioneers put down roots, and today they epitomize the important legacy of immigration in America. Sure you’ve heard of Levi Strauss and the Guggenheim family, but do you know about Jesse Shwayder, Simon Bibo, and Josephine Marcus Earp? This documentary tells their stories and others using archival footage, historical photos, diaries and letters, and first-person testimony of descendants.