RELIGION
CONGREGATIONS Beth Abraham Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Daily services 6:50 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. Fri., 5:30 p.m. Sat. 9 a.m. and sundown Sat. eve. Sundays at 8:30 a.m. 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 293-9520. BethAbrahamDayton.org Beth Jacob Congregation Traditional Mornings: Sun., Mon., Thurs., 7 a.m. Sat. 9:30 a.m. Evenings: Sun. through Fri. 7 p.m. 7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 274-2149. BethJacobCong.org Temple Anshe Emeth Reform Friday, April 18, 7:30 p.m. Rabbinic Intern Marc Kasten 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. Call Eileen Litchfield, 937-5470092, elitchfield@woh.rr.com. Correspondence address: 3808 Beanblossom Rd., Greenville, OH 45331. ansheemeth.org Temple Beth Or Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator David Burstein Fridays 7:30 p.m. Tot Shabbat 4th Friday, 5:30 p.m. Saturdays 10 a.m. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 4353400. templebethor.com Temple Beth Sholom Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz See Web site for schedule. 610 Gladys Dr., Middletown. 513-422-8313. thetemplebethsholom.com Temple Israel Reform Rabbi David M. Sofian Rabbi/Educator Karen Bodney-Halasz 1st & 2nd Fri., 6 p.m. Other Fri., 7:30 p.m. Tot Shabbat 4th Fri., 6 p.m. Sat., 10:30 a.m. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050. tidayton.org Temple Sholom Reform Fridays 6 p.m. 2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 399-1231. templesholomoh.com
ADDITIONAL SERVICES Chabad of Greater Dayton Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon. Beginner educational service Saturdays 9 a.m. adults, 10 a.m children. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 643-0770. www.chabaddayton.com Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Services 1st & 3rd Saturdays, 10-noon. Antioch College Rockford Chapel. Contact Cheryl Levine, 937-767-9293. PAGE 28
The girl in the red coat
transcripts and taped testimonies at the trial of Adolph Eichmann. Survivor Dr. Martin Földi answered questions posed And though the 15-year-old depict a rabbi teaching children to him by Israeli prosecuting By Rabbi Judy Chessin attorney, Gavriel Bach. skater stated that the song their Hebrew alphabet. Temple Beth Or, and Chair, Földi was asked to describe The song’s haunting last Synagogue Forum of Dayton didn’t have any deep meaning for her, Yulia’s program verse warns that, when the chil- the infamous selection process We cheered when gymnast dren grow older, then they will at the gates of Auschwitz. Földi Aly Raisman wowed the crowd was choreographed by former Olympic ice-dancing medalist, understand how many tears lie described how he and his son with her floor performance to were sent to the right and his Ilia Averbukh, a Russian Jew. in those time-honored letters. the strains of Hava Nagila at It has even been posited The song is prophetic, for the wife and his little daughter, the 2012 Summer Olympics in that the music was perfect for child actress who portrayed the clad in a red coat, were sent to London. It was with less enthe left. a diminutive, selfgirl in the red coat, thusiasm that critics hailed the But the SS officer changed his contained, and not Oliwia Dabrowska, 15-year-old Russian ice skater, mind and told Földi’s son to go was only 3 years old Yulia Lipnitskaya, when she be- yet sophisticated or instead to the left and join his nuanced performer, when she played the mother and sister. Momentarily evoking the very innorole. Földi panicked. How would his cence of the girl in the Director Steven Spielberg warned her 11-year-old son find his mother came the youngest person ever red coat in Spielberg’s and sister among the thousands movie. during the filming to win Winter Olympic gold, Who was the girl not to view the movie of people moving off to the left? performing to the theme song But then he felt relieved. Surely in the red coat in until she was 18. from Schindler’s List in Sochi in the little girl’s red coat would Schindler’s List? In the The actress actually February. be “like a beacon” so that the city of Krakow, Oskar Rabbi Judy Chessin watched it when she Immediately, social media boy could join his mother and Schindler runs a facwas 11, and was hormocked her performance as sister. Little did Földi know “Schindler’s List: On Ice!” Slate tory in which he employs cheap rified — angry at her parents Jewish labor. As Schindler