Remembering the Stories

On Yom Ha’Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, we recall with heavy hearts the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during World War II. Each year, on 27 Nissan, we remember that time in history … the people and the stories. We connect. We consider our own stories. We vow never again.

This month, through community-wide events and the arts, we share these poignant stories and examine how we will preserve these memories for generations to come. 

Community Event
When we look forward, what is the future of these stories? How will we continue to commemorate this fateful time in history? Dr. Laura Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender at Temple University, joins the Baltimore Jewish Council, an agency of THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, to deliver a keynote address entitled “The Future of Holocaust Commemoration: Living Memory,” at the community’s Yom Ha’Shoah observance  on April 7, at 7 p.m. at Chizuk Amuno Congregation. Free and open to the community. For information, email bjcrsvp@baltjc.org. 

Jewish Community Center’s Baltimore Jewish Film Festival
As the Jewish Community Center’s Baltimore Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary, three of the eight films bring the Holocaust tragedy to the screen.

In “I Shall Remember,” Vadik, a street-smart youngster, is angry when his family takes in a Jewish boy whose parents have been deported by the Nazis. Based on a true story, it is set near a small seaside town in Southern Russia where the Russians and Germans are fighting.

A Hollywood-style thriller, “My Best Enemy,” follows Victor Kaufmann, the son of wealthy Jewish gallery owners in Vienna, and Rudi Smekal, the son of the Kaufmanns’ housekeeper. When the Nazis annex Austria, Rudi enlists and betrays the Kaufmanns.
From Academy Award-nominated director Josh Aronson, “Orchestra of Exiles” is the story of Bronislaw Huberman, the celebrated Polish violinist who rescued 70 Jewish musicians from Nazi Germany and created the Palestine Philharmonic (later the Israeli Philharmonic).

All films will be shown at the Gordon Center For Performing Arts.  Please note, many films sell out, please check www.baltimorejff.com for ticket availability.

MPT Presentation
On April 10, 2013, at 10 p.m., Maryland Public Television will air the public broadcasting premiere of a powerful documentary about Holocaust survivor and former Maryland resident Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, who, late in life, crafted a series of intricate, hand-stitched tapestries that eloquently tell her story of survival. “Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz,” directed by Nina Shapiro-Perl and produced by the Maryland-based non-profit Art and Remembrance, sponsored in part by THE ASSOCIATED, has been screened across the country and in Poland, Northern Ireland, and Canada. It has won the CINE Golden Eagle and numerous film festival awards.

The film’s broadcast debut in Maryland coincides with the public display of Esther Krinitz’s 36 original, large fabric works currently on exhibit at Baltimore’s renowned American Visionary Art Museum, now through Labor Day 2013. Krinitz’s original artworks, along with the documentary, form a key feature of the museum’s year-long program on “The Art of Storytelling: Lies, Enchantment, Humor & Truth.” For more information, visit www.artandremembrance.org.

Defiant Requiem
Courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp performed the famous Verdi Requiem Mass while experiencing the depths of human degradation.  “Defiant Requiem,” a powerful and inspirational concert-drama, will be performed at the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute on April 23. For information, visit http://events.jhu.edu/peabody/calendar/month/2013/4.