Showing the Jewish exodus from China to Bklyn
CBy Julianne McShane heck out Brooklyn’s leastknown
refugees.
A new exhibit at several
branches of the Brooklyn Public Library
highlights the little-known, World War
II–era migration of Jewish people from
Europe to Shanghai to the Borough of
Kings. “Jewish Refugees in Shanghai”
— now on view at the Central Library,
and opening at the Kensington branch
on April 20 — illuminates an overlooked
part of the past and draws parallels
to our treatment of refugees today,
according to one organizer.
“We want to explore the history
to see how much we can learn from
it, and how much use it can have in
our current reality,” said Bay Ridgite
Frank Xu, who manages the library’s
languages and literature division.
The exhibit uses text and photos
to tell the story of more than 20,000
Jewish people who fled to the Chinese
city — one of the few places they could
travel to without a visa — in the 1930s
and 40s to escape the Nazi regime, and
the smaller group of about 150 people
who arrived in Brooklyn after the war
ended in 1945.
Part of the display focuses on the
ancestors of current-day Flatbush resident
Benson Chanowitz, whose father,
two uncles, and aunt escaped modernday
Belarus for Shanghai around 1940.
The group stayed there for about four
years, Chanowitz told this paper.
The Jewish and Chinese residents
of Shanghai mostly peacefully coexisted,
but the Japanese authorities
that occupied the city forced the Jews
to live together in a ghetto, leading
them to count down the days until
they could build better lives elsewhere,
according to Chanowitz.
“Their focus there was surviving
during the war, and then getting
papers,” he said. “They never had any
intention of resettling there.”
Chanowitz’s ancestors — all teenagers
and young adults at the time
— spent their years in Shanghai studying
at a yeshiva with other Jews from
their homeland, he said, and moved to
Kings County with a group of fellow
students.
COURIER L 46 IFE, APRIL 19-25, 2019 24-7
“They were looking to congregate
with their own people — they wanted
to go to a neighborhood where there’s
synagogues and kosher food available,”
he said. “They saw that there were
already established areas in Brooklyn,
and that’s where they went.”
“Jewish Refugees in Shanghai”
exhibit at Brooklyn Public Library
(Central Library, 10 Grand Army
Plaza at Eastern Parkway in Prospect
Heights; Kensington Library, 4207 18th
Ave. between Seton Place and Ocean
Parkway in Kensington, www.bklynlibrary.
org). Through May 10 at Central;
April 20–May 31 at Kensington. Free.
By Colin Mixson Happy birthday, Bill!
A Kings County theater
troupe will transform Ditmas
Park’s Stratford Road into a free public
celebration of the 455th birthday of
William Shakespeare. “Shakespeare
on Stratford (Road)” will take place on
the afternoon of April 28 — although
scholars agree the playwright was most
likely born in Stratford-upon-Avon on
April 23, 1564.
The Bard’s birthday bash will feature
live performances on front porches
donated for the day by residents of
the block between Cortelyou Road and
Slocum Place for use as Shakespearean
stages, in an event that promises to
be a delightfully communal art party,
according to its director.
“I just wanted to celebrate the
community, celebrate spring, and get
people listening to love poetry, and
love songs, and dance,” said Claire
Beckman, director and co-founder of
Brave New World Repertory Theatre,
which takes its name from a line in
Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
The event will kick off with 18
costumed thespians belting out some
of Shakespeare’s lesser-known sonnets
from their street-side venues, each performing
a different 14-line love poem
on a loop. The repeated recitations will
give audience members a chance to
roam around and soak up the romance,
according to Beckman.
“They can listen at a rapid pace, or
they can stop and listen to each sonnet
completely,” she said.
After the sonnet spectacular,
Beckman’s audience will move into the
center of the block for a performance of
some spring-themed madrigals from
the 16th century, along with a demonstration
of courtly jigs typical of
Shakespeare’s time, which will subtly
transform into an Afro-Haitian dance
that should feel more familiar to contemporary
audiences.
Beckman’s Brave New World
troupe first garnered recognition following
its performance of “To Kill a
Mockingbird,” which used porches and
sidewalks along Westminster Road as
a venue in 2005, and the company has
since built a reputation for so-called
“site specific” performances utilizing
public places as stages.
Celebrate the Bard’s birthday at
“Shakespeare on Stratford (Road)”
on Stratford Road between Courtelyou
Road and Slocum Place in Ditmas
Park. April 28; 2–4 p.m. Free.
By Natallie Rocha This party will get
you into the swing
of things!
A 15-piece band will
bring swinging hits from
another era to a Gerritsen
Beach club later this month.
M.A.S. Swing — named
for the initials of bandleader
Marie-Annette Stack
— will play 1940s tunes
from the Great American
Songbook at its April 28
gig at the Tamaqua Club.
Seniors in the audience
always light up and tap
their toes when the band
launches into Benny
Goodman’s “Sing, Sing,
Sing” or Glenn Miller’s “In
the Mood” — a favorite
sight for the band’s leading
lady, she said.
“At one of our shows,
you can actually see people
who are 70 and 80 years
old transform into their 20s
again,” Stack said. “You
can see it on their faces as
they listen to the music —
it’s like some of them are
teenagers again.”
These classic tunes
have a powerful emotional
effect, said the Gerritsen
Beach resident. In fact, she
fell in love with her nowhusband,
Dick Bennett,
while they were both playing
in the Bay Ridge swing
band the Townsmen, she
said. Stack already played
four instruments, but her
husband taught her how to
play the drums, and for
the last 13 years they have
taken turns leading the beat
for M.A.S. Swing.
In addition to the rotating
drummer, the big band
includes five saxophone
players, three trombonists,
three trumpeters, a
bass player, a pianist, and
a singer to belt out Sinatra
songs and other hits from
that era.
Swing music is not the
band’s only genre — Stack
said the band can also get
the crowd dancing with
Latin, cha-cha, merengue,
and rumba sets — but they
tend to stick with tunes the
audience remembers from
their youth. Because the
band’s following tends to
range in age from 60 to 90,
she makes sure to make
the gigs friendly to seniors,
with handicap accessible
venues and Sunday afternoon
gigs.
At the April 28 show,
audience members can also
indulge in a hot buffet that
includes pasta, hot turkey,
salad, and a cash bar, while
they listen to three sets
from the band.
Stack said that the live
shows can make the audience
feel like they are hearing
classic tunes for the
first time.
“Nowadays we don’t
really hear live music,
everything is electronic,”
Stack said. “I want people
to come and see our show
even if they’re not dancing,
come just to experience
this live music that is a part
of our history.”
M.A.S. Swing at the
Tamaqua Club 84 Ebony
Ct. between Channel and
Bijou avenues in Gerritsen
Beach, (917) 841–1617,
www.mariestack.com.
April 28 at 2 p.m. $30.
Relic of the past: This image of Jewish refugee children posing with Shanghai locals in
1945 or 1946 is part of the exhibit “Jewish Refugees in Shanghai,” on display at several
branches of the Brooklyn Public Library. Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum
Mas appeal
SHANGHAI PROFILES
‘Shake’ it up
Big band blows into
Gerritsen Beach club
All the block’s a stage: A Kings County theater
troupe will take over Stratford Road
on April 28 to celebrate Shakespeare’s
birthday. Brave New World
Swing shift: The M.A.S. Swing big band will play classic tunes
from the 1940s at its gig on Apri 28. Marie-Annette Stack
/www.bklynli-brary.org
/www.bklynli-brary.org
/www.bklynli-brary.org
/www.mariestack.com
/www.mariestack.com