In Production - Documentary Film on Wisconsin Jewry

The people who made Wisconsin "The Milkhik State" - the Jews of small-town and rural Wisconsin - will be featured in a documentary film that is nearing completion.

The Wisconsin Small Jewish Communities History Project (WSJCHP) is working with docUWM, a faculty-student documentary filmmaking program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to create the hour-long film. Talks are underway with Wisconsin Public Television to broadcast the film.

The bulk of filming has been completed, and docUWM editors are assembling the film. WSJL staff and members of the WSJCHP Advisory Committee are collaborating with the filmmakers on film content and are reviewing footage.

The project is supported by the Helen Bader Foundation, the L.E. Phillips Family Foundation and the WSJCHP's parent organization, the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, Inc.

The Leopolds family, led by Max (back, right) and wife Fanny (center) were the last of the pioneering Jewish farm families to live in Arpin.

The documentary will tell the stories of Jewish families and individuals who have lived in communities throughout Wisconsin, including:

The Hoffmans - who are struggling to maintain Jewish religious life in Sheboygan, once home to 1,000 Jews and three Orthodox synagogues.
The Felixes - who owned and operated a clothing store for 101 years (and three generations) in Viroqua.
The Elkons - who were part of a successful group of 10 Jewish merchant families in Rhinelander and were avid fishermen.
The Lavines - who blended Jewish involvement and community activism in Superior and Chippewa Falls.
Esther Bubley - the groundbreaking photojournalist who developed her interest in the lives of everyday people during her childhood in Superior.
Rabbi Dena Feingold of Kenosha - whose career as a Jewish educator began unofficially with her gentile -childhood friends in Janesville.
In Appleton - the congregants of Moses Montefiore Synagogue, who sold their 36-year-old synagogue in order to move to a smaller building better suited to the congregation.
In Arpin - the approximately 20 Jewish immigrant families that farmed for a generation and built Wood County's only synagogue.
In Wausau - the descendants of German Jewish and Russian Jewish immigrants to Wausau, who worship together at Mount Sinai Congregation with more recently arrived Jews from throughout north-central Wisconsin.

Stay tuned for updates on the making and broadcast of the documentary.