A journey home: Filmmaker Isaac Artenstein tells family story in 'People of the Crossing: The Jews of El Paso'

Isaac Artenstein’s journey in filmmaking is about telling stories.

The director’s latest documentary, “People of the Crossing: The Jews of El Paso,” is the fifth in a series of films focusing on the Jewish experience along the United States/Mexico border.

“It’s been a two-year project in earnest,” Artenstein says. “Though it seems like you’re always working on the project.”

“People of the Crossing: The Jews of El Paso” will air at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will broadcast at 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15, on World, channel. 5.4. It will also be available to stream on the PBS app.

Artenstein says the documentary is a multi-layered portrait of a Jewish community on the Texas border that is told through family stories that take viewers through the culture, customs and history of this important gateway between continents, people and languages.

“We learn from descendants of 19th century Jewish pioneers, current community leaders, artists and historians about the uniqueness of Jewish El Paso, with its multicultural congregations made up of European, American, Mexican and Middle Eastern Jews,” he says. “Their testimonials are richly illustrated with historic photographs, film footage and compelling cinematography from land and air highlighting El Paso’s geographic location at the foot of the Franklin Mountains, and by the shores of the Rio Grande.”

El Paso was noted for having the largest Jewish community between Houston and San Diego before World War II.

Temple Mount Sinai was founded in 1898 and the B’Nai Zion Synagogue in 1900.

Rabbi Joseph Roth, who officiated during the depression with little pay, also worked at El Paso College of Mines – now University of Texas El Paso – as chairman of the philosophy and psychology departments, and Rabbi Floyd Fierman was a noted author and historian of Jewish communities in the Southwest.

A journey home: Filmmaker Isaac Artenstein tells family story in 'People of the Crossing: The Jews of El Paso'

With the introduction of U.S. Immigration quotas in 1924, many Jews landed in Mexican ports. Some settled in Jewish communities there, while others journeyed north to join their families in the U.S. with the help of organizations such as the Jewish Women’s Committee headed by Fanny Zablovsky. Rabbi Zielonka of Temple M. Sinai, also worked tirelessly to help Jewish refugees, sometimes meeting them at the docks in the Port of Veracruz, Mexico in the 1920s.

At the end of WWII, El Paso also provided a home and a new life for many Holocaust survivors, as documented at the El Paso Holocaust Museum.

Artenstein says Deborah (Feinberg) Rosen, Hal Marcus, Susan Novick, Jerry Rubin, Peter Svarzbein and others recount the adventure and drama of their families fleeing persecution and economic duress in Europe to find refuge in a desert oasis where they were welcomed to settle, raise families and contribute to the social, economic and cultural development of El Paso.

The group also recalled how El Paso and Juárez were almost the same city, with great ease in crossing and daily interaction between both communities.

Artenstein enjoyed telling the story of Adolph Schwartz, who opened The Popular Dry Goods Company in 1902, which was very representative of Jewish mercantile history in downtown El Paso.

“Stuart and Lee Schwartz, Adolph’s descendants, relate the history of one of the most successful family-owned stores in the Southwest and share stories of Pancho Villa shopping there for uniforms and supplies for his troops during the Mexican Revolution of 1910,” he says. “For over 90 years, The Popular served customers from both sides of the border, employing many Mexican Americans, and the first to hire African American clerks.”

During the process, Artenstein was able to find out a little more about his family history as well.

“My grandfather had a store in Juárez,” he says. “My aunt Lilly flew out to El Paso to give me this great interview. We visited my grandfather’s store and it was a real journey home.”