Louisville Remembers
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Published by the Jewish Community of Louisville, Inc. www.jewishlouisville.org INSIDE Rammi Shapiro opens Festival of Faiths STORY ON PG. 2 Jewish Louisville sup- ports refugees STORY ON PG. 4 Communit■ ■ y FRIDAY VOL. 42, NO. 6 2 IYAR 5777 APRIL 28, 2017 Louisville remembers Children perform ‘I Never Saw Another Butterfly’ for Yom HaShoah program By Lee Chottiner Interim Editor Like butterflies, the names of the chil- dren filled the air. It wasn’t just their names, though. It was their drawings, their music, even their dreams. One said she would eat nothing but white bread when she went home, an- other would drink hot chocolate in the winter, another would play ball in the courtyard and still another would go to the park and feed the pigeons at night. All when they went home. Of course, they never went home. These were the Jewish children of Ther- Students of CenterStage/Acting Out remembered the children of Theresienstadt by performing the poetry and music of “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” Tuesday, April 25, at esienstadt, and instead of home, they the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration. Cathy Butler-Weathersby and Marianne Zickuhr joined the production as singers. Approximately 300 people attended this year’s went to their deaths at Auschwitz. commemoration. (photo by Debby Rose) But their names, poems, pictures and songs survive. They filled the stage of the CenterStage Director John Leffert, who lection of children’s drawings and po- Auschwitz. Most would not survive. Bomhard Theater Tuesday – like butter- has staged the production in schools ems from the notorious camp. The title of the book is based on The flies – spoken and displayed by 12 chil- around Louisville and in far-flung parts “Children were neither just the mute Butterfly, a poem by Pavel Friedman, a dren of The J’s CenterStage/Acting Out of Kentucky such as Flat Gap. and traumatized witnesses to this war, Czech Jew who was deported to Theres- program. Wherever it’s performed, he said, chil- nor merely its innocent victims,” wrote instadt in 1942. During Tuesday’s perfor- These kids performed I Never Saw dren have been touched by it, contribut- Nicholas Stargardt, an Oxford Univer- mance, the children took turns reading Another Butterfly, a theatrical project ing to the Butterfly Project, by coloring sity history professor who has studied lines from Pavel’s poem. based on the book by the same title, and paper butterflies – as many as 4,000 to World War II through the eyes of chil- The commemoration wasn’t all about the theme for this year’s Yom HaShoah date –which are being hung in the hall- dren. “The war invaded their imagina- the children, though. commemoration. way of The J. tions and the war raged inside them.” Eleven candles were lit at the outset to “These depictions allow us to see This is how the children of Theresien- More than 12,000 children under the remember the mothers and fathers who through the eyes of the children what stadt continue to fly. age of 15 passed through Theresienstadt died in the Shoah, political activists, life was like [at Theresienstadt],” said I Never Saw Another Butterfly, is a col- between 1942 and 1944 on their way to See BUTTERFLY on page 12 First charrette held Jewish Louisville residents weigh in on future uses for JCC as planning process proceeds Jewish Louisvillians have begun to arts & ideas/Jewish life, active adults/se- imagine how a future JCC would fit their niors, early childhood education, camp/ changing community. youth/teens, and health/wellness/food Meeting Sunday, April 23, at the JCC sustainability. Associates from the LMH for the first of three scheduled open Architecture firm, which is managing the charrette phase of the project, over- saw each session. Bingaman said he was looking for unique ideas from the participants. And he got several. For example, someone suggested pro- viding tech courses and linking the cam- pus to the burgeoning high-tech sector POSTAGE KENTUCKY LOUISVILLE in Israel. PERIODICALS Craig Lustig, a Louisville attorney JCL President and CEO Sara Klein Wagner opens the first charrette, Sunday, April 23, in the Patio Gallery of the and participant in that session, liked JCC. (photo by Courtney Hatley) that idea and added to it, saying such a campus should be open to adults and “charrettes,” more than 40 members of brainstorming session. children alike. He said one of his clients the community floated ideas for what The JCC currently occupies an laments the lack of a highly skilled IT they would like to see in the facility of 84,000-square-foot facility along Dutch- professionals in America. the future. mans Lane