KRAKOW, Poland (Press Release)–In a speech July 3, at the Schindler Factory Museum here, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the U.S. intention to contribute $15 million over five years to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, subject to Congressional authorization and appropriations.
The World War II-era factory of Oskar Schindler, the German entrepreneur who saved hundreds of Jewish factory workers from the Holocaust and, Krakow, the closest major city to the camp and an important center of Jewish life before WWII, provide a meaningful setting for the U.S. announcement.
The Secretary’s announcement of the anticipated U.S. contribution illustrates the significance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site, helps commemorate the 1.1 million victims who perished there, and demonstrates America’s commitment to Holocaust education, remembrance, and research.
*Subject to Congressional authorization and appropriations, the United States’ contribution of $15 million over five years will begin in FY 2012.
*The U.S. contribution will help fund a €120 million endowment to preserve and safeguard the remains of the camp. Due to the temporary nature of the camp’s initial construction, the buildings and other artifacts at Auschwitz-Birkenau are in poor condition and in serious danger of irreversible deterioration.
*The United States strongly encourages other nations who have not already done so to follow suit and to contribute to the Auschwitz-Birkenau fund to preserve the site for future generations.
Importance of Auschwitz-Birkenau
*The Auschwitz-Birkenau death and concentration camp is one of the most widely recognized symbols of racism, bigotry, and hatred where untold millions suffered unthinkable and heinous treatment under Nazi tyranny. While there are hundreds of other historically important camps and mass grave sites, Auschwitz-Birkenau has become a symbol of the Holocaust.
*In 2009 alone, more than 1.3 million people from around the world visited the museum and memorial, among them survivors of Nazi persecution and their descendents, students, educators, and many who only for the first time learned of the horrors that went on at this infamous camp.
*The preservation and continuation of Auschwitz-Birkenau is essential so that future generations can visit and understand how the world can never again allow a place of such hatred and persecution to exist. It is also an important educational tool to show those who doubt that the Holocaust ever existed that indeed, tragically, it did.
Preceding provided by the U.S. State Department
Kiss Every Step by Doris Martin with Ralph S. Martin, Booksurge Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4392-5606-0, ©2009, $14.95, 222 pages
By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
WINCHESTER, California — The year is 1939. Hitler tells the Reichstag that if war erupts, the Jews will be exterminated. Eichmann is placed in charge of the Prague branch of the Jewish Emigration Office. The Soviet Union’s Molotov and Germany’s Ribbentrop sign a mutual non-aggression pact. Germany invades Poland on September 1. Three days later, the innocent life of little twelve-year old Dora Szpringer (now Doris Martin) is shattered. She can no longer roam the streets freely jumping rope, tossing a ball, or playing hop scotch with her best friend Rutka. The playful romps through the old castle grounds, which overlook the city, are over. The joyous visits to Gipsman’s fruit and ice cream shop have ended. On September 4, the Wehrmacht entered Dora’s hometown of Bendzin, Poland. Within a week, they burn the synagogue and many Jewish homes, with the people locked inside them.
In Kiss Every Step, Doris Martin, together with her husband Ralph, tells the remarkable and disturbing war-time encounters of the Szpringers, a family that miraculously survived the Holocaust intact, as they struggle to outwit Hitler’s army and the by-and-large anti-Semitic Polish population. Some of the chapters are autobiographical, while others are first-person accounts of events told by Doris’ siblings, Isaak, Moishe, Josef, and Laya. Each of them provides a narrative that authenticates the worst of human brutality, allowing us to vicariously experience the wiliness, cunning, and just plain luck that the Szpringer family members used to stay alive in the Polish, Russian, and German countryside.
Over three million Jews lived in Poland at the start of World War II. These unique lives mostly end in death. Thus, we are fortunate that Doris Martin has written about the disturbing episodes of her childhood and teenage years, which allow us to understand everyday life of the Jews under Nazi occupation and to some small degree, understand the terror that enveloped their very existence.
Hitler set out to make the world free of Jews. Kiss Every Step is a compelling account of the success of one family, the Szpringers, in defeating this nefarious plan.
Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration.; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and Reclaiming the Messiah.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO—At gravesite services for Tessie Sonnabaum at the Home of Peace Cemetery on Thursday, June 24 , I couldn’t help but observe that she was known for her big hat, big smile, big laugh….
“And her big heart,” added Leah Fradkin, the rebbetzin of Chabad of Scripps Ranch.
