Proceeds support the work of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.

Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County presents

New Manhattan Sinfonietta

Hymns from Auschwitz: A Tribute to Viktor Ullman and Michel Assael

In honor of Yom HaShoah, join us for a never-before-seen musical performance in memory of two Holocaust victims; one who survived; and one who was murdered.

New Manhattan Sinfonietta brings together soulful premieres. This meaningful concert includes “Hymns from Auschwitz” featuring hazans and a piano orchestral piece by Elcil Gürel Göçtü, a young student composer who worked with Renan Koen on her March of the Music initiative. The concert also includes Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491 by W.A. Mozart, which Renan Koen will perform in memoriam of Viktor Ullmann. The performance will conclude with the debut of the Auschwitz Symphonic Poem written by Holocaust survivor Michel Assael. This poem was locked away and ultimately found by Dr. Joe Halio through his passionate research, and Renan Koen assisted in bringing this masterpiece to life.

ELCİL GÜREL GÖÇTÜ (1979-)  Hymns from Auschwitz 

featuring Hazan Rabbi Nesim Elnecavé and Ilker Nahmias 

    ~World Premiére~

W.A.MOZART (1756-1791)            Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491

MICHEL ASSAEL (1918-2006)   Auschwitz Symphonic Poém

“In memoriam of five million hostages slaughtered in the concentration camps, innocent victims of the most unhuman and barbaric frenzy”

       ~World Premiére~

This moving musical score was written by Michel Assael, a Jewish musician and composer from Salonika, Greece. After surviving Auschwitz, Assael wrote this piece in memory of all that was lost. The piece was written in 1947, but has never been performed. It has recently been rediscovered and will be given its debut performance at this not-to-be missed concert.

This event is also in memory of Viktor Ullman, a Silesian-born Austrian and renowned composer, and conductor who was sent to Terezin where he organized concerts and performed during the war. Ullman was ultimately deported to Auschwitz and was killed in the gas chambers.

We’re proud to honor Martin Elias, a steadfast supporter of Holocaust and tolerance education. We thank Martin for his generosity and support in making this concert a reality.

Sponsorship Packages

Legacy - $50,000
Includes 16 tickets in prime locations, corporate host for a VIP reception and invites for 16 guests to the VIP reception, prominent listing on HMTC website, prominent listing in HMTC event-related emails and social media promoting this event, prominent listing in the playbill.

Upstander - $25,000
Includes 10 tickets in prime locations, an invitation for 10 to VIP reception, prominent listing on HMTC website, prominent listing in HMTC emails and social media promoting this event, prominent listing in the playbill.

Tolerance - $20,000
Includes 8 tickets in prime locations, 8 invitations to the VIP reception, listing on HMTC website, listing in HMTC emails and social media promoting this event, listing in the playbill.

Resistance - $10,000
Includes 6 tickets in prime locations, 6 invitations to the VIP reception, listing on HMTC website, listing in the playbill.

Understanding - $5,000
Includes 4 tickets in prime locations, 4 invitations to the VIP reception, listing on HMTC website, listing in the playbill.

Remembrance - $2,500
Includes 2 tickets in prime locations, 2 invitations to the VIP reception, listing on HMTC website, listing in the playbill.

Digital Journal Ads
For all gifts of $500 or more, you’re invited to place an ad in HMTC’s Hymns from Auschwitz event journal. Once you make your gift, we’ll be in touch with you about your ad. If you get a sponsorship package, we’ll also be in touch with you to go over your VIP seating arrangement options.

Individual Tickets 
Tickets to this event range from $27 to $180. per ticket. 

For more information about sponsorship packages, tickets, or the event, contact Gayle Peck at gaylepeck@holocaust-nassau.org.

carnegiehall.org | CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800 | Box Office at 57th and Seventh Avenue

Please direct all donations related to this event to the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.

About Viktor Ullman

Viktor Ullman was a renowned composer and conductor, trapped in Prague when the Nazis invaded. He was deported to Terezin where he organized concerts and performed. Ironically, he wrote prolifically while interned, pieces we enjoy today. Sadly, he was murdered in Auschwitz. 

