Beyond the Law:
Rock Climbing

Alongside his legal and public service career, Jay Lefkowitz is a passionate amateur rock climber. He has climbed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park twice, first with his son and later on the Zodiac, a demanding 1,800-foot route on the monolith's southeast face.

 

That second ascent is at the heart of Looking Up, an award-winning documentary about Eitan Armon, a veteran Israeli paratrooper who has lost most of his sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease. While planning the Zodiac climb, Jay invited Eitan to join him, telling him the climb was within his reach. Over four days on the wall, Jay climbed alongside Eitan as his partner and mentor as Eitan became one of the few nearly blind climbers to summit El Capitan.

 

Looking Up premiered at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, won the Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Lonely Seal Film Festival, and is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.