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`Blue Light' Shines
On Holocaust Deniers
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T
here is no denying the re-
cent resurgence of revi-
sionist history when it
comes to the Holocaust,
note observers of Jewish life.
24234 ORCHARD LAKE RD. AT 10 MILE
476-1377
Now, award-winning novel-
ist/essayist Cynthia Ozick has
placed the topic center stage, tak-
IIIMMI =MI M ■
•I1=
Off Any Large1 ing the Holocaust deniers to task
in a timely new drama bound for
Pizza Or Large
Broadway.
Antipasto Or
Ms. Ozick's Blue Light shines
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Est. 1936
a
light
on those who assert the
Not Valid With
Holocaust never happened; it is
Any Other Offer.
a beacon of bravery, the writer
armed for the battle with truths
Reserve Your Special Event
against Holocaust bashers whose
high profile in the media has cat-
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apulted them to a frightening no-
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toriety.
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Ms. Ozick harbors no illusions
about the impact the deniers
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have, which is one reason she is
focusing on them in Blue Light.
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"Those leaflets they distribute
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on college campuses is finding an
645.0300 549.8000J acceptance by kids in terms of
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855,4604
Elm .1.•
free speech," notes a concerned
Ms. Ozick, marking her theatri-
cal debut with Blue Light.
The play is based on Rosa, an
Ozick novella published along
with a short piece by the author
about the Holocaust under the ti-
tle of The Shawl.
Cynthis Ozick wraps her con-
cerns in an intriguing tale of two
Jewish women, Rosa Lublin and
her niece, Stella, plagued by the
horrors of the Holocaust. In deal-
ing with the barbarities of the
past, they must come to grips
with the ugly contemporary
truths of deniers.
Ms. Ozick understands herself
the lure of the lurid, and the dan-
ger that putting the spotlight on
the deniers might bring more of
them out of the darkness rather
irCa et,
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Playwright Cynthia Ozick and director Sidney Lumet at work on Ozick's Blue Light.
1#0 \
than chase them back into the
shadows of shame.
"I was afraid to have a denier
give his point of view on stage
and be exposed," concedes Ms.
Ozick.
After all, says the writer, she
can reluctantly understand the
appeal of their tactics no matter
how misguided the message.
"They use liberal ideas, telling
students on campus to use criti-
cal inquiry, to always be skepti-
cal of what they are told; all these
matters are good things that we
believe in on the road to intellec-
tual honesty."
But the deniers set up dan-
gerous detours, says Ms. Ozick,
using deceit and lies as obstacles
along the way. "Deniers use quo-
tations out of context," she says
of their misuse of legitimate stud-
ies about the Holocaust which
they twist and turn to their ad-
vantage.
The playwright realizes she too
may be in a novel position to be
used by them.
With one of her characters es-
pousing denial, "I suppose they
(Holocaust deniers) could quote
arguments from my play and at-
tribute these ideas to me," she
says.
Of course Cynthia Ozick,
whose past works include The
Messiah of Stockholm, is not try-
ing to convert the converted. "As
a playwright, I am not trying to
target Jewish audiences; this play
is not for them. It is for non-
Jews."
The author of What Henry
James Knew and Other Essays
on Writers is trying to right what
she perceives is a horrible wrong,
to deny deniers their impact on
unsuspecting minds. "Jews get a
kind of sensitivity to danger with
our mother's milk," says Ms. Oz-
ick.
American gentiles, she says,
"are relatively untouched. They
don't have such an early warning
system."
Cynthia Ozick warns that Blue
Light should not be considered a
"Holocaust play," with its notori-
ety for Jewish victimization. "Not
by any means," she emphasizes.
Ms. Ozick means for this dra-
ma to be a chilling account of a
contemporary horror story.
Prominent film director Sidney
Lumet, returning to his theatri-
cal roots in directing a stellar cast
that includes Oscar winners Di-
anne Wiest and Mercedes Ruehl,
"would also not have done a Holo-
caust play."
What they have done is given
voice to a growing concern among
Jews in this country. Ms. Ozick's
voice is loud and clear on this
theme. "I did write this in the
hope that by telling what is bad
[about deniers], one can help fight
Blue Light, with
its focus on
Holocaust deniers,
targets non-Jewish
audiences.
it. To ignore what is bad is to al-
low it to grow," asserts Ms. Oz-
ick.
And grow it has. "I long ago
had a conversation with Lucy
Dawidowicz, author of The War
Against the Jews: 1933-1945,
when the term revisionism was
just coming into use," recalls Ms.
Ozick.
"I remember her saying that
revisionism was a very re-
spectable thing to do as a histo-
rian, to re-examine history. No,
she said, the correct term for
those who denied the Holocaust
was not revisionist at all. It was
a different word that should be
used to describe them."
And what is that word? "Anti-
Semite," says Ms. Ozick. ❑
Second City
Holds Workshops
The Second City-Detroit Train-
ing Center will offer five new
improvisational workshops to
begin in early February.
For information, call (313) 964-
5814.