“It must be emphasized that Theresienstadt has served to enhance, not impede, my musical activities, that by no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon, and that our endeavor with respect to Arts was commensurate with our will to live. And I am convinced that all those who, in life and art, were fighting to force form upon the resisting matter, will agree with me.” -- V. Ullman 

About Michel Assael
Michel Assael was born in Salonika, Greece, and was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. Surviving selections, he became a member of the orchestra along with his sisters, Lily and Yvette. Dr. Albert Menache, a physician, heard the orchestra needed an accordion player and recommended Michel. In turn, Lily helped Dr. Menache’s daughter get into the orchestra, sadly she did not survive. Upon liberation, Dr. Menache wrote a detailed account of the Greek experience. Michel, inspired by Dr. Menache’s account, wrote a score in memory of all that was lost. The score sat in a box since 1946, never transcribed or performed. After the war, many survivors emigrated to New York, Michel and Albert among them. 

About Renan Koen

Pianist, Composer, Soprano, Music Therapist, Columnist

Koen started her studies in music with the flute in 1979, when the conductor of the Amherst College Choir discovered her talent during his stay in İstanbul for the International Music Festival. She started studying piano in 1983 with the composer Ali Darmar, and the “State Artist” Ayşegül Sarıca. Meanwhile, she received her secondary school degree from the flute studio of “Nazım Acar” at Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory. Between 1985 and 1986, she furthered her studies in piano in Paris with Germaine Mounier. In 1990-1991 she continued her studies in London with the pedagogue Maria Curcio and her assistant Mark Swartzentruber.

Read the rest of Renan’s bio and learn more about her incredible work here.

About Gurer Aykal –

Artistic Director / Conductor

New Manhattan Sinfonietta Orchestra

Gürer Aykal, the honorary conductor of the New Manhattan Sinfonietta Orchestra, started his music education at the Ankara State Conservatoire. Studying violin with Necdet Remzi Atak and composition with Adnan Saygun. Between 1969 and 1971, he continued his education at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music where he had the opportunity to work with prominent conductors such as George Hurst and Sir André Previn. Subsequently, he studied for two years in Italy where he served as assistant to Franco Ferrara in the Academia of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He was designated with the “Diploma di Merito” for conducting by the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Meanwhile, he studied Gregorian music and Renaissance polyphony with Prof. Bertolucci in Musica di Sacra in the Vatican.

Read the rest of Gurer’s bio and learn more about his accomplishments here.

The Museum Director will explore a 1937 issue of the pro-Nazi German newspaper, Der Sturmer¸ that is included in our gallery. Learn about the publisher, Julius Streicher, who rallied support to the Nazi Party, but was seen as too salacious and incendiary by many of the leaders of the Nazi Party.

HMTC needs your help now more than ever. Your donation will support HMTC’s virtual programming for students and adults. Help us continue to be able to provide Holocaust and Tolerance Education programs to schools and public programs for the community.

Thorin Tritter, HMTC’s museum and programming director, will talk about Jackie Handeli, originally from Salonika, Greece, who survived Auschwitz and who later donated several items to our museum. Several clips from Jackie Handeli’s testimony are incorporated into HMTC’s exhibition and Dr. Tritter will draw from those clips to explore how the Holocaust unfolded in Greece.

HMTC needs your help now more than ever. Your donation will support HMTC’s virtual programming for students and adults. Help us continue to be able to provide Holocaust and Tolerance Education programs to schools and public programs for the community.

Concert for Peace

IN SUPPORT OF THE UKRAINIAN WAR RELIEF EFFORTS 

Together with music, we can help

Thanks for your donation. Note that this is not a reservation. To reserve your seats for the concert, please contact concertforpeace2022@gmail.com. Due to limited seating reservations are required.

All donations through this page will go to the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee. Thank you for your help.

HMTC is hosting a program with renowned pianist and composer Renan Koen, Maestro Gürer Aykal, Sephardic scholar Dr. Joe Halio, and others to provide a behind the scenes look at some of the music to be performed at the Carnegie Hall concert on April 20 when Holocaust Survivor Michel Assael’s “Auschwitz Symphonic Poem,” written in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, will be performed for the first time.

HMTC needs your help now more than ever. Your donation will support HMTC’s virtual programming for students and adults. Help us continue to be able to provide Holocaust and Tolerance Education programs to schools and public programs for the community.

In memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which took place in 1943 from April 19 to May 16, three local Holocaust Centers teamed up with the Richard Rodgers Award-winning musical To Paint the Earth to present a virtual program of music and narration that tells the story of the life of the Jewish Underground during this crucial period in Warsaw. The musical, which is based on memoirs and first-hand accounts, shows how even after individual hope is lost, a community can still rise and shout to the world, “We are here.”

The program included a presentation by the writers, Daniel F. Levin and Jonathan Portera; a performance by actress and singer Lauren Lebowitz; an interview with Survivor and ghetto fighter Michael Struss; and much more.

Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC), the Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College, and the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains.

If you missed this program you can watch it on Youtube now:

HMTC needs your help now more than ever. Your donation will support HMTC’s virtual programming for students and adults. Help us continue to be able to provide Holocaust and Tolerance Education programs to schools and public programs for the community.

The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County’s virtual gala concert starring the Israeli singer and Broadway star Dudu Fisher, honoring HMTC’s founder, Holocaust Survivor Boris Chartan took place on January 26, 2021.. The hosts, were Dr. David Langer and Dr. John Boockvar, stars of the Netflix original series, “Lenox Hill.”

If you weren’t able to attend you can view the journal:

Thank you to our sponsors:

Platinum
Ike, Molly & Steven Elias Foundation
Lalezarian Properties

Gold
Milton Cooper
Todd Cooper

Silver
Cameron Engineering
Samar Hospitality
Phyllis Sanders
Erika and Ken Witover

Bronze
Meryl & Stewart Ain
Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Brunell
Meris & David First
Marilyn & Harvey Gessin
Kaufman, Dolowich, Voluck, LLP
Knockout Pest Control
Andrea Leeds
Millie & Larry Magid
Maidenbaum Property Tax Reduction Group
Adrianne & Eric Roth
Sandler Training
Stewart
Cindy & Paul Woldar

Media Sponsor:

“No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.”

– Sholom Aleichem

The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County concluded its 2020 Yiddish Culture Series with a virtual performance , Shalom Sholom!!, which marked the 125th anniversary of the first appearance in print of Sholom Aleichem’s most celebrated character, Tevye the Dairyman.

Shalom Sholom!! is a one-man performance, conceived and performed by Bob Spiotto, about Sholom Aleichem, aka the Yiddish Mark Twain, the Yiddish author and playwright best known for his stories about Tevye the Dairyman that became the basis for “Fiddler on the Roof.” The performance will include a mixture of music, singing, and monologues to capture the world that Sholom Aleichem knew in Pre-WWI Europe and Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

This program was funded in part by Humanities New York .

Robert “Bob” Spiotto is a creative/artistic/management professional who has worked in arts and entertainment for more than 30 years. He holds a B.F.A. in Theater Performance from Hofstra University and a M.F.A. in Directing from The Catholic University of America. Mr. Spiotto was most recently the Director of Programs/Special Events at New York’s Friar’s Club. Previously, he served as the first Executive/Artistic Director of the historic Suffolk Theater (theater/restaurant/bar), preior to which he worked at Hofstra University (1990-2012) as Executive Producer/Artistic Director for Hofstra Entertainment; Artistic Director of Community Arts Programs for the Hofstra Cultural Center (music, theater, cultural, original programming), and Director/Producer of Special Events (festivals, conferences, public programs). He served on the faculty of Hofstra’s School of Continuing Education, taught classes for Hofstra’s Summer Camps, and was an adjunct professor in their School of Communication as well as Hofstra’s New College. Mr. Spiotto has received awards from Hofstra University for his distinguished service and teaching accomplishments.

In addition to his many accomplishments, he has directed hundreds of theater productions at various regional and professional theaters, schools, and universities, as well as for various organizations and companies. He has created and appeared in numerous one-man shows exploring the lives of P.T. Barnum, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Primo Levi, Michaelangelo and others. A trio of his critically acclaimed one-man musical tributes include That’s Amore: A Tribute to Mr. Hollywood Musical - Harry Warren, Shades of Grey: A Musical Tribute to Joel Grey, and Courting the Jester: A Salute to Danny Kaye, were re-worked and presented at Lincoln Center.

HMTC needs your help now more than ever. Your donation will support HMTC’s virtual programming for students and adults. Help us continue to be able to provide Holocaust and Tolerance Education programs to schools and public programs for the community.