IN COMMEMORATION OF YOM HASHOAH/HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY INCOMMEMORATION OF THE VICTIMS OF TOULOUSE

THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES THE HARVARD HILLEL HOUSE THE FRENCH CONSULATE OF BOSTON AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL & COMITE DES LOISIRS DE L'ONZU ASSOCIATION CULTURELLE FRANCOPHONE PROUDLY PRESENT

"DREYFUS" A PLAY BY JEAN DIRECTED BY

CLAUDE GRUMBERG

GUILA CLARA KESSOUS

ASSISTED BY

SOPHIA KHAN

SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2012, 1:00PM OBERON 2 ARROW STREET CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138 TICKETS: $25 SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012, 7:00PM UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL SYLVIA HOWARD FUHRMAN CENTER 24-50 F.D.R. DRIVE (AT EAST 23D STREET) NEW YORK, NY 10010-4046 TICKETS: $15

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Visionary director Guila Clara Kessous, fellow from the Harvard University Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, stages ten actors to transmit the testimony of the Dreyfus affair, dealing with burning questions such as anti-semitism and the risks of non-awareness. The opening remarks of this event will be given by Holocaust survivor Mrs. Rosian Zerner, former vice president of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust. At the conclusion of the performance, there will be a candle lighting ceremony to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to mark Yom Hashoa commemoration with music by composer Edwin Geist. His Excellency François Zimeray, French Ambassador for Human Rights, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland Marek Lesniewski-Laas, Consul of Israel in Boston Shai Bazak, Consul General of Germany Friedrich Löhr will honor us with their participation among other dignitaries. The performance will be followed by a presentation by His Excellency François Zimeray, French Ambassador for Human Rights, and a reception sponsored by the French Consulate of Boston. This event is sponsored by The Harvard University Center for European Studies, The Harvard Hillel House, Amnesty International, The Human Rights Education Association, The Association Culturelle Francophone – Comité de Loisirs de l’ONU and The French Consulate of Boston.

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SYNOPSIS The play is set in a Jewish section in Vilna, Poland, in 1931. A group of amateur actors are rehearsing a new play, written by their ambitious young director, about Alfred Dreyfus, the French-Jewish military officer whose persecution was opposed by the eloquent Emile Zola. The performers in this play-within-a-play are all good, kindly people, but they have difficulty in accepting the relevance of the "Dreyfus Affair" to their own situation and, furthermore, are preoccupied with the concerns of their personal lives--which leads to a series of very funny and often ironic exchanges with their high-strung director. However, their placid conviction that anti-semitism could not exist in the Poland of their time is abruptly shattered when drunken hoodlums break into their rehearsal and attack them--after which the project is abandoned and the shaken cast members flee, one to the Soviet Union, others to England and Germany, but all now deeply disturbed and apprehensive--and nervously facing a future clouded by the menacing spectre of Nazi Germany.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT Before

becoming

a

playwright,

JEAN-CLAUDE

GRUMBERG held several jobs including working as a tailor, he takes to the middle part of his play L'Atelier. He discovered the drama being an actor in the company. He became a writer signing in 1968 Demain, une fenêtre sur rue, and short texts like Rixe which played at the Comédie-Française. He writes about what haunts him since childhood: the death of his father in the Nazi death camps: Maman revient pauvre orphelin, Dreyfus (1974), L'Atelier (1979) and Zone libre (1990). In 1998, L'Atelier returned to Théâtre Hébertot in Paris, knows a great success and won the 1999 Molière for best play directory. In film, he is writer: Les Années Sandwiches, co-writer with François Truffaut for The Last Metro, La Petite Apocalypse of Costa-Gavras, Le Plus Beau Pays du monde by Marcel Bluwal (1999), Fait d'hiver Robert Enrico (1999). For television, he wrote scenarios Thérèse Humbert, Music Hall, by Marcel Bluwal, Les Lendemains qui chantent, by Jacques Fansten et Julien l'apprenti, by Jacques Otmezguine. He is one of the few contemporary French playwrights live to be studied in school (including theWorkshop). Jean-Claude Grumberg received the Grand Prize of the Académie française in 1991 and SACD Prize in 1999 for lifetime achievement; the Molière's best playwright in 1991 for Zone libre and in 1999 L'Atelier. In 2003 he earned the César Award for Best Screenplay for the movie Amen of Costa Gavras.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR GUILA CLARA KESSOUS leads the Carr Center's Initiative in Theater and Human Rights. She is the recipient of the State Diploma of Performing Arts among other awards, Kessous acted, directed and produced in major theatres in the US and Europe. She conceives drama as a socially conscious reflection pervading multiple aspects of society and culture. Her approach to theater as a cultural marker is multifaceted. She received a PhD in ethics and aesthetics under the mentorship of E. Wiesel, an MBA in cultural business, and a cross-disciplinary MA in comparative dramaturgy, cinema, and pedagogy. She has taught at Harvard, Boston University, the Sorbonne, and the Wiesel Institute. Her sponsors include UNESCO (director, "Hilda"), the UN (director, "Tribute to Human Rights"), and the CNRS among others. She has collaborated with artists including John Malkovich, James Taylor, Marissa Berenson, Daniel Mesguich, and Theodore Bikel. In 2010, she partnered with the United Nations on the theme "Theater and Human Rights" and was awarded the "Chevalier Arts et Lettres" from the French Minister of Culture. In 2011, UNESCO named her an "Artist for Peace" giving her the opportunity to collaborate directly with francophone countries spanning three different continents on the Mediterranean project.

NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR We are in the 1930s, in small town in northern Poland. The big towns and their worries are far away. Here, a group of people is busy with rehearsals for a play that is going to be performed in a few days. The play, written and directed by Moritz, tells the true story of the Dreyfus scandal, the false accusations, the degradation, and also the dignity. Moritz wrote this story with idealism, to understand that “ As long as men do not follow Zola’s example, as long as no one gives a royal shit about what happens to others, everything will go badly… everywhere… and not only for Jews. Every man needs to love and respect one another, that is what Zola will tell them in my play… Love! Love!" But the story of Dreyfus is far from seductive, especially for the actors themselves, who never cease to question how the life of this captain can have any significance for them. There are those who believe the story is of little importance. Michael, who is playing the role of Dreyfus, cannot connect to the character. He wants to be a pacifist and cannot imagine that a Jew would choose a military career: “What made him become captain then, the desire to wear a nice uniform? No, no, the taste of blood, the taste of blood! He was deranged, your Dreyfus, an eccentric…” Then, there are those like Zina, refusing to believe that France could have condemned an entirely innocent man: “…in France, they don’t put a man in prison just because he is Jewish, here yes, in France no! It doesn’t exist! He had to have at least done something a little bad, then they puffed things up a bit because he was still a little Jewish, that I don’t have a problem with, it’s possible, but at the beginning…he had to have had done a bad thing, maybe not something big, but a little something for that matter… it’s not a real character: the innocent victim that everyone badmouths and so on and so forth, no, it’s stale theater, for old ladies…” And because the play is about amateur actors, because each one has their own problems, because the events occurred almost 40 years ago and don’t interest them, nothing happens quite as planned: there are the problems Michael faces in his character; the bravado and the declarations of Arnold; the love story between Michael and Myriam--Arnold’s daughter; there are the growing concerns of Moritz. Rehearsal is interrupted at one point because of a Swiss named Wasselbaum, who needs the room to give lectures on the Promised Land. The scene becomes ludicrous, with everyone advising him on the tone to adopt for talking to this audience that they do not know, and each one questioning the usefulness and sense of this Promised Land. But one night, the night of the Feast of the Ascension, a Catholic procession brings everything to a violent halt. Two drunken men break away from the group and enter the Jewish community space looking for blood. They discover that there is a world to commit to their own pogrom. It is then that the Jewish characters' inner selves are revealed: fatality, cowardice, but also indignation and courage. Thus, it is not just simply the spectacle of a setting in a theatrical microcosm and of the world of the actors that J.C. Grumberg presents us with. It is also a discovery of Yiddishland, the pre-war world with its fears and its joy of living, a world before Nazism.

THE CAST (in alphabetical order) SOUMIA AITELHAJ was born in a southern village in the Ouarzazate city region of Morocco and immigrated to the United States with her family. She went to Boston College (whose wonderful professors have been a great inspiration), and majored in English and Theater. She tried to fit as many Shakespeare classes in her schedule as was possible and for some reason Hamlet’s soliloquy of “To be or not to be” has always stayed with her. She enjoys dancing and writing especially poetry. One of her dreams is to travel to villages around the world, live among its beautiful people, and experience the rich cultures of the world. She is now pursuing a Master’s in Theological Studies at the Divinity school to get a better understanding of the relationship between religion and politics. She plans to pursue Human Rights afterwards in order to advocate for indigenous people, starting with the Amazigh people in North Africa. KEVIN BRADBURY's background includes mostly Video/Film Production work, however he has been known to dabble in the acting world. Originally from Providence, Kevin was involved with an Improv workshop with Perishable Theater. Moving on to college, he took a part as Schuppanzigh from “Black Comedy.” After graduation, left for China and ended up spending 4 years there. Kevin is a freelance photographer/videographer and working on a horror short slated to begin production in late March.

