Birth of a Community: Jews and the Gold Rush is a 1994 documentary directed by Bill Chayes. The film traces the history of Jews and the experiences that tempted this group and others to the American West Coast by the prospect of being financially established by mining gold.Synopsis
Groups of various national and ethnic origins arrived seeking their fortune; this documentary focuses on the Jewish presence in California during the Gold Rush. This feature traces the arrival of Jews in the ‘rough and tumble’ West and follows how they settled and grew with the towns and establishing communities, which have grown to become more valuable than gold in a sense.