Hamilton alumnus David Grubin '65, a producer, writer and cinematographer who received an honorary degree from Hamilton in 2003, has written and directed a three-part documentary, The Jewish Americans, which is airing this month on public television stations nationwide. The first segment will air in Central New York on Wednesday, Jan. 9, at 10 p.m. on WCNY.
The documentary, which explores 350 years of Jewish American history, provides, according to the PBS Web site, "a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the present. It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews. Focusing on the tension between identity and assimilation, The Jewish Americans is quintessentially an American story, which other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar.
"Narrated by actor Liev Schreiber, this landmark series features Jewish Americans who have made significant contributions to American life – from Louis D. Brandeis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Henry Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg, Betty Friedan, Molly Goldberg, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, and Tony Kushner. However this story is also about Jewish American tailors and shopkeepers, soldiers and bankers, peddlers and merchants, labor organizers and civil rights activists, all of whom also helped shape the American landscape."
Grubin has produced more than 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art, poetry to science. He has won three George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards and eight Emmys. Among his recent productions are The Secret Life of the Brain for PBS; Napoleon; and Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided. Grubin's biographies of American presidents for "The American Experience" on PBS have been widely acclaimed. His five-part series for PBS, Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers has won many awards and the companion book, for which he was executive editor, rose to number one of The New York Times best seller list, remaining on the list for 32 weeks. Grubin's film about Secretary General of the United nations, Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm, aired recently on PBS. Grubin is currently producing two new films for PBS: a biography of Robert Kennedy and a biography of Marie Antoinette.
The documentary, which explores 350 years of Jewish American history, provides, according to the PBS Web site, "a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the present. It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews. Focusing on the tension between identity and assimilation, The Jewish Americans is quintessentially an American story, which other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar.
"Narrated by actor Liev Schreiber, this landmark series features Jewish Americans who have made significant contributions to American life – from Louis D. Brandeis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Henry Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg, Betty Friedan, Molly Goldberg, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, and Tony Kushner. However this story is also about Jewish American tailors and shopkeepers, soldiers and bankers, peddlers and merchants, labor organizers and civil rights activists, all of whom also helped shape the American landscape."
Grubin has produced more than 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art, poetry to science. He has won three George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards and eight Emmys. Among his recent productions are The Secret Life of the Brain for PBS; Napoleon; and Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided. Grubin's biographies of American presidents for "The American Experience" on PBS have been widely acclaimed. His five-part series for PBS, Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers has won many awards and the companion book, for which he was executive editor, rose to number one of The New York Times best seller list, remaining on the list for 32 weeks. Grubin's film about Secretary General of the United nations, Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm, aired recently on PBS. Grubin is currently producing two new films for PBS: a biography of Robert Kennedy and a biography of Marie Antoinette.
