The Ciesla Foundation is proud to announce that Paritsans of Vilna will be playing at the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art Collection in Berlin with a Q and A with director, Aviva Kempner, on October 31st! Click here for more information.<\/a><\/p>\nThe Ciesla Foundation presents…<\/h2>\n An enormously riveting and inspirational tale of WWII and the Holocaust,\u00a0Partisans of Vilna<\/strong>\u00a0chronicles the amazing endeavors of the Jewish resistance fighters. Highly acclaimed during its theatrical run, the film has been described as\u00a0“a stirring, extremely honest and heart rending celebration”<\/strong>\u00a0(New York Magazine<\/i>). Elie Wiesel called it\u00a0“Enlightening, truthful, challenging, heartbreaking… one of the best and most eloquent documentaries on the suffering and dilemmas Jews faced.”<\/strong><\/p>\nProduction<\/h2>\n Directed and edited by\u00a0Josh Waletzky<\/strong>\u00a0(Image Before My Eyes<\/i>) and produced and conceived by\u00a0Aviva Kempner<\/strong>\u00a0(The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg<\/i>),\u00a0Partisans of Vilna<\/strong>\u00a0skillfully blends songs, newsreel and archival footage with interviews of over forty Holocaust survivors to paint an eye-opening portrait of the courageous Jewish resistance in Vilna, the capital of Lithuania. Recounting how a commando unit was formed under tremendous risk to conduct sabotage missions against the Nazis, the film explores the moral dilemmas facing the Jewish youth who organized an underground resistance in the Vilna Ghetto and fought as partisans in the woods against the Third Reich.<\/p>\nA Historical Document<\/h2>\n More than just a record of great historical importance,\u00a0Partisans of Vilna<\/strong>is an intensely stirring and uplifting commemoration of heroes during the darkest of times. In the over 25 years since its initial theatrical release,\u00a0Partisans of Vilna<\/strong>\u00a0has became a vital part of the historical record of Jewish resistance in Lithuania. Many of the heroes who were interviewed in the early 1980s for the film have since passed away, but their words and deeds live on in\u00a0Partisans of Vilna<\/strong>.<\/p>\nIn the producer’s words…<\/h2>\n Partisans of Vilna<\/strong>\u00a0in this audio clip, recorded on the occasion of the DVD release in 2007.<\/object><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ specialty=”off” next_background_color=”#f9f9f7″ _builder_version=”3.19.3″ background_image=”http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/partisan-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/bg-hero.jpg” global_module=”6705″][et_pb_row global_parent=”6705″ background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image global_parent=”6705″ _builder_version=”3.19.3″ src=”http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/partisan-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/img-logo.png” align=”center” \/][et_pb_post_title global_parent=”6705″ _builder_version=”3.19.3″ meta=”off” featured_image=”off” text_color=”light” text_orientation=”center” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ module_class=”rosenwald-body” _builder_version=”3.19.3″ background_color=”#f9f9f7″ module_alignment=”center” prev_background_color=”#ffffff” custom_margin=”100px|10%||10%”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.19.3″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Post column 1″ _builder_version=”3.19.3″] Known as the \u201cbrainiest guy in baseball,\u201d \u00a0Berg attended the Sorbonne, and was known to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
\r\nThe Ciesla Foundation is dedicated to producing documentaries with an uplifting social and historical message about unsung Jewish heroes. Our newest film project is Rosenwald, a documentary on the incredible story of how businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald joined with African-American communities in the South to build schools for them during the early part of the 20th century. This historical partnership as well as the modern-day attempts to maintain or reconfigure the schools is a great dramatic story, yet too little-known.\r\n\r\nBorn in the heart of the Land of Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois; Julius Rosenwald, the son of German-Jewish immigrants, rose to become one of the wealthiest men in America as well as a beloved humanitarian. As the son of a German Jewish clothier, he naturally went into the family business as well, and married the daughter of a competitor. He then teamed up with Richard Sears to build Sears, Roebuck and Co. and helped diversify the company, positioning it to be known as the direct extension of the farmer\u2019s eyes, ears and wallet-- making purchasing decisions in the best interest of the farmer. He became Sears President from 1908\u20131924 and was its chairman 1924-1932.