Kathy Kacer

Music for better world

Novelist Milan Kundera said of Jews in the 20th century that they “were the principal cosmopolitan, integrating element in Central Europe: they were its intellectual cement, a condensed version of its spirit, creators of its spiritual unity. That’s why I love Jews and cling to their heritage with as much passion and nostalgia as though it were my own.”

I love reading these words, it helps me keep my head up. And motivated. I think of them often as I work on two major concerts which celebrate multiple aspects of Jewish heritage and history, the devastating impacts of hate, and the need for more love and compassion in the world today.

You may remember my last endeavour, Project Tehillim, which was about the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War. (See jewishindependent.ca/music-to-say-thank-you.) I grew up in Bulgaria and, while I never experienced the antisemitism, I knew about it from history books. This is why I am shocked and horrified at what is going on around the world, including here in Vancouver. One of my friends said: “The evil is shocking. The willingness of this evil to parade itself is even more shocking.”

I can only respond with what I know best: the power of music and art. The arts have the incredible ability to affect people more profoundly than plain facts. It is personal stories, artistically presented, that have an emotional impact.

I am the artistic director, with fellow pianist Jane Hayes, of Yarilo Contemporary Music Society, which is dedicated to high-quality professional music performances. The Yarilo ensemble has performed in Zurich, Moscow, Sofia and Tel Aviv, and the society has commissioned a number of Canadian composers: Jocelyn Morlock, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Jordan Nobles, John Burke, Colin MacDonald, Michael Conway Baker and Farangis Nurulla-Khoja. We work with members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and we collaborate with Leslie Dala, the conductor of the Vancouver Opera and the Bach Choir.

Because government and other funding for the arts is in huge decline, I am turning to you, my fellow Jewish community members, for help in realizing Yarilo’s next project: Compassion Above All.

The first concert of the project, To Hope and Back, is a chamber music event that will take place this year on Nov. 10, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., at Orpheum Annex. The budget is $10,000.

To Hope and Back is based on the book of the same name by Kathy Kacer, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. The book tells the story of the SS St. Louis through the eyes of two children on board the ship that sailed from Germany in 1939 carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees and was refused the right to land by every country, including Canada, forcing it to return to Europe, where many of the passengers were murdered in the Holocaust. The November concert will include two child actors reading excerpts from the book and Kacer has confirmed that she would like to come for the event from Toronto. It will include the music of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Iman Habibi and Gheorghi Arnaoudov. Steve Reich’s work, “Different Trains,” includes archival recordings from the trains going to Auschwitz.

The second concert, The Tale of Esther in Our Time, is a symphony music concert conducted by Dala, and it will take place in 2025, on March 29, 7:30 p.m., at Christ Church Cathedral. Its budget is between $60,000 and $80,000.

The featured work of The Tale of Esther in Our Time is Iman Habibi’s “Shāhīn-nāmeh,” which was nominated for a Juno and won the Azrieli Foundation award for Jewish music in 2022. Based on the poetry of 14th-century Judeo-Persian poet Shahin Shirazi, the composition depicts the tale of Esther and delves into the themes of love, spiritual struggle and devotion. “Shāhīn-nāmeh” calls out for love and compassion; it brings the heart of humanity into focus.

Also on the program will be Arvo Part (“Tabula Raza”), Peteris Vasks (“The Message”) and Kelly-Marie Murphy (“En El Escuro Es Todo Uno,” “In the Darkness We Are One”).

Please feel free to ask any questions. I will also happily take any advice for funding opportunities. Any donation, even the smallest one, is a great support, financial and moral.

For more information about Yarilo, visit yarilomusic.com. To donate, go to gofundme.com.

Witnessing her history

In spring 2015, at Luneburg Regional Court in Germany, the trial of Oskar Groening, “the bookkeeper of Auschwitz,” began. Nineteen-year-old Torontonian Jordana Lebowitz, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, was among those who witnessed the proceedings. The young adult book To Look a Nazi in the Eye: A Teen’s Account of a War Criminal Trial (Second Story Press, 2017), written with award-winning author Kathy Kacer, is about what Lebowitz experienced before, during and after the trial.

The book has different components and is not structured like a usual biography or historical account. It includes Lebowitz’s recollections as told to Kacer, as well as selections from Lebowitz’s blog, which the then-teen wrote for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Toronto about the trial. Numerous Holocaust survivors, now living in Canada, speak about their experiences at Auschwitz. They also traveled to Germany for Groening’s trial.