JANET BUCHWALD holds a B.A. in theatre from Tufts University. She was a founding member of the Boston Shakespeare Company and served as its Associate Artistic Director for four years. She then worked as Artistic Director of the Rhode Island Feminist Theatre, collaborating on original plays exploring women’s experience. She has served as High Holy Day Cantorial Soloist at Wellesley College and at MIT. Recently, she co-authored The Mikveh Monologues with writer Anita Diamant and The Colors of Water: An African American Jewish Journey with Diamant and Yavilah McCoy. She has appeared

with the Harvard Yiddish Players in Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater and Shulamis. Having appeared in Budzyn (Or Your Show of Shows) in 2010, and last spring in Zalmen or the Madness of God, Janet is thrilled to be working once again with director Guila Clara Kessous. SUMONA CHAKRAVARTY grew up in Kolkata, India, a city known for its love for all things theatrical. As an undergraduate student in art and design she got together with a bunch of her friends to start a theater group, without really knowing what she was getting into. Over the next three years, in the process of directing, as well as acting in various productions, she fell in love with theater. She realized that what she loved most about it was not the adrenaline rush of the final performance, but the months of rehearsals that lead up to. She loved the process of creating a performance collectively, and started thinking about how this process of co-creation has the potential to transform people and empower them. These experiences shaped her work in art and design, which is how she ended up studying about collaborative, community-based art and design practices at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Playing Zina in “Dreyfus” is a wonderful affirmation of all the things she loves about theater and she hopes you will enjoy it! JAMES FORITANO is a writer and sometime actor whose most conspicuous legacy has so far been as a bon vivant and man-about-town, but who would like to do something for ‘humanity’, broadly defined, as long as it doesn’t sidetrack his participation in or even notice of ‘the next big thing’.

JEREMY HANES is a longtime student of the theater. He began working backstage on shows in Northern Virginia high school productions as running crew and stage management before moving into the creative process. While studying directing and dramaturgy for his B.A. at Christopher Newport University, he was assistant director for Denise Gillman’s main stage production of

Tennessee Williams’ “Summer and Smoke” and dramaturge on Glen Berger’s “Great Men of Science Nos. 21 & 22.” He directed two second stage shows for TheaterCNU, among other projects: John Guare’s “Woman at a Threshold, Beckoning” and David Ives’ “Babel’s in Arms.” Along the way he developed a love for the study of religion, specifically in the context of sacred and ritual dramas. At Harvard Divinity School, his master’s research and performance work included a student-written show on Christian narratives called “Passions: A Passion Play for Skeptics, Believers, and the Third Millennium. “He is honored and thrilled to be working with the cast and crew of “Dreyfus” and wants to thank the amazing friends and family in his life for their energy, love, support, and for playing along this far. Thank you. ROXANNE MORSE was a science and music student, but chose a career in cancer immunology research; which culminated in her earning a Ph.D. in Immunolgy from University of California, Berkeley. She decided to stay at home to raise her family and rediscovered her love of performing. She returned to singing and performed with the a capella chorus, Noteable Blend, for 8 years. She decided to pursue acting and has been in the “Acting for Film” class with Jock MacDonald at Carter Thor Studios East for 6 years. She has worked in numerous projects for major studio films, independent films, TV shows, industrials, commercials and theatrical productions in the Boston area. Her most recent role was in the Community Chorus of the world-premiere of “Wild Swans,” produced by the American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA and the Young Vic and Actors Touring Company of London. JAMES SANGUINETTI has been acting in the Boston area for 5 years. He just finished work on an independent film shot in New Hampshire and was recently seen in Riverside Theatre's production of "Our Town" as well as Dead Air Live's production of "The Scat Report," a holiday special aired on Somerville television. James has also been seen with his improv troupe, "Good Touch Bad Touch" at the Improv Asylum and the Winchester Theater. James also dabbles in photography and sketch writing in his free time.

