We are thrilled to bring Jews of the Wild West, a documentary by five-time Emmy winning filmmaker Amanda Kinsey, to Montana! Join us for an afternoon of history, community, and celebration of Jewish culture. 3:00PM: Pre-film talk on Montana’s early Jews with historian Patty Dean 3:30PM: Film Screening 5:00PM: Zoom Q&A with the Filmmaker Zoom option available! When you register, please indicate that you would like to join on Zoom and the link will be sent to you on Sunday just before the event. The pre-film talk and the Q&A will be livestreamed; we encourage you to rent or buy the film on Amazon to watch on your own. About the film: “Jews of the Wild West” is a feature length documentary about resilience and identity in an unexpected place. The film tells a positive immigration story and highlights the dynamic contributions Jewish Americans made to shaping the Western United States. With today's rise in antisemitism, these stories are more important now than ever. Early Western Jews, those of the silver screen and real life, are a largely forgotten chapter in US History. And yet, they played a definitive role shaping the expansion of the United States. There were nationally known names such as Levi Strauss, Samsonite founder Jesse Shwayder and the Guggenheim family, who built their great success through grit and determination in California and Colorado. A young Golda Meir spent formative years in Denver. And there were also lesser-known characters such as Solomon Bibo, a Prussian immigrant, who became a non-Native American tribal leader in New Mexico and Solomon Carvalho, a Sephardic painter and photographer who spent the mid-1800s documenting the territories of Kansas, Colorado and Utah. Wyatt Earp’s wife, Josephine Marcus Earp, was a Jewish actress whose beauty is rumored to have triggered the fight at the OK Corral. And by the end of the 19th Century nearly every notorious Wild West town had a Jewish mayor. The wagon trains that moved westward with Jewish families traveled for the same reason as many settlers: opportunity. Continuous cycles of anti-Jewish oppression, deadly violence and forced poverty in Europe pushed over two million Jewish refugees to seek out a better life in America. The antisemitism and tenements found in New York City, however, did not offer the respite many were seeking. By 1912, it is estimated over 100,000 Jewish immigrants had moved to the Wild West. They put down roots and, today, they epitomize the important legacy of immigration in America. ​ The independent not-for-profit film is produced by Electric Yolk Media and directed by award-winning filmmaker Amanda Kinsey. Through on-camera interviews, archival footage and photographs, the film preserves this dynamic chapter of Jewish history and the contributions made to shaping the United States. The film premiered at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival in February 2022. More info: https://www.jewsofthewildwest.com