As seen on Public Television

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary
of the American Civil War

TRAILER

 

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS

Maine Jewish Film Festival (2013) Orange County Film Festival (2012) Michiana Jewish Film Festival (2012) Sioux City Jewish Film Festival (2012) Altoona International Jewish Film Festival (2012) Charleston Film Festival (2012) Columbus Jewish Film Festival (2012) Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival (2012) Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival (2012) Mobile Jewish Film Festival (2012) The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival (2011) Jewish Arts and Film Festival of Fairfield County (2011) North Louisiana Jewish Film Festival (2011) American Jewish Historical Society (2011) Nashville Jewish Film Festival (2011) Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival (2011) Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival (2011) Jewish Museum of Maryland (2011) Dallas Jewish Film Festival (2011)

Berkshire Jewish Film Festival (2011) Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival (2011) Cleveland Jewish Film Festival (2011) St. Louis Jewish Film Festival (2011) Rochester Jewish Film Festival (2011) Toronto Jewish Film Festival (2011) Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival (2011) Savannah Jewish Film Festival (2011) National Museum of American Jewish History (2011) Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival (2011) East Bay Jewish Film Festival (2011) Cherry Hill Jewish Film Festival (2011) Washington DC Jewish Film Festival (2011) - Civil War Anniversary Screening Asheville Jewish Film Festival (2011) National Civil War History Museum, Harrisburg (2011) Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (2011) San Diego Jewish Film Festival (2011) NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE NCJF Film Festival, Jewishfilm.2011 WORLD PREMIERE New York Jewish Film Festival (2011)

Brother against brother, Jew against Jew, 10,000 Jewish soldiers fought in the nation’s deadliest war, in numbers proportionally higher than other American groups. Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray explores the little known history of the Civil War Jews who fought on both sides of the battlefield—7,000 for the Union and 3,000 for the Confederacy.

Allegiances during the War Between the States split the Jewish community as deeply as it did the nation at large: some prominent Jews, including Jewish slave owners, cited the Torah to justify slavery, while others were leaders in the abolitionist movement or established their synagogues as stops on the Underground Railroad.

Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray unreels remarkable history, including Ulysses S. Grant’s infamous "General Order No. 11" expelling Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi; the rise of Sephardic Jew Judah P. Benjamin to Secretary of State of the Confederacy; the imprisonment of Confederate spy Eugenia Levy Phillips; and the unlikely story of Abraham Lincoln’s Jewish doctor who moved through the South as a Union spy.

A dramatic and visual rich film narrated by Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Milius (Apocalypse Now) with Sam Waterston (Law & Order) voicing Abraham Lincoln.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"Fills a good-sized gap in the history of American Jewry…
A must-see for all Jewish and American history buffs.”
– San Diego Jewish World

“Moving…surprising.” – Philadelphia Jewish Voice

CREDITS

Produced by Indigo Films
With funding from the Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Executive Producer: David M. Frank
Co-Producer/Co-Writer: Robert Marcus
Director, Producer & Writer: Jonathan Gruber

EXPERTS INTERVIEWED IN THE FILM

Eli Evans, Author, Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate
Robert Marcus, Civil War Historian
Robert Rosen, Author, The Jewish Confederates
Jonathan Sarna, Author, American Judaism: A History
Dr. Gary Zola, Executive Director, American Jewish Archives
Rabbi Mordecai Ecovitz, Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island
Shalom Lamm, Civil War Historian
Harold Holzer, Lincoln Scholar
Catherine Kahn, Archivist, Touro Infirmary, New Orleans
Gary Kross, Battlefield Guide, Gettysburg National Military Park
Herbert Heltzer, Lincoln Scholar
Rhetta Mendelsohn, City Guide, Charlestown, South Carolina
Bryn Greenleaf, Great-great Granddaughter of Leopold Karpeles
Anthony Smith, Great-great Grandnephew of Adolph Proskauer
Mildred Heltzer, Great-great niece of Moses Ezekiel/Great-great Granddaughter of Rev. Michelbacher

PRESS COVERAGE

Maine Public Broadcating - Interview with director Jonathan Gruber

Philadelphia Jewish Voice - Review

Jewish Forward - Review

Libertas Film Magazine/J.B. Spins - Review

Washington Examiner - Review

San Diego Jewish World - Review

St. Louis Jewish Light - Review

Connect Savannah - Director Interview

LINKS

Read more from Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray's Jonathan D. Sarna

What the Civil War Meant for American Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna (Jewish Forward. 3/1/11)

Jews and the Civil War: A Reader by Jonathan D. Sarna & Adam Mendelsohn

Review: Civil War Sequisentennial- Was the St. Louis Jew Gray or Blue? (St. Louis Jewish Light)

LINKS

Press Kit (PDF)

PURCHASE DVD - ORIGINAL 86 MINUTE VERSION

HOME USE ONLY $29.95 plus shipping Home Use Only DVD (Not for Classroom/Institutional Use) Does not include Public Performance Rights Home Use Policy (pdf)

INSTITUTIONAL USE $90.00 plus shipping Classroom/Institutional Use Only DVD Does not include Public Performance Rights Institutional Use Policy (pdf)

PURCHASE DVD - 55 MINUTE VERSION

HOME USE ONLY $29.95 plus shipping Home Use Only DVD (Not for Classroom/Institutional Use) Does not include Public Performance Rights Home Use Policy (pdf)

INSTITUTIONAL USE $90.00 plus shipping Classroom/Institutional Use Only DVD Does not include Public Performance Rights Institutional Use Policy (pdf)

 

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Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray

USA, 2011, 86 minutes, color
Directed by Jonathan Gruber

55 minute version also available

 

NEW RELEASE

$90 Classroom/Library Use DVD
Buy Now

$29.95 Home Use DVD
Buy Now

Call to arrange screenings. Public Exhibition Beta rental available.