Arnold Mittelman and National Jewish Theater Foundation Create the First Holocaust Theater Archive Conference

Arnold Mittelman, President and Producing Artistic Director of the the National Jewish Theater Foundation (NJTF) today announced the upcoming, first-of-its-kind, Holocaust Theater Archive (HTA) Conference, scheduled to take place in Miami in two sessions: May 15th & 16th and May 22nd & 23rd.

“To bring together an abundance of the most qualified individuals, who were anxious to participate but not all available at the same time, two separate sessions were required,” stated Mr. Mittelman. Both sessions will follow the same agenda, but due to each session’s different participants, each will yield its own exciting outcomes and recommendations, which will then be synthesized into a final blueprint to strengthen the future of the Holocaust Theater Archive. This invitation-only, working two-day conference is generously supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

This gathering of noteworthy theater practitioners, artists, Holocaust scholars, academicians and philanthropists will engage in the further development of NJTF / HTA, a research- and production-oriented digital database and physical repository of Holocaust-related theatrical texts and artifacts. In addition to providing much-needed research materials, NJTF / HTA seeks to promote an ever-increasing amount of quality productions worldwide of Holocaust-related theater and related academic curricula. Mr. Mittelman has said, “One of the challenges theater artists and historians face is how to continue to generate audiences of all ages and Holocaust education awareness as we move further away in time from the horror of this atrocity. In the face of the inevitable loss of the Holocaust’s last living survivors, who have spoken so eloquently on this subject, we must advance the work of this Archive by commissioning new works and making available filmed versions of its plays.”

President of the Association of Holocaust Organizations Dr. William Shulman has said, "The Holocaust Theater Archive is an important, indeed necessary, addition to the resources available to educators and scholars of the Holocaust and to the theater community. There is no other comprehensive archive devoted to this subject in existence." Furthermore, Arnold Mittelman had the following to say about this ambitious initiative: "To honor the victims and their families and to serve society, the Holocaust Theater Archive will continue the task at hand to document, educate and inspire the creation and performance of relevant theater works to be made accesible to the widest possible population." The NJTF / HTA recently produced and Mr. Mittelman directed a critically-acclaimed production of the Holocaust-themed play The Soap Myth by Jeff Cohen in New York City and its upcoming filmed version.

In addition to Mr. Mittelman, the participants will include: Dr. Al Goldfarb, Dr. Jeffrey Solomon, Dr. Haim Shaked, Dr. William L. Shulman, Bret Werb, Alan Berger, Rebecca Rovit, Derek Goldman, Dr. David G. Marwell, Teresa Eyrng, Kim Simon, Seth Kaufman, Dean Brian Schriner, Mira Hirsch, Dean William D. Walker, Dr. Lyn MacCorkle, Dr. Michael Berenbaum, David Y. Chack, Robert Skloot, Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Alan Levy, Abbie Van Nostrand, Dr. Gene A. Plunka, John Eisner, Susan Albert Loewenberg, Eugene Rothman, Matt Haggman, Michael S. Glickman, Nancy Schwartz Sternoff, Phyllis Teicher Goldman, and James H.T. McConnell, Jr. For further information, please visit www.holocausttheaterarchive.org or www.nationaljewishtheater.com.

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