EMMANUEL STRASCHNOV's experience on stage started in high school as a chorus member singing a Requiem and later in college. Last year, he acted in Zalmen or the Madness of God, for the Harvard First Arts Festival. Originally from France, Emmanuel spent three years in China before coming to study at Harvard. He is very excited to be a part of Dreyfus. MOLLY ZEFF is returning to the stage with excitement after a 7-year hiatus. In her youth, she enjoyed acting in plays and musicals every year for 13 years, and she is absolutely stoked to be on stage again - a return to a place that feels natural and rejuvenating. Some of her favorite roles over the years include Fern in Charlotte's Web, the lead (unnamed) street urchin crusading against corporate greed in The Madwoman of Chaillot, and, more recently, a paranoid rooster who was one of the 4 musicians in an adapted stage version of The Bremen Town Musicians for Yale Children's Theater. In her 40-hour/week life, Molly works at Equal Exchange, engaging in outreach and education about Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate, and other products to congregations and schools across the United States. She may not bring acting into her sales - playing herself seems to work - but she's been delighted to be someone else for a couple months...especially the sassy Agnieska. ROSIAN BAGRIANSKY ZERNER survived the Holocaust in the Kovno (Kaunas) Ghetto, Lithuania and in hiding. Miraculously her parents also survived in a country that murdered about 96% of Jews - over 10% of the total population of Lithuania. She is the niece of Lyda and Edwin Geist, the composer murdered by Nazis, whose music is being performed today. Upon her retirement from years of advocacy on behalf of Holocaust survivors and volunteer work to commemorate the victims of the Shoah, she received a Citation from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and another one from the Massachusetts Senate. In addition to her other positions, she has served as vice president of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust, on the Holocaust Survivors Advisory Board at Jewish Family and Childrens Service and represented the Greater Boston Child

Survivor Group and American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors at other organizations in addition to initiating and helping with projects such as a U.S. Postal Stamp for a diplomat who saved lives during the Shoah, removal of Mass. charter bank fees from survivor restitution payments, presenting a 10 million national Holocaust Education bill etc. Rosian has been an active speaker at universities, events, synagogues, conferences radio and TV and her story is told in several books. She was a leader and is actively participating in local German-Jewish Dialogue groups and is on the board of American Friends of Mogen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross. Rosian Zerner graduated Barnard College, has travelled to more than 64 countries, paints, sculpts and writes poetry. She has two sons and four grandchildren.

THE DANCERS CECILIA RAASSINA (Choreographer) is a dancer, choreographer, and movement artist who grew up in Sweden, France, Finland, and the United States. She received her formal classical and modern dance training at Atlanta Ballet, Burklyn Ballet Theater, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, the Walnut Hill School, and the Boston Conservatory. Cecilia has danced professionally with Ballet Rox, Contrapose Dance, Falling Flight Project, and Quicksilver Dance. She has presented choreography at the Boston Conservatory, the Dance Complex, A.R.T. (Artists Changing Tomorrow), and the Boston Center for the Arts. Cecilia holds a B.A. in Philosophy and a Master’s Certificate from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass, Boston. She believes in the transformative power of art and enjoys combining her passions for movement and social justice into work that is thought-provoking, personal, and politically relevant to the world in which we live. MELISSA ALEXANDER hails from Birmingham, Alabama, where she began training in classical ballet at age 5. Melissa became involved with theater in her high school's production of Cabaret and was an avid member of her school's ensemble choir and chamber choir. Melissa graduated from Harvard College with an AB degree in Psychology and a secondary field in French in May 2010. After graduating, she performed

