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Mixed Media

News & Reviews.

ment reached fever pitch in
the 1850s."
His favorite Jewish story
happened in Vicksburg,
where the intermingling of
religious and Southern
experiences was expressed
by an invitation to help

For a firsthand experience with
Civil 'War civilian and military re-
enaaors, attend Greenfield
Village's Civil War Remembrance,
from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday and
Monday, May 24-25. Living histo-
ry re-enactors will re-create tactical
troop movements, encampments
and other daily scenes of the Civil
War, embracing Union and
Confederate traditions from 1861-
1865. In addition, visitors can see
a fashion show of authentic cloth-
ing of the time, view a display of
mourning memorabilia, hear vin-
tage musk performed by The 5th
Michigan Regimental Band and
listen to a poetry recitation. $12.50

adults/ S I-1.5 ° senim.s/$7. 50 5-12
ear olds. (313) 271-1620.

LIVING HISTORY

Tony Horwitz has a fantasy that
one day he will write a book about
Jews in the Confederacy and call it

Shalom, TA11.
It would be a follow-up to the book
he currently is promoting in more
than 30 cities
Confederates in the
Attic.
•
A history buff who 10 years ago
traveled to the Soviet Union to
research his Jewish roots, Horwitz
has journeyed throughout the South
to meet and report on the people
committed to Civil War re- enact-
ments.
His book tells the story of the war
by relating the stories of the people
reliving it, often to trace their genealo-
gy and reach out to ancestors lost in
battle.
Horwitz took part in some of
these exercises. Provided with
authentic clothes, he marched with a
group sustained only by the same
types of meager food eaten by sol-
diers in the past.
Horwitz hopes these people will
not be confused with those active in
the militia movement.
"About 20,000 Jews lived in the
Confederate states at the start of the
Civil War," he writes. "In some ways,
the mid-19th century South had been
more welcoming to Jews than the
North, where anti-immigrant senti-

—

5/22
1998

90

Tony Horwitz

THE PLAY'S THE THING

make minyan and then go out for
fried chicken, pork loin and hush
puppies.
Horwitz, getting ready to return to
his everyday job as a Pulitzer Prize-
winning reporter for The Wall Street
Journal, has covered live war zones in
the Mideast and Bosnia.
"I guess these experiences tend to
make me look for a middle ground,"
said the author, who has been assigned
to Cairo and Saudi Arabia and has
spent considerable time in Israel. He
hopes Israeli factions can learn from
the American Civil War devastation
and find the common ground to settle
their differences without dire conse-
quences.
While exploring the history of the
South, Horwitz learned the Jewish
population was more complex and
troubling than he imagined. While the
Passover service demonstrates the
imperative against slavery, there were
Southern Jewish families that owned
slaves.
On his book tour, Horwitz returns
to the places he described and meets
with some of the people he got to
know. The reunions have been happy
for the most part.
"Nobody's thrown a tomato," he
said.

,

— Suzanne Chessler

May 27 marks the opening night of
Jewish Ensemble Theatre's Seymour J

funny, touching and telling reminis-
cences, imparting her unique percep-
tions of the human condition.
Craig Eisendrath and Roberta
Spivek present An Angel of History, on
June 10-11. Based on the actual mem-
oirs of Lisa Fittko and her late hus-
band, Hans Fittko, this saga chronicles
the heroic lives of these World War II
and Nazi resisters who rescued hun-
dreds from occupied France and led
them across the Pyrenees. Among the
victims and the valiant are famous
literati — writers Berthold Brecht,
Hanna Arendt, Walter Benjamin and
Gershom Scholem. The dialogue
reflects their differing points of view as
they faced life-and-death situations.
Tiny Windows, by Mark Krause, a
Toronto playwright, is the final festival
presentation, on June 17-18. It is the
story of a child whose parents cannot
recover from a tragedy. He steals family
photos from others to create a fantasy
life for himself, his own "tiny windows"
on the world. In the process, he finds a
"family" in the company of three elder-
ly women devoted to each other.

— Linda Bachrack

"gra.

Niiv.Plays. in
4figriesdays
and Ethel S. Frank 1998 Festival of
8.
.
New Plays in Staged Readings. Held at
ewish
the Jewish Community Centers in
*West
West Bloomfield and Oak Park, the
ursdays:
Jimmy
festival continues on Wednesday and
ewish Community
Thursday evenings through June 18.
Aif4Center in Oak
Without the benefit of cos-
Park. 7:30 p.rn.
tumes or elaborate sets, the
$5. JET sub-
readers must find a way to
scribers free.
capture the essence of the
(248) 788-
play's characters through their
2900,
words and actions on stage.
This year's plays all deal
with issues of humanity or
WHAT'S
community from a Jewish
COOKIN'
perspective.
"Everything's
A Jerusalem Son, by
Kosher," a new
Jonathon A. Flaum of San
kosher
cooking
Diego, premieres May 27-28.
cable
television
It's the story of Israel's sons
show being pro-
and daughters as they face
duced in Detroit,
their country's 50th anniver-
will hold audi-
sary. The dream of statehood
tions in late June
is fulfilled, but what has hap-
for a host and
pened to the dreamers? What
co-host at
will their future hold? This is
Kitty
Dubin:
"The
Day
We
MediaOne
in
a production that touches the
Met."
Southfield.
sword's edge and asks: "When
The half-hour
can we stop the flow of blood?"
program, co-sponsored by The
On June 3-4, Birmingham's Kitty
Detroit Jewish News, will be pro-
Dubin reads her play, The Day We
duced by Mindy Soble, an award-
Met. Staged in vignettes, Dubin moves
winning
television producer in
her young and old characters through