Boulder Jewish News Arts, Culture, Events, Lifestyles, Holidays, Synagogues, Education
Beloved community member Irene Rosenschein never lost her European elegance, and her quiet warmth and steady smile were both gracious and genuine.
Irene touched many lives during the years she spent in Boulder, enjoying a peaceful final chapter in a life filled with many dramatic episodes. She freely shared her Holocaust stories, painful though they were, and for so many friends in Boulder, she became a revered icon and living testament to the dignity of survival.
Upon Irene’s passing last year, longtime friend Larry Cohn decided to honor her memory by creating a fund for Holocaust education, seeded with personal funds but open to donations. The fund will support Holocaust Education programs and events at the Boulder JCC throughout the year. This may include film screenings, speakers, and exhibitions. The Irene Rosenschein Holocaust Education Endowment Fund will be launched at the Boulder Jewish Film Festival on Wednesday, March 11, at noon, at the Dairy Arts Center.
To celebrate Irene’s life and legacy, the Boulder JCC is hosting a ceremony on the stage of the Dairy’s Gordon Gamm Theater prior to the Boulder Jewish Film Festival screening of “Those Who Remained.”
Speakers include Irene’s daughters, Bev and Gail, Rabbi Marc Soloway of Congregation Bonai Shalom, Larry Cohn, and Boulder JCC Executive Director Jonathan Lev.
The program also includes an 11-minute video created by celebrated documentary filmmaker Joseph Dorman. A friend of Gail Rosenschein, the New York City-based director is well known for “Arguing the World,” “Shalom Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” and “Colliding Dreams.”
Following the celebration, audiences are invited to stay in the Gordon Gamm Theater for a festival screening of “Those Who Remained,” shortlisted for a best foreign film Oscar.
A lyrical story of the healing power of love in the midst of conflict, loss, and trauma, “Those Who Remained” reveals the healing process of Holocaust survivors through the eyes of a young girl in post-World War II Hungary. Based on a 2004 novel by Zsuzsa F. Varkonyi, the touching drama is currently opening in theaters in Florida and starting to play the film festival circuit.
Following the screening, there will be a discussion facilitated by CU Professor Paul Shankman and festival curator Kathryn Bernheimer.
“Many films deal with the suffering of the Holocaust years, but far fewer focus on those who managed to return from the camps. The achingly tender Hungarian film fills that gap. Perceptively directed by Barnabás Tóth, it taps into a deep well of honestly earned emotion as it tells the story of two traumatized survivors whose relationship helps them to heal and provides them with someone to live for.”
– Variety
For tickets to the Boulder Jewish Film Festival: https://thedairy.org/boulder-jewish-film-festival/
