Hollywood Jews: Transformation of the Los Angeles Jewish Community

Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone was born as Leib Milstein in 1895 in Kishinev, Russia. Coming from a well to do family, Milestone was sent to an engineering school in Germany. 

Milstein left Germany supposedly in 1912 (some sources claim 1913)  and traveled in a ship's steerage to New York. For the next few years, Milstein would work odd jobs, until finding employment in a photographic studio in 1915.

Leib Milstein film career would begin in the U.S. Army, working as an assistant director creating education and training films for the army. 

In 1919,  Leib Milstein would change his name to Lewis Milestone. Within a few years after being honorably discharged from the army, Milestone would make his directorial debut.

Milestone would go on to win two Academy Awards. One in 1929 for Best Comedy Picture Direction for Two Arabian Knights and one in 1930 for Best Director for All Quiet on the Western Front.

This is his story...

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