Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1994-10-27

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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio
Jewish Community since. 1922
VOLUME 72
NUMBER 44
OCTOBER 27,1994
22 CHESHVAN 5755
UAHC Biennial to be held
at Hyatt on Capitol Square
page 3
Heritage Terrace to offer
supportive living community
page 3
The time has come to
'just say no'to Syria
page 3
Hadassah planning program
for Jennie Roland Day
page 4
Master of Judaic studies
in Jewish education
to be offered locally
page $
Third film in Israel series
to be shown on October 20
, page 9
  In The Chronicle mmwrnm
At The JCC 12,13
Calendar 3
Community..... 4-7
i*
Federation... 9
FrontPage 2,3
In The News  15
Lifecycle.... ..... .10
Marketplace............. ;. 14
New Generation............... ........8
Scoreboard ., ;......!!.... 15
Synagogues , 11
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JEWISH BOOKFAIR '94
'Schindler's List9 author to 'Stand on the shoulders of giants'
What would have motivated Australian-born novelist,
playwright and orator Thomas
Keneally to write Schindler's
List, the novel based on the
true story of how German war
profiteer Oskar Schindler saved
1,200 Jews from the gas chatvi-
bers during World War II? Of u
course, the story itself is.epic,
dramatic and heart-wrenching,
enough reason to write the
milestone of Holocaust literature. But why Keneally, who is
not a Jew? What were his reasons for breathing life into the
characters and recreating the
horrible images that ultimately appeared in the award-winning movie by Steven Spielberg?
The answer lies in the interests, background and mind of
Thomas Keneally, who will
speak for the first time in Columbus on Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Community Center's Jewish
Bookfair. Keneally, whose lecture is sponsored by the 1995,,
Jewish CommUNITY Cam*
paign ofthe Columbus Jewish
Federation, will talk about his
international bestseller,
Schindler's List, answer questions from the audience and
sign books following his presentation. Tickets are $8 if
purchased by Nov. 6, $10
thereafter. Tickets are available by calling 237-JCC3, ext.
7248.
"The stature of Thomas
Keneally, whose remarkable
work has generated new interest in the Holocaust among
young and old alike, is undisputed," says Bookfair '94
Event Chair Karen Moss.
"That Keneally chose to speak
in Columbus also reflects the
growing stature of our Jewish
Bookfair. We anticipate a sellout crowd and encourage community members to purchase
their tickets early."
Keneally, 58, spoke before
2,000 people at a public lecture in Chicago just after the
release of the Spielberg's movie; hundreds others were turned
away from the sold-out event.
Urging people to call him
"Tom " Keneally explained
during his opening remarks, "I
am here on the shoulders of
giants," a reference to
Schindler and the concentration camp prisoners who sur- •
vived on little food and even
less hope.
Keneally first heard the story of Oskar Schindler more
than a decade ago when he
entered a luggage store in Beverly Hills to replace a broken
briefcase. A chance encounter
with Leopold Pfefierberg, a
Schindler survivor, set in mo-
tio^i the chain of events that
culminated in the book and
movie. The wealth of documents about Schindler and the
forced labor camp at Plaszow,
which were filed away in Pfef-
ferberg's small shop, allowed
Keneally to make sure the
world never thought of the
Holocaust in the same way
again.
The character of Oskar
Schindler attracted Keneally
precisely because he was the
antithesis ofthe traditional altruistic character. "He was
ambitious and ambiguous,"
Keneally said, "a war profiteer
who made a fortune on slave
labor and lost the same fortune," rescuing his Jewish
workers and their families in
Krakow from the certainty of
the Nazi ovens just 35 miles
away in Auschwitz.
In addition to Pfefferberg's
documents, Keneally drew
heavily upon the memories of
those who owed their lives to
the man's unexpected heroism. Compiling accounts from
so-called Schindlerjuden —
Jews who owe their lives to
one man—Keneally tells "the
story of the pragmatic triumph of good over evil."
Although Keneally received
his most recent acclaim for
Schindler's List, he has written more than 25 novels and
his work has been translated
into virtually every published
language. He is a member of
the world literary community
and has achieved eminence in
the academic world. In 1982
he was awarded the Booker
Prize, for Fiction, Britain's
see SCHIMDLM pg. 12