8:00am
REPLAY: Performance
IF AT ALL
להקת המחול הקיבוצית - אמבכלל
Generously sponsored by the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company
Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company presents a moving theatrical event in figurative and abstract circles, from the closed form to the open structure. Physical space in motion whose essence is a chain of events of diverse and ever-changing interpersonal relationships.
Introduction by Yoni Avital (International Director)
Choreography, Stage & Lighting Design by Rami Be’er
Music by Volcano Choire, H. Gudnadottir, Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Murcof, Olafur Arnalds, M. Richter, J. Johansson, L. Einaudi, Ophir Leibovitch
Sound design by Rami Be’er, Alex Claude
Costume Design by Rami Be’er, Maor Zabar
The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company has been widely identified with the works of its Artistic Director Rami Be'er. His creations have credited the company with international acclaim as it frequently performs in theaters and festivals around the world. His work is known to arouse much interest and curiosity with audiences both in Israel and abroad, and as a result the company continues to enjoy an ever increasing demand for its performances on stages worldwide.
8:45am
Survivor Lounge: Dr. Max Eisen
Conversation with Holocaust Survivor, Dr. Max Eisen. Interviewed by Marilyn Sinclair.
9:00am
Interactive Exhibits
Liberated by the Red Army
Organized by the Consulate General of Russia in Toronto. Presented by Dr. Sergei Plekhanov (Russian and post-Soviet studies professor for York University) & Edward Staroselsky (director and producer for Bravo Films). The Holocaust was an integral part of Nazi Germany’s Drang nach Osten ("March to the East"), aimed at conquering and colonizing vast territories in the eastern part of Europe. The Holocaust began on June 22, 1941, when Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union. Russia was to be wiped off the map as a state, its population to be killed, starved to death, or enslaved. Hitler’s monstrous plan envisioned the total extermination of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union, Poland and other European countries. Death camps were built for that specific purpose. Millions of people fell victim to Nazi genocide in the territories occupied by Germany in 1939-1942 before the tide of the war turned. In April 1944, advancing Red Army troops liberated the first death camps in Poland, and the world was stunned to discover the horrendous evidence of the Holocaust. This exhibition contains a selection of historical materials about the Holocaust, the incredible courage of those who fought against it, and the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Europe from the scourge of Nazism.
The Holocaust Museum in Guatemala
Presented by Yahad-In Unum & Museo del Holocausto Guatemala: Marco Gonzalez (Director of Yahad-In Unum), Katya Duzenko (Project Manager for Yahad In-Unum's Interactive Map), Jose Angel del Valle (Executive Director of the Holocaust Museum in Guiatemala) & Edward Hillel (Artistic Director of the Holocaust Museum in Guatemala). Founded by Father Patrick Desbois and Yahad In-Unum, the new Holocaust Museum in Guatemala aims to engage the Spanish-speaking Americas in holocaust education, understanding antisemitism and connecting it to larger human rights concerns. It is unique in two ways: it was created by a non-Jewish organization to engage primarily a non-Jewish audience; and its focus is the Holocaust By Bullets, the genocide that took place throughout Central and Eastern Europe beyond the concentration camps. This session will introduce the artistic concept of the exhibition grounded in Yahad’s 20-year investigation of places and witnesses of the Holocaust by Bullets, and share the museum’s plans for the future.
Witnesses to History, Keepers of Memory: Portraits of Montreal's Holocaust Survivors
Presented by Montreal Holocaust Museum: Marie-Blanche Fourcade (Head of Collections and Exhibitions) & Eszter Andor (Commemoration and Oral History Coordinator). For almost 40 years, Holocaust survivors have shared their life stories with visitors at the Montreal Holocaust Museum. In 2019, a photography project was launched to celebrate the exceptional contributions of these witnesses to history and keepers of memory. The Museum’s Commemoration and Oral History Coordinator, Eszter Andor, and Photographer Stéphanie Cousineau were given the mission to meet with thirty survivors in the privacy of their homes. Each visit offered a special opportunity to share memories and discover precious personal possessions. Through images and testimonies, the exhibition offers a sensitive and multi-faceted look at extraordinary life trajectories.
10:00am
The Future of Memory
Dr. Kori Street
How USC Shoah Foundation is using new technologies to tell the stories of survivors & to keep Holocaust memory alive.
Dr. Kori Street is the Senior Director of Programs and Operations at USC Shoah Foundation. She came to the Institute in 2011 from Mount Royal University, where she was an Associate Professor and served as Chair of Entrepreneurship, Nonprofit Studies, International Business and Aviation in the Bissett School of Business. After completing a Masters in the History of Education and Gender/Feminism at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, Dr. Street received her PhD in history from the University of Victoria in 2001. Her focus was military and social history, an interest fueled by her four years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces. Her current research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, the Canadian home front in the First World War, and the Holocaust. She completed a major web-based project with a colleague in the Department of Humanities on the "Black Donnelleys" with the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History group. The website engages students in the study of history using inquiry-based learning models and won the MERLOT Award for innovation in 2008 and the Pierre Berton Award in 2009. Dr. Street’s current work is focused on the preservation and educational use of Holocaust survivor testimonies. This focus has also resulted in work with national and international committees on Holocaust education, remembrance, and research as well as an examination of Holocaust imagery in the Harry Potter books and films. Continuing the focus on education, her other areas of research are problem-based learning and the integration of information literacy into the classroom. In recognition of her teaching, scholarship and service record, Dr. Street won the Mount Royal University Distinguished Faculty Award in 2011.
11:00am
Pre-Shabbat Performance:
Welcoming Shabbat with Songs from Yonina
A 30-minute Kaballat Shabbat concert on acoustic guitar & piano.
"Yonina” (a combination of our names -Yoni and Nina Tokayer) began from the moment we met, on a beautiful balcony in Tzfat, Israel. We had both been pursuing music our entire lives, and once we met we began dreaming about making music together. We are an Israeli-American musical duo who first started sharing our music through weekly home videos posted to social media. Since we first began posting our videos in 2016, our music has reached millions of viewers, with the record being our cover of “One Day” which had over 40 million views from around the globe. In September of 2017 we released our debut album, "Emet Pshuta" (Simple Truth), with original hit songs like “Ahava”, “Rega Mechuvan”, “Seriously” and “Shir Shel Boker”. For the past three years we’ve been performing throughout Israel, the US and Europe, in both large-scale concerts and private events. Currently, we’re working on our second album and continuing to write & record music, perform and produce music videos. We've been married for four years and have two sweet children- Ashira (3) and Achiya Yehuda (1)- who make guest appearances in our videos. We live in the rural city of Pardes Chana in Northern Israel.
In honor of Liberation Day, May 8th, go to the Film Festival and watch:
Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses
Film Screening
USC Shoah Foundation
As the United States plunged into World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, few American civilians or soldiers knew what was happening to the Jews of Europe. And so, even as the deadliest, most destructive war in history came to a close, soldiers from the U.S. and women who served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps — along with their Allied partners from the UK, the Soviet Union, and other countries — were not prepared for what they would encounter as they uncovered the Nazi atrocities both in the field and the concentration camps.