The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) together with the Australian War Memorial presented a powerful Holocaust memorial concert Kaddish on October 31 at Hamer Hall, attended by over thousand including community leaders and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. It was curated by the Australian War Memorial’s Christopher Latham and had two parts – it opened with the MSO, conducted by Benjamin Northey, alongside the MSO Chorus and Young Voices of Melbourne, who brilliantly performed Leonard Bernstein’s choral Symphony No.3 Kaddish (1963).
The libretto was written by Samuel Pisar, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz who passed away in 2015 and was narrated by his daughter Leah Pisar, who chairs Project Aladdin which aims to counter extremism. Samuel Pisar had a distinguished career in the UN and worked for John F. Kennedy, he also studied law at Melbourne University.
His stepson US Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened the memorial with a video address, paying tribute to his stepfather. Pisar’s anguished libretto tore through the hearts of the audience – it is “a layman’s Kaddish” that struggles with God for causing suffering, while affirming faith. Pisar wrote, “Now I must atone for the ritual Kaddish I could never recite, because I had no dates for their demise.
No closure...
No burials...
no tombs for a stone, a flower, a prayer – a prayer for their redemption. Yt’kadal v’itkakadash sh’me raba.” The second part of the concert recounted the horror.
