To Life! A Magical Post Modern Hasidic Tale of the Holocaust:
In this profound and richly multimedia program, Dr. Jud Newborn poignantly interweaves his own personal story (his adventures, determination and triumphs in confronting the Holocaust) with the lost world of the European Jewish Shtetl—and the amazing tale of the first man to bring the news of the Holocaust to the West. Revolving around the author’s thrilling discovery of Polish Bund Spokesman Szmul Artur Zygielbojm’s lost artifacts, Dr. Newborn tells a miraculous, life affirming story of how three seemingly disconnected lives magically intersected over time and space. Newborn’s discovery links him by surprise to Zygielbojm’s surviving niece, a 75 year-old South African champion ballroom dancer who “brings me under her spell, inducing me to dance—not to mourn, but to celebrate Jewish survival.
Presented by Dr. Jud Newborn
Jud Newborn (born in 1952), is a New York-based author, lecturer, cultural anthropologist and curator. A pioneer in the creation of Holocaust museums, he helped build New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, serving as its Founding Historian and curator. He is known for his co-authored book, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (Oneworld Publications, 2006), an account of the history of the White Rose, a group formed in part by German Christian students—some former Hitler Youth fanatics—who were part of the German anti-Nazi resistance.
Newborn is also a wide-ranging lecturer who has spoken throughout North America and worldwide. He is known for dramatic multimedia programs that set unsung aspects of the Holocaust, among other subjects, within the context of such compelling, contemporary issues as the rise of extremism, oppression, fanaticism and genocide, in order to inspire audiences to join in the fight for freedom and “our shared humanity.”
Jud Newborn was educated at New York University, Cambridge University and the University of Chicago, which awarded him his doctorate with Distinction in 1994 for his dissertation, “Work Makes Free”: The Hidden Cultural Meanings of the Holocaust; (Work Makes Free: English translation of Nazi forced labor camp slogan Arbeit Macht Frei).