in Cecilia Raassina's piece "The Transport," and then choreographed and performed her own solo piece entitled "captivité" in 2011. Melissa has worked with director Guila Kessous twice before, in Budzyn and the Show of Shows (as a dancer and in the role of "Herr Fisher") and in Zalmen, or the Madness of God (in which she tried her hand at puppetry as the voice and spirit of "Misha"). Melissa currently studies voice under Allison Rozsa Evans, with whom she began training in 2010. After undergoing surgery last summer that put her at risk for losing her voice, Melissa gained a new appreciation for her vocal talents and is now focused on training as a classical singer. JENNIFER GJULAMETI is a writer, independent film producer, SAG actress, educator/academic, dancer, and former talent manager working in the New York, Boston, and Los Angeles markets. An alumna of New York University, Jennifer did her B.A., M.A., and advanced graduate studies towards her Ph.D. on Shakespeare, to be completed upon final dissertation revisions. She has taught literature and writing at New York University, The Cooper Union (in NYC), and Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Jennifer had a lead role of the Inspector in Director Guila Clara Kessous's production of Elie Wiesel's play, ZALMEN, OR THE MADNESS OF GOD, May 2011 for the Harvard University Arts Festival. She has a lead role as the Biblical Eve in the first English reading and audio recording of Sonia Sarah Lipsyc's play, EVE IN LIMBO, which was originally in French. Jennifer is the lead actress for the horror/supernatural thriller, BACK TO THE BEYOND, directed by Kevin DiBacco of DiBacco Films in Maine. The film was picked up for World Wide Distribution, All Media, by Maxim Media International. She has a strong supporting role in the feature comedy, THE RUDE, THE MAD, AND THE FUNNY, the trailer for which was screened at the Boston International Film Festival, Opening Night, Friday April 15th, 2011. She had appearances in ZOOKEEPER (Sony Pictures) and WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER (Twentieth Century Fox). She is a lead actress and producer for the short mafia film, THE TEST, and the short film, CROSS OF THORNS about the sexual abuses of the clergy. She has a strong supporting role in the feature drama, LEARN FROM THE MASTER, shooting in Boston. All three projects are in production. Jennifer is starring in, and producing, another feature film, ABSOLUTE TANGERINE, a crime drama/thriller written and directed by the award winning New York director, Tomax Aponte. The film is in development and will be shot in New York summer of 2012. She is an Associate Producer for the feature film, SNOWFLAKE, described as “a female

version of 8 MILE (with Eminem).” She is currently working on producing a slate of films and is writing a feature length script called THE FORGOTTEN, a family drama based on her father’s battle with, and passing from, Alzheimer’s.

SINGER: JULIA FEIN is proud to be a part of the Dreyfus production, after working with Guila in the play Zalmen and the Madness of God last year. Most recently, Julia was in the ensemble of an original play, The Boal Original at Beaver Country Day School, and was part of the youth ensemble in Turtle Lane's production of "Big, the Musical". Julia has also played “Squirrel and Duck” in the Boston Children’s Theater’s production of A Year With Frog and Toad, and “Ottilie” in The Visit at Beaver Country Day School. Julia would like to give a gigantic thank you to her friends, family, and directors for all of the great experiences!

PRODUCTION TEAM SOPHIA KHAN (Assistant Director) is a program, research, and course assistant at Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery and its new Initiative in Theater and Human Rights. She also serves as Publishing Editor at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue. Ms. Khan graduated from Dartmouth College with honors in classics and theater, where she was involved in playwriting, acting, directing, and various other aspects of theatrical productions. She participated in a number of student-led social justice initiatives, including a collaboration with the Darfur Action Group in which she assembled and directed a staged reading of testimonials from the Sudan. Her undergraduate honors thesis involved a translation of Euripides Hecuba alongside an analysis of its production history and the transcendent themes that make it relevant to contemporary audiences. Ms. Khan went on to receive master's degrees from Yale and Harvard in comparative religious ethics, human rights, and international security. Her graduate thesis examined cosmopolitanism and humanitarian intervention through the lens of Just War Theory and featured a case study on Darfur. She has worked with the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy, Harvard University

Press, Asia Catalyst, and Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services. When she's not dedicating her energies to human rights work, she loves to cook with her aunt; their first cookbook, Students Go Gourmet, was released in October 2011 BARBRA DALE SOLOMON (Assistant Producer) is from Baltimore. She has directed children's theatre and taught voice, piano and audition coaching there and in the Boston area. She graduated with a bachelor's from Boston Conservatory of Music in music education in a voice concentration and piano minor and musical theatre. She attended NYU for the music therapy graduate program. She established a music therapy program at Baltimore's Mt. Washington Children's Hospital. She has taught at Waylend, MA public schools accompanying and musical directing. For over three decades, she has been an entertainer in piano bars and cabarets all over the east coast. She has worked most recently producing and performing in charity shows including a group, Basically Broadway, run by artistic director Barbara Brilliant. She has been performing show medelys in assisted living and healthcare facilities. EUGÉNIE TAGINI (Stage Manager) was born in Switzerland in 1981. She began studying Clinical Psychology in Geneva and Psychoanalysis in Paris. She received a Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology from Lausanne. After working in addictology, pathology, and in the area of childhood and adolescence, she started a post-graduate master’s and specialized in Forensic Psychology. Since 2008, she worked as a therapist in a Geneva prison with victims through a governemental organization. Today, she continues to perfect her knowledge of pyschology in Boston. She also teaches French at the French Cultural Center. She is a theater fanatic and feels concerned about Human Rights and therefore is very glad to take part in this play. MINDY L. GEWIRTZ, PhD (Managing Consultant) is the Founder and President of Collaborative Networks International dealing with executive mentoring, leadership and innovation management. Collaborative Networks International specializes in mentoring executives, developing talent and implementing innovative management solutions. Mindy