Lebowitz shares her concerns about going to Germany and readers learn how she made the trip come about. After almost every chapter, there are excerpts of Groening’s testimony that Kacer has based on news articles and interviews, as there were no transcripts from the trial itself. These sections allow readers to know what Groening was thinking as his claims were being assessed by the court. Charged with being complicit in the deaths of more than 300,000 Jews, he was eventually found guilty.

Lebowitz epitomizes how individuals from my generation should act. Her main goal was to ensure that the experiences of Holocaust survivors would be recorded so that future generations would be able to access them, and learn from them. Her main purpose in going to the trial was to witness this history and make sure that future generations would know it, too.

Lebowitz had been to Auschwitz on a March of the Living trip. The program takes students from around the world to Poland and Israel, so they can see firsthand and learn about the Jewish communities that once existed in Europe and the tragedy of the Holocaust that wiped almost all of them out. It was on March of the Living that Lebowitz met Holocaust survivor Hedy Bohm, with whom she became close friends. Bohm was imprisoned in Auschwitz for three months and testified in the trial against Groening.

As the bookkeeper at Auschwitz, Groening not only witnessed many Jews coming off the trains, but confiscated their possessions as they arrived. He was not tried for being a murderer, but for helping the Nazis murder Jews. The German government wanted Groening’s trial to occur, as they wanted Nazis who were still living to be brought to justice, even if it was many decades later.

Lebowitz heard about the trial from Bohm, and then set to figure out how she could attend it. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre agreed to fund the trip if she would blog her experience in the courtroom for others to read and follow as the trial was taking place. She managed to convince her parents she could handle what she would face on the trip during the trial, and Thomas Walther, the prosecutor, helped Lebowitz find a place to stay in Germany and procured a pass to allow her into the courtroom.

To Look a Nazi in the Eye is powerful in part because it reveals the compassion Lebowitz initially felt for Groening, in his frailty, sitting in the courtroom each day. He recounted heartbreaking stories of what had transpired in the camp. But, while Lebowitz believed at the start of the trial that he was truly sorry for what he had done, Groening’s stories began to change, and not for the better. He also said he was not guilty because he did not personally hurt or exterminate Jews.

As her daily accounts progress, there are humourous moments that balance out the horrific stories about Auschwitz. For example, purses and paper were not permitted in the courtroom. In order to blog, however, Lebowitz needed a notepad and pen. So, she snuck toilet paper and a pen that was hidden in a place the security guards would not find during a body search. Her persistence paid off, and Lebowitz managed to take notes each day. That her family and others read her blog posts gave her some assurance that she was succeeding in her mission of helping keep the history alive and relevant.

One part of To Look a Nazi in the Eye that is amazing is how Lebowitz interacts with the Holocaust survivors. Bohm, Bill Glied and Max Eisen were among the survivors who attended the trial and were brave enough to recount their experiences at Auschwitz. For them, and others, it was a duty to their family and themselves to ensure that some form of justice was achieved. At first, they seem pretty hesitant of a younger individual being at the trial, but later open up to Lebowitz more. Seeing a person from a younger generation advocating for this cause made them happy, in a sense.

Since returning to Canada, Lebowitz has remained involved in Holocaust remembrance. As the book’s website notes, she “came to understand that, by witnessing history, she gained the knowledge and legitimacy to be able to stand in the footsteps of the survivors who went before her and pass their history, her history, on to the next generation.”

Chloe Heuchert is a fifth-year history and political science student at Trinity Western University.

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The following excerpt was published by CM: The Canadian Review of Materials and can be found, along with a review of To Look a Nazi in the Eye, at umanitoba.ca/cm/vol24/no2/tolookanaziintheeye.html:

“I wanted to leave,” replied Groening again in a voice that had grown increasingly hoarse. “I asked for a transfer to the front.”

Was it Jordana’s imagination or was Groening faltering under the strain of the trial and the intense cross-examination? She hadn’t noticed it before, but he looked decidedly weaker at this point in the proceedings than he had looked in the beginning. His face was haggard, his shoulders slumped, and his hands trembled.

Finally, Thomas [Walther] gathered his notes together and stood in the centre of the courtroom. “Behind me sit the survivors who are here to testify, along with their descendants,” he said. “I ask you, Herr Groening, did you ever think when you were in Auschwitz that the Jewish prisoners might stay alive and eventually have their own children?”

Groening shook his head and closed his eyes. When he finally responded, his voice was faint. “No. Jews did not get out of Auschwitz alive.”

Life lessons in many forms

It is amazing how many common themes run through even the most disparate books. The selection reviewed by the Jewish Independent this year includes both picture books and novels for teens; the topics range from genocide and oppression, to a grandmother dying and a family getting a dog; the stories take place in fictional worlds and all too real places. Yet, the vast majority of lessons or values imparted are the same.

