by Rabbi Arnold Saltzman
Ten years after my family arrived in DC, I was contacted by Congressman Sidney Yates and his wife, Addie, and asked if I would come to their apartment to discuss the possibility of my directing and helping to script a program for the opening of the Museum. The Yates had heard that I had a Youth Choir and they asked me to invite them to hear the choir to determine if they were an option for the opening of the museum.
They were not talking about the outdoor program, but a specific section of the museum dedicated to the one and one a million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.
When Addie and her assistant came to hear the choir, she immediately said they were not very good, and could I get them to a higher level over the next two years? I told them they could hire the National Cathedral Choir or the best children’s choirs in the country, but this choir was the one that had a right to be there. These were the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of survivors and Holocaust victims. No one had more right to be there than they did, and for us it was not a show, but part of our lives.
I began the hard work of improving a choir which only met once a week on Sundays, and I auditioned new students and required that they match pitches and rhythms accurately.
One little girl I rejected kicked me in the shins.
Actually she had her friend kick me since I couldn’t identify the other girl!
Creating the right program was not an easy task. There were technicalities: length, composition of the audience, but the most important issue was deciding the content and focus of the script.
Was it enough to have the story of some of the survivors in the room, or did we need Anne Frank or better-known stories? Finally I wrote to Yates’ and said that the purpose of the museum should not be to create a giant tomb for us to pour out our sorrow, rather it should be an exhibit of truth which teaches us, records, and makes us think about how rescuers did what they did, while remembering what can happen when good people do nothing, or worse, when people help those who wish to commit evil.
The Yates asked me to recommend some possible quote for the walls of the museum: I suggested Washington’s “To Bigotry No Sanction, To Persecution No Assistance” since one entrance faced the Washington Monument.
Years ago, as a High School student I read Lucy Davidowitz’ classic ‘Hitler’s War Against the Jews’. It contained a photo of a choir from a ghetto, perhaps it was Lodz, or Vilna, or Kovno. In the photo one can see the beautiful faces of children lined up in choral rows. They all have yellow stars, yet their eyes sparkle with life, proud of their accomplishment. When one looks to the bottom of the photo we see the sagging skin and swollen legs of malnourishment, an image one never forgets.
I have spent a good part of my life working with Jewish children so they would have a different kind of experience. The children on the bus to the dedication of the museum were proud and beautiful. I asked that the girls wear colorful ribbons in their hair so that we would be saying ‘we are here.’ We were not there to change the past but to make a better future. Our sons were in that choir, Josh, who was thirteen, and Michael, who was nine. Our theme was ‘We Sing for Them’. These were my words to the Yates in directing what we were about and why we continue. In a way that is why we are here as well – we sing for them – and that is why I cannot stop even though I cannot sing anymore and speak hesitatingly.