Sonnabaum died June 19 at the age of 90 and was buried next to her husband, Irving, who at age 84 had predeceased her in 1997. Rabbi Yonah Fradkin, rabbi of Chabad of Scripps Ranch (home of the Chabad Hebrew Academy) officiated, assisted by sons Elie and Moti, both of whom are rabbis, and other members of the Lubavitcher movement, including Rabbi Zalman Carlebach of downtown San Diego.
Rabbi Elie Fradkin is spiritual leader at Chabad of Coronado, the city in which Tessie and Irving Sonnabaum lived and worked for many years as the proprietors of Jake’s Clothing Store on Orange Avenue. Cecile Kipperman, whose “Kippy’s” still is located on Orange Avenue, was among the mourners at the gravesite services.
The families that owned these two stores anchored the small Jewish community in Coronado, and, as Rabbi Yonah Fradkin observed, they helped non-Jews in that suburb on the west-side of San Diego Bay to understand the goodness of the Jewish people.
Today, serving as director of the regional Chabads in San Diego, Rabbi Yonah Fradkin said he wondered what Tessie and Irving might have thought to see that the young rabbi whom they had helped get settled in San Diego County more than 40 years ago has a son who today has his own congregation in Coronado.
Irving Sonnabaum was the kind of man who made sure that a man’s clothing looked good on him—quietly tugging at a friend’s sleeve or collar out in public to make sure it laid exactly right, Fradkin recalled. And Tessie was the kind of woman who always sought to help other people—“how can I help you?” being her approach toward all. Her watch phrase was the Yiddish expression “zei gezeundt, herst!” be in good health, now!
With son Stan and two grandchildren in attendance, Rabbi Fradkin recalled that until Alzheimer’s Disease robbed Tessie of much of her memory, she almost single-handedly made the Hallmark Card Company a wealthy concern, so determined was she to personally communicate best wishes on the birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions of her friends and acquaintances. Another son, who lives in the Los Angeles area, is Jack.
Among the mourners were Pessie Sonnabend, a Holocaust survivor from the coal-mining area of Niemce, Poland, who was married to Irving’s first cousin and who was aided in adjusting to American life by the Sonnabaums after arriving in San Diego. Another present was Gussie Zaks, longtime leader of the New Life Club of Holocaust Survivors, as well as former San Diego City School Board Member Sue Braun, and Tifereth Israel Synagogue Sisterhood members Phyllis Spital, Binnie Brooks and Judy Morganstern.
Known for her happy laugh, Tessie had been honored by the Tifereth Israel Sisterhood as a “woman of valor,” one of the highest salutes the organization renders to its active members.
Spital recalled taking walks with Tessie along Orange Avenue in Coronado and being stopped seemingly every few feet to be greeted by delighted passersby. Tessie would carefully introduce her to each one of them.
She also recalled Tessie’s trademark beautiful hats and her blue house in Coronado.
Sue Braun said after the formal services that she and her husband, Dick, had met the Sonnabaums in 1964 when they moved to Coronado. “Dick took his uniform over to Jake’s, not knowing anything about Irv and Tessie. We were living right around the corner from them. Tessie and Irv befriended us right away.”
She said often they would be joined for simchas at the Sonnabaum house by Rabbi Monroe Levens and Lillian Levens, rabbi and rebbezin of Tifereth Israel Synagogue when the congregation was located at 30th and Howard Streets. “Our kids grew up with Uncle Irv and Aunt Tessie,” Braun recalled.
After the Brauns moved to the Del Cerro section of San Diego, they transplanted from the Sonnabaums’ garden some pink geraniums that still flourish, as do the Sonnabaum rhubarb plants.
At the end of Tessie’s life, she lived in a nursing facility for Alzheimer’s patients.
“I’ve been told that the last thing that goes when someone gets dementia is the strongest part of their character—that’s the thing that hangs on the most,” Braun said. “Tessie’s sense of humor never ever left her.”
Braun said she and Spital held a small birthday party for Tessie every December 25 – “we would bring a cake to the nursing home, and gifts.” Braun said that “I would have to think of things to say—jokes—to hold up my end, because Tessie had this sense of humor. She would laugh so much, and she never, ever lost that sense of humor. That’s the thing that stayed. She was always finding things funny. You know what, the staff loved her!”
