arts & life

The Man

Who
Did Not
Forget

Wiesenthal, coming to
the Berman Center for
the Performing Arts, tells
the story of a dedicated,
surprising man.

Tom Dugan as Simon Wiesenthal: “People will laugh more than they cry.”

Elizabeth Applebaum | Special to the Jewish News

O

ne of the stories about
Simon Wiesenthal — and
there are many stories —
involves a conversation in which a
Holocaust survivor approached the
Nazi hunter and said: “If you had gone
back to building houses, you’d be a
millionaire. Why didn’t you?”
“You’re a religious man,” Wiesenthal
replied. “You believe in God and life
after death. I also believe. When we
come to the other world and meet
the millions of Jews who died in the
camps and they ask, ‘What have you
done?’ there will be many answers.
You will say, ‘I became a jeweler.’

44 September 15 • 2016

Another will say, ‘I built houses.’ But I
will say, ‘I didn’t forget you.’”
Simon Wiesenthal spent most of
his life seeing that Nazis were brought
to justice. Beyond that, though, he
remains a bit of an enigma.
Wiesenthal, a one-man play written
by and starring Tom Dugan, takes a
look at a man who was funny, bright
and tenacious. The play opens at
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at the
Berman Center for the Performing
Arts at the JCC and runs for five
shows.
“Not only is Tom Dugan an excel-
lent playwright, but his character por-

trayal of Simon Wiesenthal is inspir-
ing,” says Elaine (Hendriks) Smith,
director of the Berman. “I am so
proud we are able to bring this show
to the Berman after its off-Broadway
run.”
Tom Dugan grew up in New Jersey,
in a little town called Winfield Park
with a population that might reach
1,500. His passion for theater began
when he was in eighth grade, appear-
ing in a play and later in several musi-
cals including Fiddler on the Roof.
Although Dugan is Catholic, his
wife and two sons are Jewish, and they
love the thought of him starring in the