SELECTED SCREENINGS

Cinebeasts/Anthology Film Archive, New York (2012)

This early D.W. Griffith short shows the director's interest in Jewish ghetto life, portrayed here with sympathy and sentimentality. The melodramatic plot involves the conflict between generations that life in the New World brought to the Jewish family.

Lower East Side street scenes blend actors from the Biograph Studios (such as the young Gladys Eagan) with actual street vendors and passersby in such a natural way that it is obvious they were shot candidly with a hidden camera. The part of Ruth, heroine of the story is played by Florence Lawrence, the "Biograph Girl" whose popularity with audiences was such that she became the first American movie star even before her name was known. Romance of a Jewess anticipates Jewish immigrant dramas like The Jazz Singer and His People. Griffith explored similar themes in Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker and A Child of the Ghetto.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"Several of the scenes are decidedly interesting in the fact that they were actually taken in the thickly settled Hebrew quarters of New York City."
-Biograph Bulletin October 25, 1908

PURCHASE DVD

HOME USE ONLY $36.00 plus shipping Home Use Only DVD (Not for Classroom/Institutional Use) Does not include Public Performance Rights Home Use Policy (pdf)

INSTITUTIONAL USE $50.00 plus shipping Classroom/Institutional Use Only DVD Does not include Public Performance Rights Institutional Use Policy (pdf)

Back to Top

Romance of a Jewess

1908, 10 minutes, B&W, silent
Directed by D.W. Griffith

PRESERVED
by The National Center for Jewish Film

$50 Institutional Use DVD
Buy Now

$36 Home Use DVD
Buy Now

Public Exhibition 16mm, Beta Rental also available