Rochester's World-Traveling MOSES MAN Heads To NYC Again, Following Rochester Fringe

It’s been ten years since the homegrown musical Moses Man: Finding Home had its first-ever workshop at Rochester’s Louis S. Wolk JCC CenterStage Theatre.

Now, the ever-evolving project returns to that same venue for two Rochester Fringe Festival readings, on Tuesday, September 10 at 7:30-9PM (includes post-show reception and talk-back) and Thursday, September 12 at 7-8PM. Both presentations feature the accompanying art exhibition, “Moses Man: Finding Home – Through Their Eyes.” Tickets are $18 for 9/10, $15 for 9/12, and are available at rochesterfringe.com.

Immediately following the Rochester performances, DEEP Arts Founding Executive Artistic Director Deborah Haber will bring her Moses Man team to New York City for an invitation-only, industry reading in the performing space at DEEP Arts’ theatrical general management firm, LDK Productions.

“Both the Rochester and NYC presentations will be very different from what audiences may have seen before at the JCC, Geva Theatre Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, or NYC’s Signature Theatre (as part of the former NYMF festival),” explains Haber, who co-wrote the musical with award-winning Rochester composer/producer Casey Filiaci. “What was once the story of my parents’ nine-year journey to escape the Holocaust now incorporates displacement on a global level.”

There are currently more than 110 million refugees and forcefully displaced people in the world – a number that rises daily. This tragic upheaval and innocent suffering spoke to Haber, Filiaci, and multi-Emmy Award-winning Rochester filmmaker Dave Marshall from Blue Sky Project, who is chronicling the project’s progress as well as survivor testimony and on-site visits.

The trio visited Berlin, Germany in 2022, where they participated in Indiana University’s European Gateway Symposium on the Displacement of Peoples Between Africa and Europe. That event brought together scholars from all over the world to create awareness of refugee persecution, just as thousands of Ukrainian refugees were arriving in Berlin. While there, the team volunteered at a refugee site – an “unforgettable experience,” says Haber.

In 2023, they traveled to Vienna, Austria, where her father, Kalman Haber, was arrested and interrogated by the infamous Nazi officer and Holocaust planner, Adolf Eichmann. At the school that once served as his Nazi prison, Haber presented several multimedia Moses Man programs for students, the majority of whom were from families of refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia, Iran and more. Several classes participated in an art project called “Moses Man: Finding Home – Through Their Eyes” to express their own experiences or interpretations of displacement. These fascinating artworks will be on display in the JCC lobby during the show’s run.

"The collaboration between our school and the DEEP Arts project on forced migration gives our students a chance to connect the present with the past,” states Gymansium am Augarten Headmaster Árpád Krämer. “The necessity of that kind of work is as relevant as ever.”

While at the school’s Gedenkstätte Karajangasse Memorial, which serves as a reminder of the school’s tragic history, Haber uncovered the amazing story of one of her father’s cellmates, Franz (Fritz) Grünbaum. Grünbaum was a legendary Jewish cabaret artist who dominated Berlin and Vienna’s stage, radio and music scenes at the time, and was the direct influence for Joel Grey’s role as the MC in Cabaret. He was at the top of the Nazi’s hit list of cultural enemies and died at Dachau Concentration Camp. Haber met with a living relative in the U.S. – who has been fighting to recover Grunbaum’s vast, stolen art collection – and was given permission to include his story in this revised version of Moses Man.

Prior to Vienna, the team visited Rochester’s Sister City, Krakow, Poland, where they met with JCC Krakow CEO Jonathan Ornstein, whom DEEP Arts brought to Rochester’s Temple B’rith Kodesh this past April to speak about his organization aiding more than 300,000 Ukrainian refugees. They also toured and filmed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp. Haber’s uncle, Alfred Juffy, was murdered at Auschwitz, and his journey is depicted in Moses Man through the song “I Won't Disappear.” 

“Just as my parents did, refugees are fleeing the homes they love in order to stay alive, not knowing what the next day will bring. Moses Man: Finding Home's mission to link past and present shines a light that ‘Never Again’ is truly ‘Never Ending,’” adds Haber.

Moses Man: Finding Home has received international, national and local support, including a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Congressman Joseph Morelle that states: "Beginning with its first reading at the Louis S. Wolk Jewish Community Center in Rochester, NY, the project has grown internationally and impacted countless communities…I do hereby honor the Moses Man Finding Home project and celebrate its contributions and lasting impact." 

Additional support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts; JCC of Greater Rochester; Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester; Rochester Area Community Foundation; The Farash Foundation; Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism; Hamilton Lugar School for Global and International Studies Center for Global Change at Indiana University; Indiana University Institute for European Studies, a Jean Monnet European Union Centre of Excellence; and IU Jewish Studies Program.

DEEP Arts (Develop, Explore, Enrich, Perform) – originally founded as Rochester Children’s Theatre by Deborah Haber in 1991 – is a 501(c)3 non-profit arts organization whose mission is to offer high-quality, cultural experiences that entertain while fostering enrichment, communication, positive values and an awareness of literature, social and historical issues to as broad and diverse an audience as possible. Rebranded in 2014, DEEP Arts’ focus on developing new and innovative work inspires partnerships with a broad range of individuals and organizations, informing a new generation of multidisciplinary art projects. These collaborations broaden DEEP Arts’ capability to further educate and increase awareness of the arts, humanities and social justice issues.

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