has demonstrated success coaching senior leaders, and leading teams in complex engagements to drive innovation and business performance-- from not for profits to global corporations in high-tech, clean tech and professional service firms. Engaging her passion for mentoring entrepreneurs Mindy co-founded the not for profit, The Emerging Business Collaborative (EBC). This spring Mindy will present a workshop in Bangalore, India on Leadership and the Art of Innovation. Early in her career she was a director at a not for profit family service agency and an innovative educator who helped open a new day school and head start program. Some co-authored book chapters include the Network Weaving OD Strategies in 24/7 Cultures which appears in Workplace Temporalities, published by Elsevier, 2007, and Sustaining Top Leadership Teams, which appears in The Collaborative Systems Field Book: Jossey/Bass, 2003. HARRIS KHAN (Poster Designer) is a sophomore in the BFA program at the Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He is an avid photographer and has enjoyed exploring other media, especially painting, metalwork, and printmaking during his recent studio courses. Harris has lived in Pakistan for extended periods of time and draws artistic inspiration from that region of the world as well as American urban settings. He is honored to be contributing his freshly honed graphic design skills to the Dreyfus production team. EDWIN GEIST (Composer) composed the kind of music Hitler called “degenerate” and was forced to flee from Berlin, his city of birth, after the Nazis came to power because he was prohibited to compose or work because his father was Jewish. He then lived in Lithuania with his Jewish wife, pianist Lyda Bagriansky Geist, and was interned with her in the Kovno Ghetto when the Nazis occupied Lithuania. He was temporarily released, but he convinced the authorities he could not compose unless his wife would also be freed and after cruel and inhumane restrictions on their lifestyle, she finally joined him. Their reunion was short lived. He was eventually murdered in 1942 and Lyda, unable to live without him, committed suicide within weeks of his death. Friends then broke into their boarded apartment, filled a suitcase with his musical scores whereas the diary he wrote for Lyda while separated from her was already with his friends, Helene and Margarete Holzman. That was all that survived from Edwin. The lives and love of Edwin and Lyda

are described in Dies Kind Soll Leben , (This Child Must Live). This memoir, written by Helene Holzman and edited by Reinhard Kaiser and Margarete Holzman, won the coveted Geschwister Scholl Prize. Reinhard Kaiser then went on to write a biography of Edwin Geist, Unerhoerte Rettung:Die Suche nach Edwin Geist (Amazing Rescue: The Search for Edwin Geist). A CD of Edwin Geist's Chamber Music and Songs was released in 2007 and received an award from the biggest and most prestigious musical publication in Germany. WARSAW VILLAGE BAND (MUSIC) is a living proof that Eastern Europe can also brings good and unique elements to the global village - in spite of history and conditions. From young enthusiasts of Polish roots and natural vibes to mature mind musicians, conscientious creators. Formed in 1997 as group of friends, after few years of presence on Polish folk stage, and recording "Hop Sa sa" album (1997) WVB started international career in 2002 when German label Jaro released their second album "People's Spring" (2001). According to Urlich Balss (Jaro's owner), reaction for album was one of the biggest surprises in the history of company. From unknown Polish band, WVB gets into the main World Music stage! In 2004 Warsaw Village Band won very prestigious BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music as "best newcomer", the same year European Broadcasting Union award for the best folk recording. DAN YONAH BEN-DROR MARSHALL (PR) was born in Jerusalem to French-Moroccan & Latvian/Lithuanian-American parents. A life long student, performer, choreographer & teacher of styles/fusions of Jazz dance, Funk, Latin, Hip Hop, Ballroom, Ballet, Modern & World/Folk, Dan has produced/directed many shows & workshops, & has acted, danced & sung in musicals. As an engineering student at UMass Amherst, Dan completed the BFA dance curriculum & instructed Israeli & International Folk Dance for the Performing Arts Division, producing shows with collaborating artists & his students. Dan enjoys the synergy between martial arts & dance, which has drawn him closer to modern Chinese Kung Fu (Wu Shu). He has acted in many films, TV, Internet & theatrical productions, & recently cowrote/produced/directed a TV pilot. Dan holds a BA in Mechanical

Engineering, has completed 2 years of NEU’s MA in Computer Engineering, & is the Co-Founder/Director of Brookline/Greater Boston Community Center for the Arts (BCCA) & FreEMotion/LibrEMoción Repertory Co. He works as a consultant in business development/finance, graphics, technology & artist space creation, & cantors at synagogue.

