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The play "Mr. Dr. Lehrer Friend" tells the story of friendship between Charles Dixon (originally from Bamberg, S.C.) and his mentor, Emil Loewenstein (originally from Bamberg, Germany).
This is a fictional story, but one rooted in 1930s and 1940s history when European Jews were fleeing Hitler's strong arm and blacks in the United States endured Jim Crow-era segregation.
In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Harrisburg-based PenOwl Productions Theatre Co. put on the play Sunday in York Township on a stage inside Temple Beth Israel on Hollywood Drive.
The play premiered earlier this year in Harrisburg, where a few Yorkers were in the audience.
"Honestly, I had never heard the story before," Stephanie Tavss said.
She saw the play that day and worked with members of the Jewish community to bring the production to York, she said.
From the play, Tavss learned about the experience of many Jewish refugee scholars, who after fleeing Europe to the United States, took jobs at historically black colleges in the 1930s when mainstream universities in this
York native Dorothy E. King wrote the play about the parallel experience of Jews and blacks under oppression.
"We're more alike than we are different," said King, who spoke to the audience of 60 after Sunday's performance.
"Sometimes people focus more on 'us' and 'them.' But we're all alike on this planet."
Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, began in 1959.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis systematically killed an estimated 6 million European Jews and millions of others they perceived to be "inferior," including disabled people, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti ("gypsies") and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Usually, the Jewish community in York gathers for a reading of Holocaust victims' names at Yom HaShoah, but "this year we decided we wanted to do something new," Tavss said.
Bernie Ravitz, who watched the play Sunday, said it made him think about the similarities between anti-Semitism and racism around the world.
"Of course, your color stands out much more than your religion. Sometimes that's easy to hide," said Ravitz, who lives in White Hall, Md.
Maureen Gary of Catonsville, Md., said it was good to see a Jewish-black partnership.
"You see how far we've come. Yet we always seem to see (some) steps backward," she said.
About 30 people stayed after the play for a solemn service in the synagogue sanctuary. Congregants prayed, sang and lit a memorial candelabra with six candles - each representing a million lost Jews.
The candelabra stays lit year-round, Rabbi Irwin Goldenberg said.
"God full of compassion whose presence is over us, may the souls of our 6 million dead ... find the safety and rest denied them on Earth beneath the shelter of your presence," Goldenberg prayed in Hebrew, then English.
"Master of mercy, cover them in the shelter of your wings forever, and bind their souls into the gathering of life. It is the Lord who is their heritage. May they be at peace in their place of rest."
Reach Melissa Nann Burke at 771-2024 or mburke@ydr.com.
YOM HASHOAH
Israel established Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, in 1959.
It falls on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan.
The Israeli parliament chose this date because it falls between the date the Warsaw ghetto uprising began in 1943 and Israel's Independence Day.
The date of Yom HaShoah also occurs during the traditional Jewish period of mourning known as the Counting of the Omer.
In the United States, this year's Days of Remembrance fall between Sunday and April 22.
Source: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
THE PLAY
Playwright Dorothy E. King picked up a piece of black history when she visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and it sparked an idea for a play.
A museum photograph showed white, Jewish intellectuals teaching black university students.
With further research, King learned how many Jewish scholars were dismissed from their posts in Germany and Austria because of Nazi policies or dissent. Some found jobs at historically black colleges in the 1930s United States when mainstream universities in this country wouldn't hire them.
King, a York native, teaches sociology at Penn State Harrisburg. Her research on the refugee scholars led to an original play, "Mr. Dr. Lehrer Friend."
A Harrisburg-based theatrical ensemble performed the play Sunday in York Township in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah.
The ensemble will perform the play Tuesday at the Harrisburg Jewish Community Center and at Susquehanna Township High School in Harrisburg.
ON THE WEB
· U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org
· Holocaust History Project: http://www.holocaust-history.org
· Association of Holocaust Organizations: http://www.ahoinfo.org
· Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education: http://www.holocaustandhumanity.org
· For video from the play, visit ydr.com