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World
By David Amos
SAN DIEGO–In the 18th and 19th Centuries, people attended music concerts expecting to hear a few old favorites, and at the same time, to sample newly composed music. Many of the most celebrated concerts in history featured nothing but new music.
Somehow, starting in the Twentieth Century, we have lost our way. Concertgoers attend programs with the sole purpose of basking themselves by hearing the classics from the past which they know and love. Call it “comfort music”, much like bread is comfort food. But nutritionists will tell you, man can not live by bread alone.
Possibly the strident sounds of modernity in the serial and atonal music which started in the early 1900’s created a strong resistance to anything which hinted of new music, or contemporary, or music of our times, to say nothing of Avant Garde and other scary implications.
It all comes down to this: Concert halls are becoming museums, and not shrines which showcase a living art form. No wonder that we are suffering from shrinking, graying audiences for classical music. Our beloved concert music has changed from being a vibrant, evolving contribution to the fine arts, to a stagnant homage to glories of the past. In most instances, modern music is not even given a chance, and when it is played, it is rarely heard after the premiere performances.
A couple of decades ago, I gave a pre-concert lecture to a San Diego Symphony evening. There was Schumann in the first half, and Bartók’s monumental Concerto for Orchestra in the second. The latter work is one of the greatest symphonic masterpieces of all time, and many a serious musician has called Bartók the finest composer of the Twentieth Century. It is hard to describe my despair in watching hundreds of people rushing to the exits of Symphony Hall at intermission. The music was not even given a chance to be heard.
The late Karl Haas told me years ago that he received many letters from listeners to his immensely popular radio program Adventures in Good Music. Many of these letters unequivocally let Mr. Haas know that “the moment that you announce that you are going to play music from the Twentieth Century, I turn off the radio before listening to a single note”. Reality can be most unfair.
Serious music is well on its way to extinction. If we want classical music to survive, the above must change.
But, on the other hand, I must admit, that even for me, a blindly loyal supporter and performer of classical music, the idea of attending a live concert which features nothing more than the same tired warhorses, becomes a silly ritual of sameness and redundancy; this is in spite of who the performers are, and of the prospects of a real, novel rendition of the familiar music.
Where do we go from here?
As I see it, the first obvious step is to encourage, promote, and commission living composers to create new works. But keeping in mind the already built-in resistance to new music, it is most important to guide composers to create works which will not repel the first-time listeners like the plague, while at the same time, not compromise the composer’s creative spirit. Such a happy medium is quite possible, without pandering to popular tastes, using clichés and lowering the standards of high art.
Composers have to understand the concept that pleasing the audiences is part of their job. If more composers take the attitude of Aaron Copland, who said if the public did not like some of his more “difficult works”, it was of no concern to him, people will eventually stop attending concerts and record companies will no longer issue any albums except those with the “greatest hits”. It is happening already, and we may have to close shop in a few decades in the future.
To this end, during the last 30 years, I have commissioned, or been involved in the creation of new, serious music which is accessible to the general public. And, yes, some of these works really sound “modern”, yet, when properly presented, can generate enthusiasm from the audiences.
These works have been successfully performed by my community orchestra, and some compositions have eventually been commercially recorded in Europe with world famous orchestras for worldwide distribution. And they have received quite favorable critical acclaim. There were many instances when I have faced the great orchestras of London, Scotland, Israel, Moscow, and Central Europe, where their musicians, many of them quite jaded from decades of dealing with parades of soloists, conductors, old and new music, have come up to me to express their enthusiasm and gratitude for bringing them music they had never heard, and were most pleased to know and play.
Case in point: Last week we premiered a Holocaust piece for narrator and orchestra by Arnold Rosner, From the Diaries of Adam Czerniakow, which illustrates through words and music the tragic events of the Warsaw Ghetto in the early 1940’s. People in the audience have reported to me that “there was not a dry eye in the house”.
A partial list of composers which I have involved with such projects includes Paul Creston, David Ward-Steinman, Arnold Rosner, Tzvi Avni, and Paul Turok. For the Millennium year, we commissioned five different works, some great, and some not so great. More recently, we commissioned and premiered Harvey Cohen’s Columbia Suite, in memory of the fallen astronauts, Tim Simonec’s Anne Frank, The Story, and Laurence Rosenthal’s Prophetic Voices, a Double Concerto for Solo Violin, Percussion, and Orchestra. We also premiered a commission to Valarie Morris, Voices of Shekhinah, a large work for four female voices and orchestra, celebrating Jewish women in history and the present.
