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Six Trailblazing Women Who Made Texas Jewish History
Grit & Grace transcends the traditional Texas historical narrative, exploring the impact of forward thinking and influential Jewish women on the Lone Star State. It is a meditation on the delicate and often complicated dance of female, Jewish and Texan identities.
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The state of Texas is vast and wide.
Stetsons, longhorns, windmills, and wildflowers dot the landscape.
Synagogues, torahs and menorahs, not so much.
Yet since the days of the Republic, in every corner of the Lone Star State, there have been smart and determined Jewish women
uniting these seemingly disparate cultural elements.
These are the stories of six of those remarkable women.
These are stories of Grit & Grace.
In addition to special theatrical screenings throughout the US, Grit & Grace will be released by a major distributor to buy or rent on leading platforms worldwide. We have a targeted release date of Spring 2025.
Six Inspiring Stories
Rosanna Osterman, Olga Kohlberg, Gussie Oscar, Ray K. Daily, Fania Kruger, and Frances Kallison. Grit & Grace explores how these women through their generosity of spirit, dedication to their communities, intellectual and artistic curiosity, and true grit elevated Texas from a scrappy, start up Republic to a diverse and dynamic powerhouse of a state.
Rosanna Dyer Osterman
Thirty year old Rosanna Osterman arrives at the port of the barrier island of Galveston in 1839, in the recently formed Republic of Texas. Her husband, Joseph, had arrived a year earlier, hoping to make a fresh start in business. They send out pack mules to trade with the Comanche. Working as a team, they thrive, selling essentials of the frontier, including the first revolvers and ready made coffins in Texas.
In 1844, a yellow fever epidemic kills nearly one third of Galveston's population. Rosanna, trained as a nurse, brings the sick and dying to her home to care for them. Waves of yellow fever continue through the following years and in August of 1852 the dreaded disease takes her six year old nephew. This tragedy spurs Rosanna to action. There is no Jewish cemetery in which to bury him.
The result is the first Jewish institution in Texas — a cemetery. Rosanna summons a rabbi from New Orleans to consecrate the cemetery — the first Jewish service officiated in the Republic. When the Union Army captures and occupies Galveston in 1861, Rosanna’s home again becomes a hospital, for both Union and Confederate soldiers.
Shortly after the war ends, Rosanna perishes in a steamboat explosion on the Mississippi River.Through her will, almost $250,000 in charitable gifts — a huge sum for the day — is bequeathed to Jewish organizations throughout the United States. A good portion of this money stays in Galveston, funding the city’s first synagogue.
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg
At 20, Olga Bernstein Kohlberg sails into New York Harbor in 1884, accompanied by her husband, Ernst. Both native Westphalians, the newlyweds journey by rail to El Paso. Ernst first arrived in El Paso nine years earlier and wrote to his family “if I had known what I know now I would not have come here.”
Yet here he is, bringing his bride to her new home. Olga gives birth to four children in eight years, a metaphor for El Paso’s booming population. As the town grows so does its needs. Olga recognizes these needs and through her leadership El Paso gains its first hospital and the first public kindergarten in Texas is created. She is a champion of the first public library and serves on its board until her death. She becomes an advocate for the Cloudcroft Baby Sanitorium in New Mexico, where sick El Paso children are nursed back to health.
Tragedy strikes in 1910 when Ernst Kohlberg is shot to death by a disgruntled tenant. Olga endures a lengthy trial, laced with antisemitic tropes and lurid accusations aimed at her beloved dead husband. Ever generous, she allows the convicted murderer’s wife and children to live rent free.
Gussie Oscar
Known as “the showwoman of Waco,” Gussie Oscar defies convention and gleefully ushers central Texas into the 20th century. The daughter of Polish immigrants, Gussie grows up in Calvert and is educated at a convent in Austin. In 1905, she arrives in Waco. A talented pianist, Gussie finds work at the Majestic Theatre and leads an all-female orchestra. After touring the West and Canada, Gussie returns to Texas and becomes the booking agent and manager of the Waco Auditorium.
Gussie brings Harry Houdini, Fred and Adele Astaire, the Marx Brothers, Anna Pavlova, John Philip Sousa, Jascha Heifetz, Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Will Rogers to appear at the Waco Auditorium. She even brings frank discussions of family planning to the town on the Chisholm Trail. A performance of Irving Berlin’s “Music Box Review” lands Gussie and 20 actresses in jail for indecency. She never marries and lives in the honeymoon suite of a downtown hotel, the only room big enough for her grand piano.
Dr. Ray Karchmer Daily
In 1907, 16-year-old Ray Karchmer and her family flee the Cossacks and pogroms of Lithuania. They arrive in Galveston and head north, settling in Denison. Four years later, Ray returns to Galveston and becomes the first Jewish woman to graduate from a Texas medical school. She marries Louis Daily, whom she met in medical school. They open an ear, nose and throat practice in Houston. Ray travels several times to Austria, accompanied by her young son Louis Jr., to learn the latest practices in eye surgery.
In Houston, Ray vies for a seat on the Houston School Board in 1928 and wins on an anti-Klan platform. She advocates for the hiring of special education teachers and equal pay for female and African American staff. In the 1940s, Ray champions a federal free lunch program, an issue that her political opponents seize on. She is labeled a "Russian born Red Jewess.” In spite of this, she keeps her seat until 1952, when McCarthyism hit its fever pitch. Ray continues to practice medicine until shortly before her death in 1973. Thirty years later, Ray K. Daily Elementary school opens in Houston.
