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Sears, Roebuck & Rosenwald

Picture yourself in the late 1880’s when most people lived in rural communities with all of the challenges that go with it. Along comes a man named Sears and a man named Roebuck – Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck to be exact. Together the railroad agent and the watch repairman partnered to form Sears, Roebuck and Co. and became famous catalog merchants. Enter Julius Rosenwald, an American businessman and philanthropist, son of clothier Samuel Rosenwald and Augusta Hammerslough Rosenwald, the Jewish immigrant couple from Germany who lived just a few blocks from the home of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois while Lincoln was President. Like us, you’ve all heard of Sears and Roebuck, but who was Julius Rosenwald? Washington filmmaker Aviva Kempner explains in her new documentary simply named Rosenwald.