Audiences continue to show their love for the ideals and practices covered in ROSENWALD.
February has been a special loving month for the ROSENWALD film as director Aviva Kempner has gone from Temple Israel synagogue in Sharon, Massachusetts to Fisk University in Nashville to the San Diego Jewish Film Festival to Dilllard University in New Orleans on February 15th to screen the film.
Kempner enjoyed returning to the Fisk Library where she had researched the Rosenwald Fund archives for the film. She was so excited to meet a young scholar from the University of Chicago who is doing her PhD thesis on the Fund.
(Left to right) Ethelbert Miller and Aviva Kempner at Fisk University in Nashville, TN.
Poet Ethelbert Miller has accompanied Kempner on the tour to these historical Black colleges under a generous grant from the Reva and David Logan Foundation. Miller is giving sparkling presentations on poet Langston Hughes, who himself had received a Rosenwald Fund grant to tour the South. Hughes’ 1931 tour inspired this modern day 2017 version.
Kempner will present the newly produced bonus feature on Edith Stern, the daughter of Rosenwald who was so active in civil rights in New Orleans. The bonus feature will screen February 15th at the Longue Vue House and Gardens, co-sponsored by The National Council of Jewish Women. As part of the event, Miller will talk about Hughes at three classes at Dillard.
Meanwhile the film is showing in many more places this month and inspiring audience members to give. One couple saw the film in Scottsdale, Arizona and wrote that the film was “FANTASTICLY INSPIRATIONAL” and they decided to re-focus their fund on scholarship.
In these times we should remember that love and support is what Julius Rosenwald was about. Audiences are reacting especially to what Rosenwald said years ago about men with wealth. His modesty lives on in the success and aspirations of those he supported.
“Most large fortunes are made by men of mediocre ability who tumbled into a lucky opportunity, and couldn’t help but get rich.Most people are of the opinion that because a man has made a fortune, that his opinions on any subject are valuable. Don’t be fooled by believing because a man is rich, that he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary.” –Julius Rosenwald
Besides raising funds to produce and distribute the ROSENWALD DVD with all the bonus features, the Cielsa Foundation is also fundraising to take the film on a Northern tour. The Atran Foundation just made the first contribution for this future tour.
We thank Atran, Logan Foundation and all our supporters!