that was built in 1955. Many participants broached ideas “We have a once-in-several-genera- While approximately 1,200 people pass with young people in mind. tions opportunity to redesign a facility through the door each day, experts say Bill Altman, another member of the that will be a legacy, not only for our the facility will not meet the needs of fu- JTomorrow! steering committee, shared kids, but our grand kids, if we do it ture generations. a few such proposals, suggesting that right,” said Jeff Goldberg, chair of the “She’s a great 60-year-old building,” the new center contain a genealogy cen- JTomorrow! steering committee for the said Project Manager Chris Bingaman ter, a photo lab or a “really cool coffee project. said, “but she’s not going to last another shop.” A charrette is a term of art for a meet- 20 years.” He also said none of these ideas should ing of stakeholders to iron out problems On this day, participants broke off be acted upon without first picking the and map solutions for a given project. It into separate sessions to discuss pro- brains of children and teens to see what could also be described as an enhanced gram and facility ideas in the areas for See CHARRETTES on page 12 2 Community Y APRIL 28, 2017 Y 2 IYAR 5777 SHOWCASE ‘Wisdom traditions’ Truth-seeking rabbi, Rami Shapiro, opens 22nd annual Festival of Faiths downtown By Lee Chottiner justice and social action.” Interim Editor Even though he has studied Bud- dhism and Hinduism (he was initiated Sitting alone on the stage of the Bom- into the Ramakrishna Order in 2011), hard Theater, Rabbi Rami Shapiro rang Shapiro is not trying to blur the lines be- a singing bowl, calling the 230 people in tween religions. the hall to meditation. “I’m not trying to put together some Very Buddhist. kind spiritual Esperanto where you pick But he also led the audience in chant- from one or two and make your own ing Elohai N’shamah, celebrating the pu- religion,” he said. “But I’m saying that, rity of the soul God has placed in each rooted in the perennial wisdom, you can individual. learn the ways different religions articu- Very Jewish. late it, then deepen your understanding Shapiro, a Reform rabbi who was of that one that we’re all part of. Well, Ju- raised Orthodox and has studied with daism talks about it one way, Hinduism the likes of Rabbis Mordecai Kaplan, might talk about it another way, but the Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Arthur mystics, I think, all say the same thing. Green, Arthur Waskow and Sherwin The Jewish mystics say ain od, there is Wine, sees no conflict between the two nothing else.” religions (he prefers to call them “wis- Shapiro, who grew up in a modern dom traditions”). Orthodox home in Springfield, MA, be- The noted author, spiritualist and came enamored with Zen Buddhism as public speaker says the wisdom of each a young man. Even so, he always knew – tradition’s mystics is essentially the innately, at least – which faith tradition same, even if they take different jour- he would follow. neys to achieve it. “I took a break from Judaism and “Each [religion] has its own unique- Rabbi Rami Shapiro leads the audience in the chanting of Elohai N’shamah during the opening of the Festival of went seriously into the practice of Zen ness and own focal point,” Shapiro said, Faiths. (photo by Courtney Hatley) Buddhism and did that for 10 years with “but the mystics are rooted the same re- ma on a screen behind him), and even to the Catholic priest’s 1958 Louisville several roshis (Zen Buddhist spiritual alization.” cracked a few Jewish jokes. epiphany in which he said all the people leaders),” he said, “but Sasaki Roshi was Shapiro opened the 22nd Annual Fes- The theme of this year’s festival was he saw on a crowded downtown street my primary Zen master.” tival of Faiths Wednesday, April 19, with “Compassion: Shining like the sun,” were “shining like the sun; everyone was Shapiro recalled how Sasaki once his prayer program. Though accented by which festival Chair Owsley Brown III connected.” cornered him at Zen retreat, about the the eastern religions of Buddhism and highlighted in some of his remarks. Indeed, the conference sessions time he was graduating from college, Hinduism, which he has studied over the “We’re going to do the best that we touched upon many subjects through and told him it was time for him to go to years, it was a uniquely Jewish program. can do to really get into what does the which compassion can be manifested, a Zen monastery. He led the audience in a Chasidic melo- word mean and how can we make this including city management, economics, “I didn’t want to do that,” Shapiro re- dy, taught the event-goers a little Hebrew word meaningful,” Brown said.