Tags: Israel

Arbeit macht frei vom Toitland Europa [ארבייט מאכט פריי]

An almost five-hour long performance piece that uses Holocaust imagery to comment on how the memory of the Shoah continues to impact contemporary Israel. In addition, the piece draws parallels to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Aviya’s Summer [הקיץ של אביה]

The play is set in the first years of the State of Israel. 10-year-old Aviya is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, a single mother, who is mentally wounded from the trauma of the camps. Aviya lives in a special institute since her mother can't take care of her. During the summer vacation, Aviya stays with her mother, but it turns out to be the most difficult summer for the child because her mother has nightmares and mental breakdowns. The neighbors can't and won't understand the mother's distress, and are hard on both the child and her mother. Aviya is desperately looking for her father, and a lot of her problems arise from this hopeless search. But at the end of the summer, Aviya comes out stronger and better, while her mother is hospitalized.

Bells and Trains [פעמונים ורכבות]

Hans returns to his hometown in Germany to visit his aunt Henrietta. Henrietta is living in a Jewish old-people’s home, with other survivors. He wants her to return to Jerusalem with him, but she refuses. Henrietta tells Hans about the past, of the stories of the others living with her, and Hans remembers his own childhood in Germany, especially his childhood love, Lora, whose parents survived the camps. They tell him about her death on the very day of liberation. In the end Hans returns to Israel.

Brothers

A play for intermediate school students, Brothers is about family dislocation and reunion due to the Holocaust. Following the Nazis takeover of Poland and intensifying attacks on Jews, a Jewish family is only able to send one of their children to safety in Palestine. The drama focuses on the child's hardships alone in this new land and his eventual reunion with his surviving younger brother.

Cloudburst [שבר ענן]

Zibale and Mitzi Schtein are Holocaust survivors who live in Israel. Anat Levi, a young woman, comes to their home to interview them about their deceased daughter. However, Anat is really their granddaughter. She had been adopted and is searching for her biological parents. Their meeting brings to the surface old and new traumas that Zibale and Mitzi had worked hard to repress. Produced by Bet Lessin, Tel Aviv, in Hebrew and translated into English.

Elka’s Gold [הזהב של אלקה]

Elka saved her two sons in the Holocaust, but now, in Israel, she is still sheltering them. When her youngest son, Pesach, falls in love with Malia, a single mother, Elka objects but gives in. Her eldest son returns after running away from his mother and unloved wife, only to fall in love with Malia as well. The sons turn against one another, and against their mother. The family falls apart.

Lady of the Castle [בעלת הארמון]

In 1947, at the end of the war, two emissaries from the Jewish community in Israel are searching for and bringing back Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. They encounter an Eastern European aristocrat who continues to keep a Jewish girl in hiding after the war has ended. They arrive on a stormy night to an old castle, which was used as a Nazi headquarters during the war, but is now a museum. Its previous owner, Count Zabrodski, was allowed to stay as the castle's keeper. They stay the night and discover by accident Lena, a Jewish girl whom Zabrodski hid from the Nazis because he was in love with her. Zabrodski doesn’t tell Lena the war ended two years ago because he doesn’t want her to leave him. Dora and Michael tell her the truth, which she has a hard time accepting. But she is persuaded, and leaves with them to Israel.

Lech Lecha=Go Forth

The play, written for intermediate school students, chronicles the changing circumstance of two young Jewish girls: one leaves for Palestine, the other remains in Nazi Germany. The play employs flashbacks to present their former lives and the events leading to their separation.

On Lambs and Wolves [על שיות וזאבים]

Yashek is a Jewish boy who survived the Holocaust by being raised by his gentile nanny and her husband—who also christened him, giving him his name. But his birth name is Avner, and he is brought to Israel, and put in school. Yashek-Avner has a hard time adjusting, and the kids harass him.

She Wasn’t There [היא לא הייתה כאן]

Yadja is a survivor. When she first came to Israel, she started working as a nanny for a spoiled girl named Orna. Yadja comes to Orna's wedding and memories start to surface; memories from Orna's own childhood; and memories from the Holocaust—fears, hardships, traumas, and rare moments of grace.

The Banality of Love [הבנאליות של האהבה]

The complex love story between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. The play is set in 1920 when Arendt and Heidegger are young, during their affair, and in the “present” 1975, where a young Israeli student is interviewing a much older Arendt for the archive of the Hebrew University. During the interview Arendt exposes more than the known facts. Heidegger was Ardent's professor, and was a married man. He was also a known Nazi supporter. After the war, Arendt reconnects with Heidegger.

The Man From There [האיש משם]

Moish is a distant relative of Haim, his wife Dafna and their son Erez. Moish won't grow old and won't change his stripy pajamas. He comes for a surprise visit in order to make his dream come true: he wishes to move the old concentration camps to Israel. Haim sees commercial potential (that might help the family’s financial problems) and Moish gets assistance from Dafna’s brother, who is a cultural attaché in Germany. Dafna is against the plan since she doesn't want her home being turned into a memorial site for painful events.