wit— for allowing her to be cast in that the line to the left went to Magazine called the musical the gas chambers. “I never saw nesses the terrifying liquidation the role. Only when she grew choice vulgar and Salon magaof the Jewish ghetto by the Naup did she become proud of the them again,” he concluded. zine said the use of the 1993 After this zis, his eye is caught by a tiny role she played. Academy Award-winning Holocaust testimony, Israel’s girl in a red coat (one of the few When Polish theme song “raises questions images in color in a black-andpainter Roma of taste and respect,” even representations prosecuting attorney Gavriel white film) being rounded up. Ligocka, cousquestioning its sportsmanin art and in Bach became visOnly later does Schindler see ins with Roman ship. Lipnitskaya’s choice of a ibly overcome. It the child’s corpse with its red Polanski, saw the sports walk red costume evoked the iconic seemed that he had coat atop a pile of dead bodmovie, she was image of the murdered 3-yeara fine line just bought a red certain that she old child in the movie and was ies ready to be hauled off and between coat for his own burned by the Nazis to destroy was the girl, for therefore, manipulative. After little daughter. the evidence of their heinous she stood out in all, what judge could vote becoming Holocaust repthe Krakow ghetto against the murdered girl in the crimes. evocative and resentations in art It is this image, the girl in as the owner of a red coat? manipulative. and in sports walk the red coat, which galvanized red coat. Others disagreed, citing the a fine line between Schindler to create his famous The coat actuuse of the John William’s score list and to try to save the lives ally saved her life, for when she becoming evocative and mato Schindler’s List for Olympic of his Jewish factory workers. fled to a Polish farmer’s family, nipulative. Art critics remind us ice skating competitions ever that portrayal of the Shoah in During the actual scene of the woman who answered the since the movie was made. any form runs the risks of hurtthe liquidation, the background door was charmed with her Paul Wyle skated to it in ing survivors’ feelings and senand said, “What a sweet little 1994, Katarina Witt (a German) music is not the movie theme strawberry.” However, Ligocka, sitivities, depicting the horrors in 1995, and even Israel’s sibling song, but rather the Yiddish folk song Oyfn Pripetchik, which unlike her fictional counterpart, of past events in inflammatory dance team, Roman and Alexways, trivializing the horror, means “by the hearth.” The survived the Holocaust. andra Zaretsky, in 2010. Another association with the and creating something even The haunting melody is filled Yiddish words, intoned by a possibly pleasurable, out of the children’s choir in the movie, red-coated girl appeared in the with drama and melancholy. hell that was the Holocaust. Thus did philosopher, ThePesach odor W. Adorno, intimate that Passover Candle there can be no poetry after April 15-22 Auschwitz. Lightings 15-22 Nisan And yet, as we now approach Eight-day festival Yom Hashoah, nearly 70 years Shabbat, April 4: 7:45 p.m. celebrating the Exodus of the after the events, it behooves our Israelites from Egypt. At the generation to keep the images Shabbat, April 11: 7:52 p.m. Seder (literally, the order of the and the stories alive. ritual meal — with stories and Erev Pesach, April 14: 7:55 p.m. In today’s world, sports figprayers), the Haggadah (the ures celebrate their goals with telling — the text of the Seder) First Eve Pesach antisemitic salutes (the quenelle April 15: 8:56 p.m. is read, and the story of the reverse Nazi salute) calling to Torah Portions Exodus is told. Matzah is eaten. mind the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Shabbat, April 18: 7:59 p.m. Thus will I tolerate, in fact April 5/5 Nisan Yom Hashoah even celebrate, that a JewSeventh Eve Pesach, Metzora (Lev. 14:1-15:33) Holocaust ish choreographer in Russia April 20: 8:01 p.m. Remembrance Day has seen the movie Schindler’s April 12/12 Nisan April 27/27 Nisan Eighth Eve Pesach, Acharei (Lev. 16:1-18:30) List, and that a 15-year-old ice Marked by April 21: 9:02 p.m. dancer is free to dress up as, but memorials for those who April 26/26 Nisan will never become, the girl in perished in the Holocaust. Shabbat, April 25: 8:06 p.m. Kedoshim (Lev. 19:1-20:27) the red coat.
Perspectives
April Nisan
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • APRIL 2014