I have thoroughly enjoyed conducting and recording for posterity lesser known music by famous composers such as Alan Hovhaness, Morton Gould, Gian Carlo Menotti, Norman Dello Joio, Vittorio Giannini, Nicolas Flagello, Vincent Persichetti, Walter Piston, Henry Cowell, Isidor Achron, Ernest Bloch, and many other worthy masters.
But, keep in mind: I do not like most modern music I hear; just because “it sounds modern”, it may have incomprehensible rhythms and token dissonances, simple cheap effects that will not please me. But I will always give new music a chance and welcome its performance. Once in a while, I am surprised and pleased. What music needs to do is to create an emotional response from its listeners, preferably a good one. But this is the chance we take. Call it the happiness of pursuit.
The more music we hear, traditional and new, the more discriminating we become, in a good way, and can differentiate the wheat from the chaff. This evolving process must continue in the concert halls and in recordings.
Let us not forget that the classics we revere from the past are the results of natural selection, the survival of the fittest. During the times of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and our many other musical heroes, there were hundreds, if not thousands of other composers and compositions which are not heard today. What we do hear is the best that has survived, with a few exceptional worthy discoveries here and there, which have become part of the repertory.
Obviously, not all music of today will survive, or deserves to heard again. But for this process to continue, we must all do our part. That, is, to commission composers, have the works performed and recorded, and most importantly, to listen to them with an optimistic ear. Let history be the judge, and let us be the immediate beneficiaries.
Amos is conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra and has guest conducted professional orchestras around the world.
(WJC)–In a new report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has criticized Poland for lack of progress in fighting anti-Semitic and racist discourse as well as a lack of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and the vulnerable situation of the Roma minority.
The report says that “it is disturbing that discriminatory attitudes persist in Poland. Anti-Semitism is tolerated in parts of the political world and influential media. Racism among football fans, involving serious insults to Black players and crude references to the Holocaust, is a major problem which must be tackled by the authorities as well as by the Polish Football Association and football clubs.
“Some extreme right-wing organizations continue their activities unchallenged. There is an obvious need to curtail hate speech in publications and on the Internet. The courts have an important contribution to make in this respect and confidence should be built in the National Broadcasting Council’s ability to deal with complaints about ethical standards.
“There is no comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, no independent specialized body to combat racism and discrimination on grounds of race, color, language, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin and no independent police complaints mechanism”.
ECRI is an independent human rights body of the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, France. It monitors problems of racism and intolerance, prepares reports and issues recommendations to the Council of Europe’s member states.
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
(WJC)–An alleged Mossad agent who is wanted in Germany in connection with the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai has been arrested in the Polish capital Warsaw. The arrest earlier this month of Uri Brodsky, and his possible extradition to Germany, could lead to a diplomatic row between Germany and Israel.
Germany wants Brodsky to face charges of falsifying documents to obtain a German passport, but according to news reports, Israel has pressed Poland not to extradite him. The German news magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ reported on Monday that Brodsky – an Israeli citizen suspected of working for the Mossad in Germany – was taken into custody upon arrival at Warsaw’s airport on 04 June. He is suspected of having helped another Mossad agent to illegally obtain a German passport as part of the plot to assassinate senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in January, according to the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
Al-Mabhouh co-founded the military wing of Hamas and was allegedly in Dubai to conclude a weapons deal when he was killed. Dubai police investigations have pointed to the involvement of 33 people in the plot. They were placed on Interpol’s most wanted list, and Germany particularly sought Brodsky, according to media reports.
A prosecution spokesman in Poland was quoted by ‘ Haaretz’ as saying that Polish authorities will ask the court in Warsaw to meet the German request for Brodsky’s extradition. The Polish prosecutor noted that the extradition would be based on a European arrest warrant which leaves Poland little choice in the matter, consistent with its legal obligations as a member of the European Union. “The Polish court will rule in 30 days whether the incarcerated person, under the name of Brodsky, will be extradited to Germany or not,” the spokesman for the Warsaw District Court added, according to the Israeli newspaper.
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO–The 17th Annual Jewish Arts Festival, which runs from May 30th to June 21, spans the wide spectrum of the performing arts. Malashock Dance and Hot P’Stromi brought together modern dance and Klezmer at the Lyceum Space Theatre in downtown San Diego. I attended the performance on June 13th.
