Music of remembrance

ARASH BEN SHAUL

Cultures and people mingled at the Norman Rothstein Theatre on the evening of Jan. 28, when the Instituto Italiano di Cultura and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre jointly held a concert commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The concert, titled Voices of Prayer, featured performances by the Italian-Israeli singer Charlette Shulamit Ottolenghi and Israeli-born pianist Anat Fort. The event drew a mixed audience of about 300 Jews and Italians. Present were Italy's Vancouver consul general, Uberto Vanni D'Archirafi, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre's executive director, Frieda Miller, and six local Holocaust survivors.

Miller, in her welcoming remarks, spoke of the origins of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as an international day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Holocaust by passing Resolution 60-7. The resolution obliges each UN member nation to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and to develop educational programs to instil the memory of the tragedy in future generations.

Miller thanked the Holocaust survivors in Vancouver for coming together 30 years ago to set the foundations of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. "Each in their own way, survivors in our community have dedicated themselves to the task of tikkun olam, repairing the world," she said, "by speaking tirelessly and passionately to young people – not only about the Holocaust, but also about the dangers of racism in all its forms."

D'Archirafi, in his keynote speech, emphasized Italy's commitment to preserving "the memory of the communities which disappeared in the Holocaust" and to "promoting awareness" about it. "Italy's commitment to this day is worldwide," he said. "Wherever there is an Italian embassy or consulate, we collaborate with others or alone to educate the younger generations about the Holocaust."

In Vancouver, this is the third year in a row that the Italian consulate has partnered with VHEC and the Norman Rothstein to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. "The force of memory can definitely represent, for us and for the newer generations, a path towards the realization of a more civil and just world," said D'Archirafi, "a world in which love for others overrides hatred, and where the courage to make changes overrides fear."

Following the consul general's speech and a candlelighting ceremony in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, the performers took to the stage.

Ottolenghi, who was raised in Milan but immigrated to Israel at the age of 18, performs both Italian and Jewish folk and classical music. She has most recently been focusing on researching, performing and popularizing the Jewish liturgical repertoire of the Italian tradition. In her introductory remarks, she said that Jews had lived in Italy since the second century and had a rich and unique liturgical style infused with Italian melodies and tunes.

"The Jewish liturgy is the same everywhere," she said. "When Jews pray, they say the same prayers and sing the same songs everywhere in the world, but the musical traditions, the melodies, are different."

Ottolenghi performed several popular liturgical pieces well known to many in the audience. However, each prayer, such as L'cha Dodi, V'shamru and the Kaddish, was set to an Italian-styled composition.

Ottolenghi briefly left the stage to allow Fort to play some solo improvisations of popular tunes taken from Jewish liturgy. Ottolenghi then returned to perform a number of songs and lullabies that were written and composed by Jewish women in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

One of the most moving was a lullaby called "Wiegala Wiegala." It was composed in the Therezienstadt concentration camp by Ilse Weber, a Hungarian poet who later voluntarily chose to accompany her young son to Auschwitz, where she perished in the gas chambers. The words of the lullaby, "Everything will be OK, my son, have patience and endure, the world will again be a garden," captured the sombre yet hopeful mood of the event.

Commenting on the songs, Ottolenghi said that it was her desire to perform them not just at special occasions and commemorative events, but to sing them every day as a tribute to the Holocaust victims.

The evening concluded with a reception at the VHEC, where the Jewish and Italian guests mingled and chatted with the performers and dignitaries.

"It's wonderful," said Katie Hughes, one of the Holocaust survivors present at the event. "Judaism is unique in that it is practised, experienced and expressed in so many cultural contexts."

Arash Ben Shaul is a Vancouver freelance writer.

^TOP