Poland in US

On November 19, 2019, the festival ended at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland with a performance of The Wall directed by Maciej Wojtyszka. This one-woman play from the Jewish Theater in Warsaw is inspired by the story of Irena Sendler, who during World War II saved the lives of thousands of children, smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Sendler remained silent about her live-saving deeds for many years. She has been recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, and last year the Sejm proclaimed 2018 to be the year of Irena Sendlar. Ewa Dąbrowska played the extraordinary role of Irena Sendler in The Wall.

 

The festival began on November 17 at the Lincoln Square Synagogue with a world-class concert by cantor Yaakov Lemmer and Grammy award-winner Frank London, which was inspired by the work of artists such as Gershon Sirota and Mordechai Gebirtig. During the festival’s opening that evening, the Ester Rachel and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theatre from Warsaw performed Humesh Lider, a play based on the book by Itzik Manger, written and directed by Andreia Munteanu, with music composed by Dov Seltzer, one of the great contemporary composers and conductors in the world. Itzik Manger took us on a journey through the rich world of Yiddish tradition with light, funny and instructive poems from the “Five Books of the Torah” and their biblical characters, which the author presents as contemporary Jews living in Poland in the 1920s.

 

The festival also presented the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Children and adults had the opportunity to attend Singer Storytime at the Midwood Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and the Riverside Branch of the New York Public Library. Adrian Kubicki, the Director of the Polish Institute of Culture in New York, performed at the Riverside Branch. Also, during the festival, the films Yentl and Enemy: A Love Story—both adapted from the work of Singer—were screened at the City College of New York.

 

Consulate General in New York