Only in America

About the Film

Standing as a witness to the Jewish-American process of emergence, from an ethos of persecution to the threshold of the White House, ONLY IN AMERICA paints a picture of the Jewish-American experience in the latter part of the twentieth century, with Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman's campaign and personal history as its centerpiece. "Viva La Chutzpah!" sums up the phenomenon created by a vice presidential campaign in which Lieberman, an unabashedly religious Jewish candidate, crossed over ethnic and religious lines bringing out people of majority and minority backgrounds in record numbers.

Featuring interviews with Lieberman's inner circle-from his wife and his mother to members of Congress such as Dianne Feinstein and John Breaux to New Republic Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier, director Ron Frank tells Lieberman's story from a myriad of positions to construct a critical analysis of the Jewish-American experience, its current impact and its potential for the future. This is a future in which, contrary to the mid-century period wherein Jews believed that visibility made one a lightning rod for anti-Semitism, there is even a possibility that the next president of the United States could be a Jewish one. - AFI Discovery Channel, Silver Docs