Antisemitism Series at Venice United Methodist Church

West Coast Jewish Theatre will present a series of play readings that address the subject of antisemitism. Readings will be directed by the company’s Artistic Director Howard Teichman and produced by Bill Froggatt and Teichman. 

            The schedule of readings is as follows:

            Sunday, August 11, 2024 at 2:00 p.m.: The Last Yiddish Speaker by Deborah Zoe Laufer. Sarah is struggling to survive her senior year of high school - new town, new school, new boyfriend. She's also struggling to survive the new America, where the insurrection was successful and everything has changed. When an ancient Yiddish-speaking woman is deposited on their doorstep, Sarah and her father must decide whether to help the woman hide or to save themselves.

            Sunday, August 25 at 2:00 p.m.: Two Jews Walk into a War…. By Seth Rozin. Ishaq and Zeblyan are the last two Jews in Kabul, Afghanistan. They seek to rekindle their faith, rebuild their synagogue and repopulate their community. But they hate each other. Driven apart by mutual animosity, this Middle-Eastern odd couple must commit to a great act of faith in order to achieve their shared goal of keeping the Jewish diaspora alive in Afghanistan. But will they kill each other first?

            Sunday, September 8 at 2:00 p.m.: Lebensraum by Israel Horovitz. This bold work of penetrating intelligence is based on the fanciful, explosive idea that a German Chancellor might, as an act of redemption, invite six million Jews to Germany and promise them citizenship and jobs. A resulting scenario unfolds that explores the effects of the policy on Jews and Gentiles, with widely varying outlooks: an out-of-work Jewish dock worker from Massachusetts who brings his Irish wife and his son to Bremerhaven to start a new life; a survivor of Auschwitz who returns to find the woman who betrayed his family to the Nazis; a young German smitten by a Jewish-American teenage girl; an unemployed German laborer; and scores of others. The logical progression of this artfully-drawn script raises the terrifying possibility that history may repeat itself.