Sonya Levin

Sonya Levin, nee Sara Opeskin ^[5] , was born in the town of Panemune in the Coven province (now the Kaunas region), in the Pale of Settlement , on December 25, 1888 (later changed the year to 1898). As the oldest child in the family of Julius (born around 1863) and Fanny (born around 1865) ^[5] , Sonya had two brothers - Arnold and Max ^[6] . Parents came from the town of Vidzy of the Zarasai district of the Coven province .

Sonya’s childhood came at a time when Russian authorities were closely monitoring citizens, especially Jews with a radical background ^[7] . Sonya's father had a remote connection with the radical newspaper, and also agreed with the anarchist ideas of Prince Peter Kropotkin. Julius Opesken also joined the Narodnik research circle before being arrested and forced to work in Siberian mines. While their father and husband were serving their sentences, the Oskesken family moved to Julius's father, a rabbi who always emphasized the importance of language for young Sonya. Her grandfather instructed her in Russian, French, German and Hebrew, and encouraged her daily reading from the Talmud and Shulhan Aruk.

In 1891, her father escaped from exile and went to America, deciding to take the name of his German rescuer Levin. He moved his entire family in 1896, where they joined him on the Lower East Side of Manhattan . They were not the only Russian Jews between 1891 and 1900; over the past nine years, more than 150,000 Jews moved to New York . Already living in America, her parents had two more sons - Edward and Nathan. The family received naturalization documents in 1905.

All the children in her family worked at school to help with expenses. Sonya worked at the pen factory in her teens, earning four dollars a week. During her formation in America, a girl who grew up in poverty, joined the group of socialists. Sonya, like many other European immigrants in America, went to a secondary school. After she graduated in 1901 or 1902, she was unable to continue her studies due to financial problems. She took a $ 36 loan to study shorthand and get a job as a secretary. It took her four years to repay this loan. At one time, as secretary, she also got acquainted with the work of resettlement and trade unions. Sonya also held several classes at the Educational Union, where in 1903 she met Rose Pastor. Not only did Pastor hire her as secretary, she was also a member of the Socialist Party and the Women's Union League, giving Sonya access to an entire library of texts on these subjects that she could read.

On October 23, 1917, Sonya married screenwriter Karl Howie (1875-1956). The couple had two children - the son of Serge Howie (03/10/1920 - 03/03/1989), who became a composer, and the daughter Tamara Howie (born 1923), who became a screenwriter, like her parents. In the mid-1950s, Levin fell ill with cancer . Her husband, 80-year-old Karl Covey, died on June 25, 1956 after almost 39 years of marriage. Levin herself did not die about four years later, on March 19, 1960.

She became one of the highest paid female screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1930s and helped several film directors and movie stars transition from silent films to sound films. In 1955, she received an Academy Award for her screenplay for Interrupted Melody.

• 1928 - The Power of the Press / The Power of the Press
• 1928 - A Ship Comes In
• 1933 - Cavalcade / Cavalcade
• 1938 - Four Men and a Prayer
• 1939 - Drums of the Mohawk Valley / Drums Along the Mohawk
• 1939 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• 1943 - The Amazing Mrs. Holliday Holliday
• 1951 - The Great Caruso
• 1951 - “ Camo Griadeshi ” / Quo Vadis
• 1955 - Oklahoma! »/ Oklahoma!