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"The U.S. and The Holocaust" Screening and Discussion

Presented by WETA

Celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month with the PGCMLS and WETA! Join us for a screening and discussion of the Ken Burns documentary "The U.S. and The Holocaust." A panel of experts from the community will help us better understand America’s role in the Holocaust and how that history is still reflected today. We will also honor the Jewish culture that enriches our communities and country.

"The U.S. and The Holocaust" is a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, D.C. Directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein. Telescript by Geoffrey C. Ward. Produced by Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick, Ken Burns and Mike Welt. Edited by Tricia Reidy, ACE and Charles E. Horton. Co-Producer is Lucas B. Frank. Original music produced by Johnny Gandelsman. Cinematography by Buddy Squires, ASC and Wojciech Staroń, PSC. Narrated by Peter Coyote. Voices include Adam Arkin, Hope Davis, Paul Giamatti, Olivia Gilliatt, Elliott Gould, Murphy Guyer, Werner Herzog, Josh Lucas, Carolyn McCormick, Joe Morton, Liam Neeson, Matthew Rhys, Meryl Streep, Bradley Whitford, and Helena Zengel. The Executive in Charge for WETA is John F. Wilson. Executive Producer is Ken Burns.

Rabbi Saul F. Oresky has served as Mishkan Torah’s rabbi since August 2017. He is passionate about Jewish education for students of all ages and has been teaching continuously since he was 16 in area-wide post-Bar/Bat Mitzvah programs, in religious schools, and in tutoring well over 300 B’nai Mitzvah students. He hails from the Washington, DC area. Rabbi Saul is a 2013 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in Wyncote, PA. Heleft his Federal government job as a technical writer-editor at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, in July 2014 after a 24-year career there and after 12 years in writing-editing positions in private industry before that. Rabbi Saul’s first pulpit was in Boardman, Ohio, serving for three years as the rabbi of congregation Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah (now part of Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom in Youngstown). He is glad to be back in the congregation in which he and Phyllis have been members since 1978 and where he began teaching in 1975.

Jeffrey Richter is a history professor at George Mason University and specializes in the history of Germany, the Holocaust, and genocide. From 1998 to 2010 he served as a historian in the Justice Department's Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of Special Investigations.

Esther Safron Foer served as the executive director of the Sixth & I historic synagogue for nearly 10 years, revitalizing the cultural relevance of the historic building. Before taking over at Sixth & I, she was the president of FM Strategic Communications, a public relations firm that advised top law firms and Fortune 500 companies. Her first job in politics was on the staff of the George McGovern campaign for president in 1972. In 2019, Foer published her memoir, "I Want You To Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir," which chronicles her search for information about her family's history in Poland during World War II. The book was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.