The importance of family, friendship, resilience, responsibility, creativity, compassion, caring for those less fortunate or more vulnerable, accepting the reality of death – all make an appearance in the books that follow.

From the wonderfully imaginative mind of Joan Betty Stuchner, who sadly passed away earlier this year, Bagels Come Home (Orca Echoes, 2014) is the story of Bagels, a behavior-challenged but friendly dog that the Bernsteins adopt from a shelter. He joins the family’s goldfish, Lox, and their cat, Creamcheese. However, when it proves almost impossible to train him, 8-year-old Josh (who suggested getting a dog in the first place) and his 5-year-old sister Becky must work together (keenly on her part, not so much on his) to keep their parents from returning Bagels. The black and white illustrations by Dave Whamond complement the jovial energy and mood of Stuchner’s tale.

Inspired by a discussion that author Michelle Gilman had with her children after their grandma (bubbie) died, What Grandma Built (Gilman Press, 2014) deals with death straight on. The book – with colorful, childlike drawings by Jazmin Sasky – introduces readers to Grandma when she falls in love with Grandpa. We share in a few of the highlights of their lives, building a house, having children, becoming grandparents. Much of the story is about the fun times that their grandchildren have with them. But then Grandma becomes ill and, despite all the love and care she receives, passes away. The house that Grandma helped build may not last forever, but the home she built, her “cathedral,” will, “especially in the hearts and memories of our family.”

The Magician of Auschwitz (Second Story Press, 2014) by Kathy Kacer is also based on a true story. During the Holocaust, young Werner – whose father died years ago, whose older sister went into hiding with a Christian family two years earlier and who last saw his mother at the police station where he was held before being sent to the concentration camp – is fortunate to meet Herr Levin, whose wife and son are also in the camp, “somewhere.” A gentle soul, Levin treats Werner with kindness so, when Levin is awakened one night, Werner is afraid he may lose his only friend. However, the guards order Levin: “Do your magic!” And he does. Levin’s magic not only saves his life, but Werner’s – a gift Werner never forgets.

The illustrations by Gillian Newland are in dark, rich tones, appropriate for the subject matter, and brightening for the image of an elder Werner teaching his sons the card trick Levin taught him. The book includes a section about the real-life Werner and Levin (the Great Nivelli).

Lynne Kositsky’s The Plagues of Kondar (Dundurn Press, 2014) takes readers to a planet divided by a dense wall of fog: the sun shines on Lightside, while only darkness prevails on Oscura. Arien, 14 cycles old, lives in Lightside, but her life goes from brightness to hardship soon after we meet her. Short on food supplies, her parents set off to see if another settlement has grain to spare, but they don’t make it back. Sold into slavery to pay her parents’ alleged debts, Arien must be strong, confident, resourceful – and kind – to survive. When some Oscurans inadvertently bring a plague to Lightside, Arien is at the centre of the efforts to cure it, and not just for her own people but for the Oscurans, despite the long-told tales that describe them as “ghosts and ghouls.”

Silvana Goldemberg’s Victoria (Turnaround, 2013) is translated from the Spanish by Emilie Smith. Victoria’s title character and her younger twin brothers live with their aunt until the aunt’s boyfriend attempts to sexually assault the 14-year-old. Victoria flees to the streets of Paraná, Argentina, where she must fend for herself among drug dealers and other dangers. Taking control, and keeping to her personal values, Victoria works hard, makes new friends and builds a life that promises better things for her and her brothers.

Building a new life is also central to Rachel’s Hope (Second Story Press, 2014), the third in Shelly Sanders’ Rachel trilogy. We first met Rachel at age 14, in Kishinev, Russia. Her dreams of being a writer are put on hold, as the murder of a Christian man leads to pogroms and chaos, beginning Easter Sunday 1903; however, among all the bad, she is helped by Sergei, a non-Jewish boy.

The unrest in Russia continues and the next time we meet Rachel, her father has been killed and she and the rest of her family flee to Shanghai, where they save money for a ship to America; Sergei remains in Russia, becoming a factory worker, but the horrid conditions lead him to join the rebellions.

Rachel’s Hope begins in winter 1905: Rachel, her sister and brother-in-law, and their young charge, Menahem, have made it to San Francisco (her mother dies in Shanghai); Sergei is still in Russia, part of the revolutionaries. This part of the trilogy introduces readers to the many challenges immigrants face when coming to a new country, encountering a new language, a new culture. But, as hard as life may be in the United States, as unequal as women’s or immigrants’ rights may be, as hard as it is to recover from a natural disaster (the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco), the comparison with Russia at that point in its history is stark. The devastating effects of violent oppression last well beyond the attainment of freedom.