How important are friends when you
’re 16? For five Jewish school girls in WWII-era Europe, friends
literally made the difference between life and death when the girls
were torn from their homes and families and sent to a German
concentration camp.
How important are friends when you’re 16? For five Jewish school girls in WWII-era Europe, friends literally made the difference between life and death when the girls were torn from their homes and families and sent to a German concentration camp. One of them, Edna “Lily” Davidoff, was coaxed into telling her story, and the stories of her four friends, by her actress granddaughter Karine Koret.
The result is a one-woman show called Lily. Koret is the featured artist with the San Francisco-based Traveling Jewish Theatre, and is on national tour with Lily this spring.
All five girls survived the camp by promising to help one another out, though one died shortly afterwards. Koret, who “held the house with words, gestures, mimes, silences, and soft songs,” according to the Chicago Tribune, plays all five teenagers on a simple set.
Teenagers, according to Koret, are especially moved by the play. The Chicago Sun Times calls Lily “an exquisite solo” and “admirably unsentimental work.”
The event is sponsored by Gavilan College Stand Together Group, Associated Student Body, Theatre and History Department, and made possible by an anonymous donor. The event is co-sponsored by Congregation Emeth, South County’s Jewish community synagogue. The synagogue’s Adult Jewish Growth and Social Action Committees will sponsor the potluck and discussion to follow the performance. “Lily” has been scheduled in honor of Women’s History Month and the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Prejudice.
The performance takes place Sunday, March 20, at 3pm followed by a potluck and discussion with Koret at 5:30pm, at Gavilan College Art Lecture Hall, 5055 Santa Teresa Blvd., Gilroy. Admission and parking are free.
Koret will visit college classes on Monday, March 21, for UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Details: 848-4724 or 848-4846.
