The East Brunswick Library continues its Holocaust remembrance program series with “The Jews of Central Europe Before the Holocaust with Focus on Hungary” multi-media lecture and music at 2:30 p.m. on April 28 at the Community Arts Center, 721 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick.
The program is dedicated to Hungarian-Jewish poet Hannah Senesh, who is regarded as a national heroine in Israel. It is produced by Michael Kesler of East Brunswick. Since his retirement in 2006, Kesler has written extensively of his and his late wife’s experiences during World War II.
This is the sixth event that he has planned in a series that chronicles the history and culture of Jewish populations in Europe before the Holocaust.
Historian Glenn Dynner, chair of Humanities at Sarah Lawrence College, will highlight Hungarian Jewry’s role in commerce and industry, as well as in the culture and the arts of the country. It will include the rise of Hasidism, the growth of the Jewish press, and the significant musical exchanges with Hungarian composers and artists at the highest levels. It will also bring to light the Jews’ golden years in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Dr. Tamara Freeman, Holocaust ethnomusicologist and concert violist, will preside over the art program. She will play her 1935 Joseph Bausch viola, rescued from the Holocaust.
She will be joined by a number of accomplished musicians: Michael Kesler, a former cantor, tenor; David Schlossberg, pianist and composer; Dr. Susan Hornstein, alto; Donna Messer, recorder player; Steven White, tenor; David Simen, bass baritone; Mary Rose Schneider, clarinetist; David Goldfarb, clarinetist; Deborah Gerber, vocalist; and Korina Kesler, violinist.
The program is free and open to the public. There is limited seating. For more information, visit www.ebpl.org/calendar.
