MARCH OF THE LIVING BENEFIT
CONCERT
 The
“1939" Club and the Lodzer Organization jointly sponsored
a benefit concert for the March of the Living at UCLA’s
Schonberg Hall on Saturday evening, September 20, 1997.
The
concert was held in cooperation with the UCLA Center for the
Performing Arts. Hershey
Felder was the performing artist. His repertoire includes Hebrew, Yiddish and English songs.
He is also a Steinway Artist concert pianist performing
classical, modern and show tunes.
(See accompanying story).
William
Elperin, President of The “1939" Club and Harry Eisen,
President of the Lodzer Organization, appointed four members
each to serve on a steering committee to organize the event.
Mr. Elperin expressed his hope that this would be the
first of many joint efforts by the two survivor organizations.
Mr. Eisen echoed those sentiments.
Proceeds
for the concert went for grants and partial scholarships to send
teenagers and young adults to the March of the Living.
The
March of the Living is a bi-annual journey where thousands of
primarily Jewish teens from around the world gather in Poland
and Israel to mark two of the most significant dates on the
modern calendar: Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel
Independence Day. The
purpose of this trip is to give students a first-hand look at
history and the evils of mankind.
Last year 7,000 attended. During the first leg of the
trip, they visit Poland where they tour various cities like
Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin which were vibrant Jewish communities
before World War II. After
seeing and trying to picture the life that was, the youths visit
concentration camps like Majdanek, Trenlinka and the infamous
Auschwitz-Birenau complex. The youngsters participate in a March from Auschwitz to
Birkenau on Holocaust Memorial Day. This symbolic march retraces
the steps which countless numbers of innocent civilians were
forced to take on the way to their annihilation.
The
second leg of the trip takes the students to Israel.
There they take part in Remembrance Day and Independence
Day celebrations. They
also confront many difficulties facing the Middle East and the
peace process through lectures, discussions and visits.
Performer
Profile
Hershey Felder
is a Steinway Concert Artist. He entered Montreal’s McGill
Faculty of Music at the age of thirteen and began performing on
the concert stage and in the theater at the age of eleven years
old. He toured as a
young actor as well as a pianist, having appeared with
Montreal’s Yiddish Theater, and on CBC television.
At the age of eighteen, he began studies with
Julliard’s Jerome Lowenthal in New York, and continued his
work in both Opera and Musical Theater.
In
1989, Mr. Felder made his concert debut in Great Britain with
Gershwin’s A Rhapsody in
Blue which he has since performed over 300 times in
different world centers. Mr.
Felder was invited to become a Baldwin Concert Artist in 1991.
In 1993, he made his compositional debut with a concert
presentation of Fairytale,
starring Tovah Feldsuh and The Philharmonic on the Palisades.
That season, he starred as Stempenyu in the
Folksbiene’s Off-Broadway production of STEMPENYU!.
Mr.
Felder continues to perform concerts in Europe, the UK, North
America and Israel.
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