TO GO FURTHER The Dreyfus affair was a notorious incident of public and official anti-Semitism in late 19th Century France. Alfred Dreyfus, a high ranking Jewish officer in the French army was falsely accused of treason and railroaded into exile and disgrace. To many Jews, the affair indicated that despite the promises of "equality" Alfred and "progress," it was impossible for Jews to truly Dreyfus. assimilate into European society. It inspired the Zionist program of Theodor Herzl. The ultimate exoneration of Dreyfus, due to the courageous efforts of author Emile Zola and others, could be variously interpreted as a victory for those who had faith in the promises of liberal democracy, or as a bit of luck that saved an individual in the face of contrary historical trends. Dreyfus was born in in Mulhouse (Mülhausen) in Alsace on October 9, 1859. The family had long been established in the traditionally Germanspeaking area, which had once belonged to Germany. Alfred Dreyfus and his family had a proven record of French patriotism. Dreyfus was motivated to choose a military career when the Prussians conquered Alsace in 1871. After the Prussian takeover, his family fled to Paris, opting for French nationality. He graduated from the elite École Polytechnique military school in Paris, as a sub-lieutenant in 1880. From 1880 to 1882 he was trained as an artillery offer in the artillery school at Fontainebleau. On graduation he was assigned to the first division of the 32nd Cavalry Regiment and then promoted to lieutenant in 1885. An officer of evident ability, he was made adjutant to the director of the Établissement de Bourges, a government arsenal, and promoted to captain.

In 1891, three days after his marriage, Dreyfus was admitted to the École Supérieure de Guerre (War College). In 1893, Dreyfus graduated ninth in his class with honorable mention. This, despite the fact that one of the examiners, General Bonnefond, stated that "Jews were not desired" on the staff, and gave Dreyfus poor marks. The racially motivated tampering with his grades elicited a protest, which was later used against him. Dreyfus was nonetheless immediately assigned as a trainee in the prestigious General Staff headquarters, the only Jewish officer there. During this period, there was extensive anti-Semitic agitation in French society, despite the formal legal equality of citizens granted by French law. France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian war and the inevitable competition of Jews and non-Jews for high office and in business, had generated the expected sort of ultra-nationalist and antiCaptain Alfred Dreyfus is publicly Semitic sentiment. In the disgraced after conviction for treason. 1880s chauvinist demagogues such as Georges Boulanger, Edouard Drumont, founder of the Antisemitic League of France and Paul Déroulède founder of Ligue des Patriotes, stirred up fervor for a "unified Catholic France." The newspaper "La Libre Parole" an anti-Semitic publication, printed a series of defamatory articles titled "Les Juifs dans l'Armée" ("Jews in the Army"). Jewish officers including Cremieu-Foa and Captain Mayer had challenged the authors of these defamations to duels. Captain Mayer died in a duel against Marquis de Mores in June 1892, creating a scandal before the Dreyfus Affair. It should be emphasized that the French government and the French army as institutions were probably not anti-Semitic. Birnbaum (Birnbaum, Pierre, L'Affaire Dreyfus: La République en Peril, Gallimard, Paris, 1994) counts about 250 French officers "of Jewish descent" in this period, including many who pursued normal careers and served with distinction. However, during this period, and later, a significant proportion of

