Moved By Music

At Akiva dinner, a powerful song
chronicles Rabbi Leo Goldman's
liberation from Holocaust.

Lynne Meredith Schreiber

F

Special to the Jewish News

.

ew people had dry eyes
when the youth choir
sang "The Man from
Vilna" at the recent Yeshivat
Akiva annual family concert,
especially because the man who
inspired the Abie Rotenberg
song, Rabbi Leo Goldman of
Oak Park, was in the audience.
"I looked at the audience,
more than half of whom had
tears in their eyes," said Mark
Nadel, Akiva president. "I've
never seen that before. There
are times when you hit a cer-
tain emotional chord in music,
but it's rare that you see such an
emotional response!'
The 50-person choir, which
includes children in third,
fourth and fifth grades, fea-
tured a solo by fourth-grader
Emily Scherrer of West
Bloomfield, who sang earlier
the same day in La Boheme at
the Michigan Opera Theatre.
Musicians from the concert,
"Voices for Israel Unplugged,"
accompanied the choir.
More than 400 people attend-
ed the concert on Nov. 6, Nadel
said. Musicians performed
selections from the Voices for
Israel two-CD "We Are the

World"-style effort to raise
money for Israeli terror vic-
tims. Performers included local
musician Avy Schreiber, Jordan
B. Gorfinkel (VFI producer),
Sean Altman, Moshe Cohen and
Peretz Cik.
In an added twist, Rabbi
Goldman's daughter, Rose
Brystowski of Oak Park, was the
night's honoree. She received
the PTA distinguished service
award for 18 years of service. In
remarks to Nadel, she said it is
remarkable how well the song
captures her father's story.
Rabbi Goldman, born in
Vilna and the rabbi of
Congregation Shaarey
Shomayim, which has a
Shabbat minyan at the Oak
Park JCC, survived the
Holocaust. The song chronicles
his liberation, with a moving
scene of survivors dancing
around a synagogue on Simchat
Torah, without a Torah to hold.
It traces his journey back home
and his reaction to the devas-
tated remains of his beloved
community.
In the liner notes, Rotenberg,
a composer and producer from
Toronto, credits Rabbi Goldman
as inspiring the song. Nadel

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Music on page 34

Rabbi Leo Goldman is surrounded by his family, grandsons David, an

Akiva fifth-grader, and Daniel, an Akiva 10th-grader, his daughter,

Rose, and son-in-law, Dr. Henry Brystowski, all of Oak Park.

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November 24 2005

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