Day 3 #BeyondCharacter @uniondocs 👍🏽💜🙌🏼💓
A rare view of #Auschwitz on this #internationalholocaustremembranceday & the 74th anniversary of #Auschwitz’s liberation. I took this photo on my 1st trip there in 2010. What is it? Fragments of bones preserved in a glass bottom bunker where I tried to say Kaddish but struggled to get the words out, as I struggle now to describe the depths of feelings that swept me over and under that day & on every subsequent visit. This is where my grandmother was killed and most of my family, leaving my mother orphaned, homeless, displaced and stateless. For my mother and tens of thousands of Jewish youth who were victims of #naziforcedlabor the #Holocaust didn’t end with the liberation of #Auschwitz. In fact, it only got worse & lasted 5 more months. And yet #Auschwitz has become a symbol of the #Holocaust, which many now question, deny and know nothing about. In a time of spiking #AntiSemitism #bigotry #fascism #totalitarianism #HolocaustRevisionism & #xenophobia the words of #PrimoLevi are more relevant than ever: “Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.” May we never grow complacent or so jaded by the horrors of the past that we are deaf to its echoes in the present. I’m sorry if this image is too disturbing, but that’s the point. I’m tired of rote hashtags and the same Holocaust images. Before we can remember, we must go there, because once you have, you can never forget and these bones will never just be fragments under glass. They will be the dust you breathe, the particles that get under your skin, suffused undeniably with your DNA, a part of you that you must own with your heart and soul. For more of my personal #HolocaustMemory & quest to document and reckon with my mother’s #Holocaustpast & a buried chapter of #HolocaustHerStory please follow @myundergroundmother & consider making a donation. Link in my profile
Inspiration from the great founder of our #civilrightsmovement shown in the 1st image marching w/#RabbiAbrahamJoshuaHeschel, a Warsaw native who fled Nazi Germany & the #Holocaust, preached the spiritual concept of #radicalastonishment about embracing the transcendence of now & the light of love, the very opposite of radical Islam, the Christian Right, far-right Jewish orthodoxy & religious intolerance of all stripes, which is about hate & not seeing others nor understanding the call of the moment. Recognizing the struggles and rights of others doesn’t diminish any one of us, it elevates us all. In fighting for the rights of Black Americans to be treated as equals Rabbi Heschel drew upon his own experiences in Berlin when the Nuremberg Laws were passed. And in recognizing that Israel is the fulfillment of the Jewish dream of self determination after the ashes of genocide, #drmartinlutherkingjr saw hope for the emancipation of his people and a path forward. In their transcendent spirits, let’s unite & heed the awesome challenge of the present. Happy #martinlutherkingday
Marching for all #women including #Jewish & #Zionist ones at the inclusive #NY #women’s march, the original that’s in its 3rd year & is unaffiliated w/Sarsour & co who staged a divisive counter rally downtown. The #united #diverse @womensmarchallianceddoesn’t tolerate hate & #antisemitism disguised as a progressive movement which is sadly what @womensmarch has become. Fortunately women showed up uptown, marched to midtown, strong & determined as ever, chanting, dancing, drumming & demanding #equalrightsforwomen #ERA #asylum for #refugees #immigrantrightsarehumanrights #separationofmothersandchildreniscruelty #EndTrumpShutdown & calling on #TraitorTrump to stop holding our country hostage to Vlad. It was so cold out, but marching in a sea of pink warmed my 💗heart #womeninspiringwomen #immigrantsmakeamericagreat #trumpmustgo #thefutureisfemale #mothersdaughters #girlpower 💓💪🏽🐯❤️#wearewomenhearusroar
At the 25th anniversary screening of #SchindlersList where #Pittsburgh’s #TreeOfLife Synagogue #RabbiJeffreyMyers called hâte a 4-letter word that must be eradicated in word to be eradicated in deed. Those sentiments were echoed by @JoelCitron who spoke on behalf of @uscshoahfoundation formed as a result of Spielberg’s experience filming this incredibly important film. Joel is the son of two #holocaustsurvivors who like my mom traveled on #alyahbet boats (illegal immigration) to Israel, at the time #BritishMandatePalestine and fought in #Israel’s War of Independence.#Schindler’s List opened a few months after my mom died. At the time I had no idea she was a survivor, let alone from a town that was near Krakow and even closer to Auschwitz, or in a camp that was in Czechoslovakia right near #zwittau location of Schindler’s Czech forced labor camp #brunnlitz. 25 years later, I’ve been in every location (and shot in many) where the film was shot, have interviewed survivors who have told me very similar stories, though from a woman’s perspective, and I feel like I’ve lived through every cell myself. Each time I see the movie, I find myself reacting to something different. The scene with Helen Hirsch is one that is so significant and gets me each time, particularly now after immersing myself in women’s slave labor and survival stories. This time, though, it was the scene when the Krakow ghetto is being liquidated and families are being hunted, shot and separated, and one teenage girl is ripped from the arms of her mother. That really hit home. It’s my mother’s story, as well as Lola’s, Ida’s, Fela’s and countless other women I’ve been humbled to get to know. Getting choked up all over again. Viewing it on a large screen was almost overwhelming. Love you all. Like Joel said: that we, 2nd or 3rd generations are here at all is a miracle. Every day is a blessing.