What better way to celebrate art than to bring together artists of different genres to celebrate the life of another artist? John Malashock – founder and choreographer of Malashock Dance – and Yale Strom – violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, playwright and photographer – combined their significant talents to produce their newest collaboration Chagall.
The Lyceum Space Theatre is a small venue (seating approximately 270) with a square stage jutting out into the audience on two sides. Thus one is both near enough to feel close to the action, but far enough away to see the design concept as a whole. Seats are in tiers, so for the most part sight lines are good. Because of the proximity over zealous amplification can be avoided – for which this observer is grateful.
Strom brings his varied background plus a group of musicians playing Klezmer (and more) under the name: Hot P’Stromi. The program opened with several selections of Klezmer from parts of Eastern Europe, such as the vicinity where Chagall was born and spent his childhood, to Romania which is just across the river.
Love it or not, and I do love it, it is impossible not to respond to Klezmer. In some ways it is like American jazz – the musicians responding to one another, each in turn picking up the motif – adding, subtracting, clarifying and crafting a specific sound for a specific instrument. Then, coming all together they go rollicking along. But, Klezmer also can be winsome and even sad. The audience reacted to both – some barely able to keep their seats.
John Malashock founded his modern dance company in 1988 and has been a significant presence in San Diego ever since. His background is impressive and runs the gamut from film (dancing in Amadeus), television specials, choreographing for many other companies – both dance and opera -culminating in four Emmy awards. He spoke to the audience briefly – but enjoyably – about the work being performed and his plans for it.
Chagall is still a work in progress and Malashock presented three scenes from what will eventually be a full length amalgam of dance, music and imagery. The first scene was of the village Vitebsk, where Chagall was born in what is now Belarus, but was then Russia and at times Poland. The second scene is his first significant love who introduces him to her friend who becomes the “love of his life.”
Michael Mizerany, associate artistic director and senior dancer (with an impressive resume including two Lester Horton Dance Awards) was “Chagall” and brought to the role an understanding of how to portray a painter/artist through the art of dance/movement.
It is difficult to understand why Chagall would reject his first love, Thea, (Lara Segura) for Bella (Christine Marshall). But love is not mental – it is visceral and there is no accounting for it. It is the one emotion we cannot place at the service of reason; however, I think I would enjoy seeing that explored a bit more. Segura was a lovely Thea. Costumed in a simple short white sheath she danced passionately while still innocent enough to introduce her friend to her lover. Marshall, surely a fine dancer, didn’t quite tell me what Chagall saw in her to capture his heart – but perhaps that was not Malashock’s intent. Or perhaps Chagall didn’t know.
Chagall’s physical love feeds his artistic vision. He takes his brush and paints her in invisible images upon invisible canvasses. Then, he uses his brush to explore her body – never vulgarly – but always seeking to understand her outline. Maybe that is what he really needs.
The pas de deux (this is modern dance so perhaps I should say “dance for two”) is well done – but somehow didn’t convey the depth of passion that must have been there. However, this is still a work in progress not only for the choreographer, but also for the dancers and they haven’t as yet internalized it. It is certainly a good beginning.
Tribes premiered in 1996 and has the feeling and confidence of a complete work, completely conceived – much like a Mozart symphony. It is a dance (again using Strom’s original music) which is described by Malashock as follows: “….each dancer creates his/her own culture. These fantastical “tribes” connect, collide, and ultimately share in a blending of the eternal spirit.”
It is always fascinating to see what Malashock does with the music; forming groups and then breaking them apart. Each twosome or threesome dances to the same music at the same time, but completely differently – bringing to view other aspects of the music. And each is valid and “true.” I find myself saying “yes, that is how the music looks.” He also never falls overly in love with his own invention – it is given, enjoyed and then he moves on, confident in his next vision. The flow is natural, never contrived, and though one knows of the reality of the endless rehearsal which must have taken place, the movement is fresh, natural and seemingly – what a painter would call – a “happy accident.”
The dance flows from shape to shape, pausing for just a moment to allow the eye to capture it, but still keeping the seams between phrases invisible. The entire body is used; hands and heads as important as legs and arms as important as spines and breath. There were a couple of times, when the choreography allowed, I would have enjoyed seeing some eye contact betwixt the dancer and the observer – a living connection; “I am also dancing for you.”
Dance critic Orysiek is based in San Diego. She may be contacted at ORZAK@aol.com