Sharing Sarah's story

Two weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Jacob Fishkin walked into the office of the drama department at the Tisch School of the Arts and pleaded for anyone to listen to his story. In his hand, he held the diary of his sister, Sarah, whom he last saw during the Holocaust, when she was pulled away from him, thrown into a truck and driven off to be killed.

Sarah's diary happened to fall into the hands of Tisch drama industry liaison Lee Gundersheimer, who immediately signed on to transform the work into a performance. After six months of research and meetings, Gundersheimer wrote 'Jude: An Elegy for Sarah Fishkin,' a full-length play that incorporates the story of Jacob and his own life difficulties.

'This all started to happen around Sept. 11, during a time when my wife was battling cancer,' Gundersheimer said. 'This play gave me armor to deal with the things going on in the world at the time.'

In the play itself, Jacob tells his story to Gundersheimer, who filters Jacob's experiences through his own life. The play interweaves the saga of Jacob's family in the Holocaust with the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the struggle of Gundersheimer's wife.

'You learn about the difficulties and the trials of Jacob's family in the play, but you also learn about the problems we are all facing right now,' Gundersheimer said. 'The play deals with how we are able to put acts of terrorism and suicide bombings into context with other horrific events of the past.'

Without Sarah's diary, Gundersheimer would not have been able to reveal such a strong link between the Holocaust and current events.

According to Gundersheimer, Sarah began keeping a diary long before the war and wrote in it until her death in the ghetto at age 18. Even at age 12, when she first began to write in her diary, it was profound and exquisite.

'She was a journalist and a scholar long before women took on those responsibilities,' he said. 'She would write essays about what was going on, and she'd have arguments and dialogues with herself. She was a bit of a philosopher, too.'

Jacob was unaware that the diary made it through the Holocaust until he ran into a member of his old village at a refugee camp. He told Jacob that he thought the diary was kept by a neighbor, and Jacob set out to find the writings.

Although Jacob has been trying to get the diary published for more than 40 years, he has been faced with rejection and neglect.

'We've been inundated with so much Holocaust imagery and information, and people want to move on,' Gundersheimer said. 'People don't want to go back and revisit that period. Another reason that nobody wants to publish this material is because Anne Frank's diary has become the standard. People feel that we don't need another diary from a young girl.'

The production of the play and the publication of Sarah's diary make up two of the three pieces of work being carried out under the Six Million and One Project, which is focused on bringing light to the past of Jacob's family.

The final stage of the project involves taking Jacob back to Poland, where he has not been since the Holocaust.

'We want to make a documentary about Jacob going back to Poland, and we want to film him teaching students there,' Gundersheimer said.

According to Gundersheimer, hopefully the three performances of the play, which take place from Nov. 13 to Nov. 15 at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre, will draw enough attention that the rest of the project will be able to be completed.

'We hope that someone will attend these performances that will believe enough in the play that we can give it a home for a month,' Gundersheimer said. 'Hopefully that will garner enough interest so the diary will be able to be published and Jacob will be able to return to Poland.'

Two workshop readings of the play were performed at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life last spring, and the play was also taken to a Jewish camp over the summer.

According to Gundersheimer, every little step in the project is a feat, as it brings an overwhelming amount of joy to Jacob.
'When we took it to the summer camp, the kids played all the parts, and it was wonderful for Jacob to be able to see that,' he said. 'Every time we get one of these little niches of accomplishment, I feel that it's helping to heal his soul a little bit, and that's really why we're doing this.'

'Jude: An Elegy for Sarah Fishkin' plays Nov. 13 to Nov. 15 at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre on East 15th Street.