New year, new dawn, new leaf, new horizons, new day #Happy2019 May the new year be full of blue skies and bright beginnings 🌞🌈💥lots of ❤️ & thanks to all of you 💙💜💗💕
#shabbatshalom from Fairfax. May the Schwartz be with you. ✡️🍷💙🕯🕯💛
You could take the girl out of the Bronx, but you couldn’t take the Bronx out of the girl. A true original who did it her way, broke rules & smashed barriers as the 1st woman in #Hollywood to direct a film that broke the $100Mil mark at the box office & so much more. Her philosophy: “If you’re not having a good time, find something else that gives you some joy in life.” #WordsToLiveBy Rest in Power #pennymarshall Bet you’re having one hell of a reunion w/your birthday twin & best friend #CarrieFisher I can hear your laugh from here. 🙌🏼🎥 #legend 💗💓#fiercefemalefilmmaker #laverne #myrnaturner #oddcouple #aleagueoftheirown #thepreacherswife #jumpingjackflash #big #awakenings #icon #original a true #girlsgirl #rulebreaker #funnywoman #womenbehindthecamera
Nothing like a #2G #Gabersdorf reunion - a #Chanukah treat. I’m always so happy to see my #schvester Zelda Grinblatt Wildman whose mother Sala Kuperberg was imprisoned in the same #frauenlager #womenscamp as my mom. I met her after I posted a story I wrote about my mom on FB & Zelda responded: my mom’s a survivor of #Gabersdorf. I was thrilled to find another living survivor. But Sala was too ill to meet with me and died a year ago. The first time we met, Zelda brought her mom’s old phone book and it was like the oil the Maccabees found in the Temple that lasted 7 days. Zelda has lit up my search in ways I couldn’t have imagined, linking me to others and sharing stories and photos that enabled me see what was once totally obscured. I can’t thank her enough & miss her. She recently made Aliyah, a move she doesn’t regret on a freezing NYC day like today. (Then again who are we to complain about freezing our tuchuses off when our moms suffered through 5 brutal winters w/out coats, proper shoes or heat in a Nazi slave labor camp in the Czech mountains? #2ndgenerationblues #holocausthumor) So often when I meet a #Gabersdorf daughter, we have an instant bond. Even though I didn’t know my mom was a #survivor, we all had similar childhoods & #motherdaughter relationships. So much of our mothers’ experiences have been transmitted to us. Call it #epigenetics or #ethnography, whatever it is, the aftershocks of the #Holocaust are still profound. Zelda told me about how she recently found the journal her mom kept when she attended the 1st gathering of #Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem in 1981. She wrote about being constantly on the move, searching for family, neighbors, pieces of herself, scanning every face, finding the woman who slept in the adjacent bunkbed, about 2 brothers who were reunited, of everyone still trying to fill that huge void left by the #shoah . I understood exactly what she meant, but can also say that each connection I make fills that void & is a #miracle. #HappyChanukah #Generations #holocaustherstory