JCC and HMMSA Plan Year of Collaboration in Arts & Culture
September 1, 2022
The Barshop JCC will present multiple events for the upcoming 2022-2023 season in collaboration with the Holocaust Museum of San Antonio that will focus on American Jewish history, the Holocaust, and Ethnicity.
On Sunday, September 18, from 3:30-5:30 pm, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Barshop JCC, and KLRN (PBS) will host a pre-screening of Ken Burns’ newest documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust. This three-part series tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century and how this struggle tested the ideals of our country’s democracy. The program will include a screening of a portion of the documentary series followed by a community discussion moderated by Liz Reichman, Museum docent, with local experts, panelists Dr. Vicki Aarons, Trinity University and HMMSA Commission Member, and Dr. Ed Westermann, Regents Professor of History and Texas A&M University-San Antonio, former HMMSA Scholar-in-Residence and former commissioner of the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. This event is free and will be held in the Holzman Auditorium at The Campus.
On Thursday, October 22nd at 7 pm, Dan Grunfeld, author of By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream, will share the remarkable story of his father, Holocaust survivor Ernie Grunfeld, an Olympic gold medalist, NBA player, and executive. Mr. Grunfeld, himself a former Stanford basketball standout and a professional player for the NBA, European and Israeli leagues, retells how basketball “held the power to heal wounds, build bridges, and tie together a fractured Jewish family.”
Inspired by the author’s own family histories, Alyson Richman and Shaunna J. Edwards will co-present The Thread Collectors, a historical novel set during the Civil War about two women – one Black and the other a Jewish abolitionist – whose resourceful sewing to support their communities converges their paths to cross in New Orleans on their risky journey to bring their loved ones home from the front. A veteran and successful novelist, Alyson Richman’s great-great-great uncle, a German Jew, was a musician in the Union army while his brother fought for the other side. Shaunna J. Edwards, The Thread Collectors being her first novel, was inspired by the creation of a character based in part on her great-great-great Aunt Janie, a woman of Black and White parentage, who managed to become a financially independent landowner while her relatives struggled to find economic stability. Ms. Richman and Ms. Edwards will speak on Tuesday, February 28 at 7 pm.
For more information on these and other programs and to RSVP to attend an event sponsored by The Barshop JCC and the Holocaust Memorial Museum, please visit jccsanantonio.org and hmmsa.org.