Fania Feldman Kruger
Born in 1893, Fania grows up in Russia, a witness to the atrocities of Cossack troops. As a young teen, she becomes involved in anti-Czarist activism and her parents fear for her safety. They leave for America and the Feldman family settles in Fort Worth, where Fania learns English, works in a liquor warehouse, and meets Sam Kruger.
The couple wed in 1912 and follow the railroad and an oil boom to Wichita Falls, where Sam expands his jewelry business. His financial success allows Fania to focus on poetry. Her work, inspired by her faith and compassion for humanity, draws critical acclaim.
After Sam’s death in 1952, Fania moves to Austin. She takes an apartment near campus and attends courses and lectures. Fania’s fame spreads as her poems are translated into many languages. Fania forges a friendship with both Allen Ginsberg and Langston Hughes and she and Hughes have a long running correspondence. Ocassionally, Fania mails Hughes some of her famous strudel and he shares unpublished poems with her.
Frances Rosenthal Kallison
A second generation Texan, Frances Rosenthal is born in 1908. She leaves Fort Worth to attend Vassar and receives her degree from the University of Chicago. On a family trip to San Antonio, Frances meets Perry Kallison. They marry in 1931 and San Antonio becomes the couple’s home. They live primarily in town, where Perry runs his sprawling "Big Country Store" from which he broadcasts his radio show, "The Ol' Trader" and Frances is involved in rasing her children and civic activity.
Out at the 2,700 acre Kallison ranch, Frances rides palominos and is involved in cattle breeding, but her contributions to Texas are so much more. Her leadership with the National Council of Jewish Women leads to the first dedicated maternity ward in the city hospital. She also creates a preschool for blind toddlers. Frances is a co-founder of the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, a precision horseback riding and mounted drill team. Proceeds from their performances and appearances in films and on television are donated to local hospitals and veterans' organizations.
Frances advocates against the poll tax that is used to keep African Americans and Latinos from voting. She writes and publishes essays about Texas Jewish history and helps launch the Texas Jewish Historical Society in 1980. In 2016, she is posthumously inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. She is currently the only Jewish inductee.
Jeff Gross
Barbara Rosenthal
Barbara Rosenthal
Sundance-nominated Producer Jeff Gross started his career as part of the production team for studio films such as Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Nurse Betty and The Truman Show. As Director of Production Resources, Gross has run Product Placement for many family films including Disney's The Bridge to Terabithia, New Line's Journe
Sundance-nominated Producer Jeff Gross started his career as part of the production team for studio films such as Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Nurse Betty and The Truman Show. As Director of Production Resources, Gross has run Product Placement for many family films including Disney's The Bridge to Terabithia, New Line's Journey to the Center of the Earth and How to Eat Fried Worms. Gross consistently makes deals with Fortune 500 brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and General Mills for ethical, natural appearances on screen.
Gross continues to create unique content for large audiences.
He most recently ran Production Resources for the upcoming feature film Accidental Texan, starring Thomas Haden Church and Carrie-Anne Moss https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/accidental-texan-film-review-thomas-haden-church-bruce-dern-1235934476/. Based on Gross' many years of Hollywood experience, he views Grit & Grace as an opportunity to “get these stories to the masses and educate audiences about our history.”
Barbara Rosenthal
Barbara Rosenthal
Barbara Rosenthal
For over three decades in the video and film industry, Barbara Rosenthal has actively sought out projects that educate, inspire and broaden our understanding of important issues. As a fairly newly minted Texan, Rosenthal’s lifelong fascination with American history and training as a researcher and writer, combined with her editing, direct
For over three decades in the video and film industry, Barbara Rosenthal has actively sought out projects that educate, inspire and broaden our understanding of important issues. As a fairly newly minted Texan, Rosenthal’s lifelong fascination with American history and training as a researcher and writer, combined with her editing, directing and producing skills make Grit & Grace a project of a lifetime for her. Since this project commenced in 2022, everyday has led to new discoveries, which is thrilling for the insatiably curious filmmaker.
Rosenthal's passion is preserving and sharing history.
Rosenthal’s most recent film, Seders & Cigars – A History of Jews in Tampa (2019), explores a variety of themes including overcoming quotas on Jewish immigration, the challenge of maintaining extended family bonds in a competitive economic environment, cultural assimilation, the nexus of anti-Semitism and segregation, and the rise of women in politics. The film is archived in the Judaic Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. sedersandcigars.com
Preserving History & Expanding the Narrative
Style & Tone
In the style and spirit of PBS' American Experience, the filmmakers will utilize brilliant cinematography, creative story telling, thoughtful narration, and digital photo manipulation techniques to bring these stories to life, making them relevant to a modern audience.
Filming will include historical location shooting
and interviews with historians and descendants.
A soaring musical score will elevate the film, capturing the richness and unique nature of the Texas/Jewish experience.
Distribution & Roll Out
The time to make this film is right now. Every single day we lose a bit more of our connection to the past. These stories, especially as remembered by descendants, need to be captured just as soon as possible. Then these stories need to get to the masses.