Hillel hosts events for Holocaust Commemoration Week
With final exams looming, students may not be aware that this week marks the 60th anniversary of the end of one of the most horrific and profound events in human history: the Jewish Holocaust.
Hillel will keep its memory alive with Holocaust Commemoration Week (HCW), a series of events designed to "remember what happened and promote awareness of what is still happening in the world today [where] genocide is still a problem," sophomore and HCW co-chair Arielle Traub said.
The week begins tonight with a screening of the Academy Award winning film, Roman Polanski's "The Pianist," at 7:30 p.m. in Tisch 304.
The next night, Hillel delves into the heart of some of the most pressing issues of the Holocaust's legacy with "Never Again: A Holocaust Survivor Speaks." This lecture will be offered by Mira Gold, herself a Holocaust survivor, on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. in the Hillel Center. Its purpose, according to Traub is "to give us insight into what it's like to experience [genocide] first-hand" in an effort to "preserve a part of history that is incredibly important to remember."
On Wednesday, Hillel invites Holocaust educator Karolina Wrobel to speak at the Hillel Center at an event entitled Lunch & Learning: Attitudes and Teachings of the Holocaust Around the World. Here, Wrobel will use her international background to offer commentary on different perceptions of the Holocaust and its impact in different academic settings around the world, particularly in Germany, where post-WWII students were pushed to over-compensate for the Nazi's atrocities, and the Judaic Middle East, where history textbooks have been purged of any reference to the Holocaust or the creation of the Israeli state.
What's cooking 'from within' Alumnae Hall?
It usually takes a great artist months or even years to compose a masterpiece; but tonight, the Tufts New Music Ensemble (NME) proves that, with the right creative spark, musical brilliance can be achieved in a matter of seconds.
Make room, Cheap Sox, there's a new improv group at Tufts, but these performers rely more on clefs than comedy. Though tonight's NME concert, entitled "Works from Within," will feature pre-meditated compositions by both directors (McDonald and colleague Donald Berman) and grad student Warren A. Weberg, the on-the-spot interludes will be just as interesting. Says NME co-director John McDonald, "NME's approach to rehearsing and concretizing ... could be described as choreographing instrumental sound in real time."
In other words, these interludes are comprised of broad "ground rules" taken from the "NME Exercise Program" used by the group during rehearsals. With only the roughest outline of a score to work from, NME members will jam their way to a complete piece off the tops of their heads, producing an effect that McDonald describes as simultaneously "inspiring and uncomfortable."
In the spirit of improv, a new Tufts performance ensemble will make its debut tonight with the NME jammers. The Tufts Percussion Quartet, under the direction of Music Department faculty member, Robert Schulz, will be performing works by John Cage and Steve Reich.
"Works from Within" will take place at 8:00 p.m. in Alumnae Hall and admission is free.
-compiled by Kelly Rizzetta
