Morgenthau

Description

“[The three generations] form a notable lineage of distinctively conscientious Jewish-American public servants.” When a legacy of three generations in a family committed to public service exhibits a degree of character that makes it look straightforward, it is something, as this film ably shows, worth recognizing.” – Charles Munitz, The Jewish Advocate

Synopsis

MORGENTHAU tells the epic story of three generations of an American family whose continual fight for justice brought them to the forefront of the most dramatic events of the past hundred years. The lives of Henry Morgenthau Senior, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau Junior, United States Secretary of Treasury under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney of New York County for over 30 years reveal new perspectives on the social and political shifts throughout the twentieth century. From fighting for international action against the genocide of Armenians on the cusp of WWI, through the efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust despite American political obstruction, and on to the struggle to reduce street crime and pioneer the prosecution of white collar corruption in New York City, the trajectory of the three Morgenthau generations epitomizes the American experience and the lasting value of public service.

Director

Max Lewkowicz, founder and owner of Dog Green Productions, a New York based documentary film company, has written, directed, and produced hundreds of productions for network and public television, museums, and multinational corporations in a career that has spanned over twenty-five years.

Mr. Lewkowicz’s documentary works include award-winning films about the mercury pollution afflicting Native American tribes in Northern Canada, the Dance Theater of Harlem, the generational cycles of poverty in American inner cities, Nelson Mandela’s struggle against Apartheid in South Africa, as well as Across the Bridge, a documentary about the American Military Doctrine in Germany during the Cold War and Ours to Fight For, which tells the stories of American GIs in World War II.