FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For information call:
Clifford Laube at (845) 486-7745
The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
and the Jewish Federation of
Dutchess County will host
a screening of the silent film,
“The City Without Jews” (1924),
with live original music
composed and performed by
klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals
and silent film pianist Donald Sosin
to commemorate Yom HaShoah
(Holocaust Memorial Day)
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
Registration is required:
www.jewishdutchess.org/events
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and the Jewish Federation of Dutchess County will host a screening of the silent film, “The City Without Jews” (1924), with live original music composed and performed by klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and silent film pianist Donald Sosin on Tuesday, April 18 at 2:00 p.m. The event will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the Roosevelt Library and Home to commemorate Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day). This program is made possible by the Bernard and Shirley Handel Foundation Fund at the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley and the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. Free public event, but registration is required: www.jewishdutchess.org/events.
Film Synopsis:
Based on the controversial and best-selling novel by Hugo Bettauer, H. K. Breslauer’s 1924 film adaptation of “The City Without Jews” (Die Stadt ohne Juden) was produced two years after the publication of the book, and, tragically, only a brief time before the satirical events depicted in the fictional story transformed an all-too-horrific reality.
Set in the Austrian city of Utopia (a thinly-disguised stand-in for Vienna), the story follows the political and personal consequences of an anti-Semitic law passed by the National Assembly forcing all Jews to leave the country. At first, the decision is met with celebration, yet when the citizens of Utopia eventually come to terms with the loss of the Jewish population -- and the resulting economic and cultural decline -- the National Assembly must decide whether or not to invite the Jews back. Though darkly comedic in tone, and stylistically influenced by German Expressionism, the film nonetheless contains ominous and eerily realistic sequences, such as the shots of freight trains transporting Jews out of the city.
The stinging critique of Nazism in the film is part of the reason it was no longer screened in public after 1933 (all complete prints were thought to be destroyed). Now, thanks to the discovery of a nitrate print in a Parisian flea market in 2015, as well as to the brilliant restoration efforts of the Filmarchiv Austria, this previously “lost” film can once again be appreciated in its unfortunately ever-relevant entirety.
About the Performance:
Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin have been bringing audiences to their feet throughout the US and Europe with their unique and stirring violin and piano scores for Jewish-themed silent films. Sosin is one of the world’s top silent film musicians, and Svigals is the world's leading klezmer violinist and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics. After meeting at a silent film festival in Italy, the two soon recorded their first original score for the 1923 German film “The Ancient Law,” followed by “City Without Jews” and “The Man Without a World.”
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
Designed by Franklin Roosevelt and dedicated on June 30, 1941, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is the nation's first presidential library and the only one used by a sitting president. Administered by the National Archives and Records Administration since 1941, the Library preserves and makes accessible to the American people the records of FDR's presidency. The Roosevelt Library's mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the lives and times of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and their continuing impact on contemporary life. This work is carried out through the Library's archives and research room, museum collections and exhibitions, innovative educational programs, and engaging public programming. For more information about the Library or its programs call (800) 337-8474 or visit fdrlibrary.org.
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