Of these, "Footsteps" is the most
effective, chilling in its muted intensity
and heartbreaking in its desolation.
The poems are sung by mezzo-soprano
Kimball Wheeler, whose dark, corn-
manding instrument brings a tragic
nobility to the text. She leaps up
effortlessly to the top of her register
just as easily as she plumbs the depths
of her chest voice. If Wheeler's diction
isn't always precise, her artistic sense is.
Theodore Kuchar leads the National
Symphony of Ukraine with controlled
tension, but allows the drama to
unfold with unbridled passion. He
gives his players — and his listeners —
an emotional workout.
This budget-priced CD on Naxos'
American Classics series is worth the
money, surely, but it is also a disturbing
reminder of the capacity for human
cruelty and the unfortunate need to be
ever vigilant about its escalation.

— Reviewed by
George Bulanda

. •
Televising
The Holocaust

The importance of television in
keeping images of the Holocaust before
the public is explored in a new book by
Jeffrey Shandler — While America
Watches: Televising the Holocaust.
Shandler, a Dorot Teaching Fellow
in the Skirball Department of Hebrew
and Judaic Studies at New York
University, started out with -the topic as
the subject of his doctoral dissertation
before thinking of its merit as a book.
"I hope it will enrich what people
think television can do as a force in our

4Err RE Y

4.wAt.trit..tr>

ws.

I
AMERICA
WATCHES

culture and show how it can make pow-
erful moral statements," says Shandler,
who recently was in Detroit to address
the international conference "Jews and
the Urban Experience," where he spoke
about the myths of Jewish characters
depicted on television.
Shandler's book touches upon the

ome for the

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Meryl Street) in "Holocaust,"
the "most significant event in the
presentation of the Holocaust
on American television."

history of programs that have dealt with
the subject — newscasts, documen-
taries, stand-alone drama and periodic
episodes in continuing series.
"Television has made the Holocaust
a household word in ways unmatched
by other forms of memory culture,"
Shandler says.
The author explores the impact of
the Adolf Eichmann trial as it brought
Nazi atrocities to light in great detail.
He recalls an episode of "This Is Your
Life" as it united a survivor with peo-
ple from her past. And he probes the
impact of the miniseries "Holocaust:
The Story of the Family Weiss," which
he terms "the most significant event in
the presentation of the Holocaust on
American television."
"The intimacy of watching all this
on television makes it a more powerful
encounter," says Shandler, whose
research took him to the Museum of
Television and Radio, New York; the
Media Center of the Board of Jewish
Education of Greater New York; the
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and
Recorded Sound Division of the
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.;
and the University of California Los
Angeles Film and Television Archive.
Shandler talks about the Jewish
authors who added their voices to the
subject by writing for what he calls
"the prime-time playhouses" of the
1950s." Works by Paddy Chayefsky,
Rod Serling, Reginald Rose and many
others are recalled.
"Almost every time I talk to people, I
learn about programs I never heard of,"
Shandler says. "At first, that bothered
me, but then T thought how extensive
the material is."

—Suzanne Chessler

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