\r\n\r\nInfluenced by the social gospel espoused by Rabbi Emil Hirsch of Chicago Sinai Congregation, Rosenwald used his great wealth and talent for leadership to try to fix what he viewed as wrong with the world. Rosenwald took a leadership role in establishing social services to meet the needs of some 100,000 impoverished Jewish immigrants who settled in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century; and later, in uniting the city\u2019s splintered German and Eastern European Jewish communities. Growing up nearby the Lincoln residence in Springfield foreshadowed his liberal politics and concerns with justice for African-Americans. Rosenwald\u2019s exposure to poverty and teeming masses of immigrants in New York City also influenced his views. All told, he gave away $63 million to various causes, which in today\u2019s dollars is more than ten times that amount.\r\n\r\nRosenwald\u2019s philanthropy took a dramatic turn after reading accounts by African-American thinkers. Booker T. Washington\u2019s accomplishments parallel what Rosenwald had achieved. Washington approached Julius Rosenwald in 1912 to assist in funding a program in line with Washington\u2019s belief of self-help for African-American southerners that emphasized economic advancement through vocational education. Rosenwald spurred the establishment of 25 YMCA-YWCAs to serve African-Americans in cities across the U.S., including the Wabash Avenue YMCA in Chicago. (Existing Y\u2019s at the time served only whites.) In addition, he established one of the nation\u2019s first housing projects on Chicago\u2019s South Side.\r\n\r\nRosenwald\u2019s greatest accomplishment is the establishment of challenge grants, seeded for the creation of more than 5,500 schools for poor, rural African-American children in southern states at a time when few received any public education. From 1915 to 1932, 660,000 rural southern African-American students benefited from an initiative that truly speaks to The American Dream. The story of the partnership between Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington is perhaps the most compelling one of our time.\r\n\r\nWhat did it mean to a community to have a Rosenwald School? At the time, most public schools for rural African-Americans-- if there were schools at all--were run-down buildings with few, if any, amenities. If the county didn\u2019t provide a public building, the children learned in lodge halls, and churches. To have a school and educators meant that the next generation would have a chance to move away from the often grinding poverty found in such areas, and not be solely dependent upon the land for sustenance.\r\n\r\nServing as somewhat of a model was The Tuskegee Institute, which trained African-Americans in skills related to the building and agricultural trades and teaching which influenced the development of the Rosenwald Schools. Washington also developed tremendous skills in fundraising and negotiating between the white and African-American communities, which laid the groundwork for establishing the Rosenwald schools. At the time of their construction and heyday, Rosenwald Schools were a household name in the Deep South. The list of prominent alumni and educators includes ancestors of Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, Tony Award-winning playwright George Wolfe, and Julian Bond. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson also went to a Rosenwald school. So respected was Julius Rosenwald in school communities, his portrait graced classroom walls alongside that of President Lincoln, and schoolchildren composed songs and poems to be performed in his honor at annual appreciation events. The project is not as well known today because Rosenwald directed that, after his death (he died in 1932), the schools not bear his name and that funding cease.\r\n\r\nAt one of the first meetings of the Rosenwald Fund board, it was decided to give fellowships in a variety of fields to gifted African-Americans and white Southerners in order to give them one to three years to concentrate on their work and develop their abilities. These fellowships ranged from between $1,500 and $2,000, a considerable amount during the Great Depression. Between 1928-48, Fellowships totaling $1.65 million were given out to recipients including Marian Anderson, Romare Bearden, Ralph Bunche, W. E. B. DuBois, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Gordon Parks, James Baldwin, Jacob Lawrence and Claude MacKay.\r\n\r\nThe National Trust for Historic Preservation is the leading entity in documenting the condition of the buildings and offering assistance to local communities restoring the old schools. Local efforts to locate and refurbish the facilities have led to alumni reunions, news coverage of former teachers, dedication ceremonies, conferences, and renewed scholarship and research of the initiative.\r\n\r\nThe living story is about saving the schools today, the ongoing story concerns self-reliance and community pride. In the spirit of their grandfather\u2019s tradition two Rosenwald granddaughters donate funds to re-establish the Rosenwald schools. At a time when financial hardships abound, it is imperative that this story be told now. It is the great story of a Jewish and African-American partnership.\r\n\r\n
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