Semah Unterman - To Life! A Celebration of Vermont Jewish Women

About this film

Semah was born in 1920 in New York City. She grew up in Brooklyn and attended a four-room school house in Manhattan Beach at a time when “Brooklyn was way out there.” She started at Abraham Lincoln High School in 1938 where she had her first taste of political activism. She met a group of young people who were concerned about the rise of fascism and they joined a national organization called The American Student Union. It was at a student political meeting that she met her husband Mickey. He was eight years older than she and already a college graduate. At the time, Semah was 16 and developed a crush on this “handsome young man’’. After keeping company, they married in 1940 when Semah turned twenty. The young couple had two children, Sandy and Ronnie. In the early 1950’s Semah went back to work as a public school teacher in Brooklyn. Her career ended abruptly when she refused to cooperate with an investigation during the McCarthy era. She was being asked to name colleagues and friends who might have been involved with the Communist Party. After losing her public school license, Semah taught in a number of private schools in NYC including The Walden School. Her family purchased a ca…

Directors & creators

DAVAR: The Vermont Jewish Women's History Project

Subjects

Vermont, Jewish women, social activist, education, McCarthyism

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