An impressive celebration of Chanukah will be staged here at the fourth annual Maccabean Festival in Madison Square Garden next Saturday evening. The festival, conceived by Morris Margulies, secretary of the Zionist Organization of America, and sponsored by the New York Zionist Region, has elicited the interest and cooperation of many Jewish communal and fraternal organizations not only in New York but in New Jersey as well. Dr. G. A. Lowenstein, chairman of the Maccabean Festival Committee, has announced that Meyer C. Ellenstein, Mayor of Newark, is acting in the capacity of honorary chairman of a group of Jewish leaders in New Jersey, who have been organized into a special committee as a result of the activities of the Order Sons of Zion.
In New York City, not only prominent Jewish leaders, but non-Jewish notables as well have joined the Festival Committee, Among them are: Bernard S. Deutsch, president-elect of the Board of Aldermen; Charles H. Tuttle, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, George Z. Medalie, Judge Mitchell May, Edward P. Mulrooney, Congressmen Emanuel Celler, Sol Bloom, and Hamilton Fish, Jr.; Nathan Straus, Jr., Morris Rothenberg, Louis Lipsky, Meyer W. Weisgal, Herman Bernstein, former Minister to Albania; Dr. John Haynes Holmes, and Rabbi I. H. Levinthal.
The festival of Chanukah is one of the few joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar.
PALESTINIAN PANORAMA
In keeping with its spirit, the Maccabean Festival will this year make the departure of presenting a Palestinian dramatic and musical panorama of modern Jewish life in Palestine, in addition to featuring a popular program of entertainment with stars of the stage, screen and radio.
The production, entitled “Reunion in Tel Aviv”, will be an elaborate representation of the all-Jewish city of Palestine and the achievements in the social, economic, and cultural fields which have marked the renaissance of Palestine. With a cast of 500 actors and dancers, a chorus of 200 voices, and a large symphony orchestra, “Reunion in Tel Aviv” will present a colorful picture of the various types of Jews who have come from all over the world to build a new land.
Of the many interesting scenes in the piece, two promise to be outstanding. The first is a striking ballet of the chalutzim. Here the hardy young men and women who forsook the comfort and ease of Europe and the United States to plunge into the trying life of the pioneer, are seen depicting in dance form their toil and their sacrifice in behalf of the new Palestine.
THE GERMAN SITUATION
The second scene of unusual significance will consist of a ballet based on the tragic plight of the Jews in Germany and their flight to Palestine to find refuge from the Hitler terror. This scene will provide some of the most dramatic moments of the production and will constitute the first time that the advent of the German Jews to Palestine has been represented on any stage.
“Reunion in Tel Aviv” is being directed by a distinguished group of artists including Isaac Van Grove, who directed the pageant, “The Romance of a People”; Lasar Galpern, renowned ballet master and head of the American Children’s Theatre sponsored by John Dewey; Emil Hilb, former conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, and Eugene Fuerst, noted Russian symphonic director. The settings, which include a gigantic living Menorah in which human beings will represent the candle lights, have been designed by Hammond Kroll, noted New York scenic designer, in collaboration with Mark S. Joffe, Jewish historical painter.
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