HAFTR makes Irena’s Vow for Yom Hashoah commemoration

The commemoration of Yom Hashoah, the official day of remembrance of the holocaust is marked with numerous lectures and films. The HAFTR high school in Cedarhurst is marking the day with the production of Irena’s Vow, a play written by Dan Gordon on the real-life Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic housekeeper who rescued 13 Jews during the Second World War.

For their roles in the play, some of the seniors had the challenging role of Nazi officials who searched and murdered their Jewish victims.

“I have to detach myself and put myself in the mindset of a cruel, evil person,” Samantha Lish said. She tackled the role by looking at it through the context of the time period and how that person would view things.

Jennifer Winkler, director of the drama program at HAFTR, went online to search for Nazi costumes for the play, and stumbled upon sites professing admiration for the Nazis. “There are so many Nazi, skinhead and Holocaust denying websites. I was stunned,” Winkler said. I suppose I shouldn’t have been, but although viscerally I know that this evil still exists, the fact that it exists here, in my laptop, is a new level of horror.”

Woodmere resident Robyn Steinerman, 17, portrays the title character role, and has a personal connection to the story. “It’s extremely meaningful because my grandmother survived under a false name. To play a righteous gentile I am appreciating her character,” Steinerman said.

Steinerman’s grandmother Eva Greenstein Andrews escaped Nove Zamky in pro-Nazi Slovakia under false papers provided by a gentile, fleeing to Hungary and Yugoslavia. She died two months after Robyn was born, but her survival story resonates in her family.

“This is how her grandmother survived and we are proud of her for portraying the role of a non-Jew who hid Jews during the war,” said Robyn’s mother Debora Steinerman.

The play also stars Jacqui Geller, Josh Abramowitz, Alexander Mehl, Leor Bareli, Alexandra Lumerman, Rivi Wartenberg, Evan Margolis, Ethan Zanger, Nicollette Digmi, and Lizzy Plaut. Winkler’s production of the play was assisted by students Lauren Hoffman, Aliza Duftler and Zoey Glaubach. Freshmen Sean Bokor and Justin Winkler served as technical assistants.

Taking the meaning of Opdyke’s story beyond the play, the students researched what happened to the rescuer and the 12 rescued Jews. They also read Opdyke’s memoir of the wartime years, “In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer,” which was published in 1999. Opdyke moved to the United States after the war and died in California in 2003, after receiving the Papal Blessing from Pope John Paul II and the Israel Medal of Honor for her risking her life during the war.

“They were able to embrace the material and stay faithful to the characters they were portraying,” said Winkler. “They read the books on the survivors. It was more than a play, it was all-encompassing.”