individuals in the government and the army were anti-Semitic, or were willing to use anti-Semitism as a political issue. This became apparent during the premiereship of Leon Blum as well, and thereafter. In 1894, a serious leak was revealed in French Military Intelligence. According to Lieutenant Colonel Sandherr of the innocuously named "Section de Statistique" (statistical section) - actually French counterintelligence, a French spy had found a discarded message, a "list" called le Bordereau," with secret French artillery information in the waste basket of a German military attache in the Paris embassy. Suspicion was directed at Dreyfus, in part perhaps because of deliberate efforts to convict him and in part because of anti-Semitism. The list was supposedly in a handwriting that resembled that of Dreyfus, and Dreyfus had made yearly trips to visit his relatives in German occupied Mulhaussen. Dreyfus was arrested on October 15, 1894. On January 5, 1895, Dreyfus was convicted in a secret court martial, publicly stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island in French Guiana. The court martial violated procedures in many respects and was highly "irregular." The affair became a platform for anti-Semitic agitation, with excited mobs screaming "Death to the Jews." It was later shown the Lieutenant Colonel Sandherr and his associates were active in forging evidence against Dreyfus, encouraged by General Auguste Mercier, who was Minister of War. In August 1896 the new chief of French military intelligence, Lt Colonel Picquart, himself apparently an anti-Semite, nonetheless reported that he had found evidence that the real traitor was Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. Picquart was transferred in November 1896 to the Sahara desert in the south of Tunisia, in order to silence him. Reports of an army cover-up and Dreyfus's possible innocence were leaked to the press. Several people began a fierce agitation for his exoneration, in addition to Picquard. They included Dreyfus's brother Mathieu, Jewish journalist and anarchist Bernard Lazare, who first used the phrase J'accuse in L’Eclair, on 15 September 1896. The article was also published under the title The Dreyfus Affair – A Miscarriage of Justice, in Belgium in November 1896. Additionally, Dreyfus was supported by a fellow Alsatian, the vice-president of the French Senate, Auguste Scheurer-Kestner. By 1898, the cause had attracted the attention of celebrities such as Anatole France, Emile Zola, and Georges Clemenceau. Zola wrote a famous open letter to French President Félix

Faure. Clemenceau published this letter in the first issue of l'Aurore, and affixed to it the famous headline, "J'Accuse!" Zola's letter was intentionally inflammatory. He wanted to be tried for libel. He was tried and unfortunately convicted. He appealed, but fled to England on the advice of lawyers. But the machinery had been set in motion.

"I Accuse...! Letter to the President of the Republic by Emile Zola" On 19 September, 1899, Dreyfus was pardoned by President Émile Loubet and allowed to return from solitary confinement in Devil's Island. He went to live with one of his sisters at Carpentras, and then moved to Cologny. However, the army was slow to admit its mistake. On July 12 1906, Dreyfus was finally officially exonerated by a military commission. The following day, he was readmitted into the army with the rank of Major. He was then made a Knight of the Legion of Honor, and subsequently assigned to command an artillery unit at Vincennes and later moved to Saint-Denis. However, his time in Devil's Island had taken its toll, and Dreyfus was granted early retirement in October 1907. Dreyfus attended the ceremony moving Émile Zola's ashes to the Panthéon in 1908, and there he was wounded in the arm by a gunshot from Louis Gregori, a disgruntled journalist. During World War I, Dreyfus came out of retirement and volunteered to serve as a lieutenant-colonel. Though past retirement age, Dreyfus served in the front-line in 1917, Finally, Lt Colonel Dreyfus was granted the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor in November 1918. Dreyfus died in Paris aged 75, on 12 July 1935, on the 29th anniversary of his official exoneration. Two days later, his funeral cortège passed the Place de la Concorde through the ranks of troops assembled for Bastille Day. He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.

His wife Lucie, who had been a great support especially during the years of solitary confinement in Devil's Island, survived World War II and the Holocaust. She died aged 76, on December 14, 1945 The Dreyfus affair was not fully retired in France for many years, and perhaps the embers are still alive even today. The "anti-Dreyfusards" formed the nucleus of the French right wing, and were part of the collaborationist Vichy government. The French military establishment never fully came to terms with the consequences of the Dreyfus affair. In 1985, President François Mitterrand commissioned a statue of Dreyfus for the École Militaire, but the Minister of Defense refused to display it, though Dreyfus had been exonerated in 1906 and rehabilitated. A curious epilogue to the story is being written by speculation that the

"leak" itself was perhaps an elaborate plant by the French. The famous "bordereaux" offered Germans information on French 120 mm Baquet Howitzers. But this particular artillery piece was notably unsuccessful and was already being phased out in 1893. It was eventually replaced by the later famous French 75s. Esterhazy, it is argued, planted the information in order to throw the Germans off the scent of the 75s, and Dreyfus was accused in order to lend credibility to the idea that a Jewish traitor had provided genuine information to the Germans, playing on German anti-Semitism. There is no way to determine if this is a veridical rendition of the facts or an attempt to whitewash Esterhazy and the army. What is certain is that Sandherr and others fabricated evidence to convict an innocent officer, and that the anti-Dreyfus sentiment, and the attempts to clear Esterhazy and Sandherr persisted for many years with no justification.

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