Local News
Fringe show asks: Was giving the secret to the atomic bomb to the Russians morally justifiable?
By BERNIE BELLAN When I took a look at at the Fringe Festival shows I was going to be previewing on this website (also in the print edition of the Jewish Post), one show intrigued me in a different way than the others: Jem Rolls’ one-man show: THE KID WAS A SPY.
In his blurb describing the show, Jem wrote:
The true story of Ted Hall.
Brooklyn, October 1944. The youngest physicist in the Manhattan project asks himself a very big question.
Will the world be safer after the war if he gives the bomb to the Russians?
And he does.
• Events take place in the world of OPPENHEIMER
This show takes the audience from the murky world of spies to the idyll of young love. From teenage friendship to stark treason. From big decision to deep consequence. From high idealism to extreme cynicism. And from pure science to Hiroshima and the electric chair.
The show also brings in the stories of Klaus Fuchs, the greatest atomic spy; and Ethel Rosenberg, executed yet innocent.
THE KID WAS A SPY is the third in Jem Rolls’ series of shows about Jewish Nuclear Physicists no-one has ever heard of.
Which is, to put it mildly, the niche of a niche of a niche.
One only realistically enterable in the unique world of Canadian Fringe.
Which most Canadians do not realize is unique.
The first two shows in the series, THE INVENTOR OF ALL THINGS, about Leo Szilard, and THE WALK IN THE SNOW, about Lise Meitner, have each seen multiple sellouts and five star reviews.
I’m sorry I hadn’t seen the first two shows in what must be one of the strangest series of Fringe shows (which itself extols “strange”), but when Jem Roll happened to contact me prior to this year’s Fringe Festival – which he had never done before, I thought to myself: “Now this is a show I’ve got to see.”
So, on the first night of the Fringe Festival I got on my bike and headed to the Fringe – of course ending up at the wrong venue – something I’ve done quite often before. I raced to the correct venue and, after taking a very creaky elevator to the 4th floor of a building in the Exchange District, arrived just in time to catch the beginning of what turned out be a fascinating 57-minute monologue.
I rather doubt that anyone else in the audience had heard of Ted Hall before this show either – but, after listening to Jem Rolls describe Hall, he certainly seemed a familiar enough character for anyone who knows their history. I had read quite a bit about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – going back to when I was still in high school and I read a book called “The Implosion Conspiracy,” about the Rosenbergs, by lawyer Louis Nizer. I’ve read many articles about Soviet spies, but had never heard of Ted Hall prior to Jem Rolls’ show.
Several years ago I also read a terrific book by Canadian Ben Macintyre, titled “Agent Sonya,” about another Jewish spy for the Russians of whom I had not heard, whose full name was Ursula Kuczynski. (You can read my review of that book here: Agent Sonya)
So, when I read what Jem Rolls’ show was going to be about, I decided I wanted to make it the first Fringe show I would see this year.
Rather than simply telling what in and of itself is a fascinating story, Jem asks members of the audience to keep their minds open when it comes to assessing the morality of what Ted Hall did.
As Rolls explains – in his typically animated style, Hall was a precociously brilliant student who was tapped to be the youngest member of the Manhattan Project – made famous last summer with the release of the film, “Oppenheimer.”
Yet, amazingly – as Rolls goes on to note, Hall was an avowed Communist – something that should have excluded him right from the start from participating in a project that was shrouded in the utmost secrecy. In fact, Hall’s attempts to collaborate with the Russians were met with disbelief by the KGB at first; here was a pimply-faced kid offering to give them (and not sell them) the keys to the deadliest weapon ever devised by man to that point.
Without going into too much detail about how Rolls develops the story, he does say that he himself couldn’t figure out how it was that Hall was never arrested by the FBI, nor later by MI6 in Britain, which is to where he had moved later in his career.
Rolls concludes that Ted Hall’s brother, Ed, who was an even more brilliant scientist than Ted, must have intervened to save his brother’s skin. (In talking to him afterwards though, Rolls conceded that his conclusion is based on surmising; no one has been able to establish conclusively how Ted Hall was never arrested – although he was interrogated by both the FBI and MI6.)
Throughout the show Rolls reminds the audience how views of Soviet Russia changed over time – and how someone young and idealistic – as Ted Hall was, could have thought it was not only justifiable to give the secret to the atomic bomb to the Russians, given everything we know about how abominably the US has behaved in so many ways over the years, perhaps we should be treating him as a hero rather than a villain.
In fact, at the very end of the show, Rolls asks the audience to vote on that very question: Was Hall right to give the secret to the bomb to the Russians? I won’t tell you how the audience voted on opening night, but Rolls did say that the vote conformed with how other audiences have voted.
THE KID WAS A SPY is on at Venue 22, 245 McDermot Avenue, 4th floor, through July 28.
Local News
Join the Sewing Circle at Chesed Shel Emes
Local News
Talented Winnipeg composer Sara Kreindler teams up with her mother Reena Kreindler to create new satirical show to premiere here in May
By BERNIE BELLAN It’s been many years since I’ve heard from Sara Kreindler. Sara’s name first appeared in The Jewish Post & News in 2002 when a satirical musical titled “A Touch of Class” was reviewed by the late Arnold Ross. That particular production featured songs from popular Broadway shows that touched upon themes such as “greed, poverty, oppression, and social unrest.”
When she appeared in that show, Ross noted, Kreindler had just recently returned to Winnipeg from England, where she had obtained a doctorate in Social Psychology from Oxford University.
While at Oxford, Kreindler found time to compose a satirical musical titled “Charity,” which played to rave reviews there, and was performed five times.
Continuing in the theme of writing satirical musicals, Sara has now teamed up with her mother, Reena, to write a new musical titled “A Perfect Man,” which is set to run at the Gargoyle Theatre from May 6-17.
According to a press release we received, “A Perfect Man” is “a satirical musical, set on a fictional analogue of ‘The Bachelor’.
“The story follows an anthropologist who arrives to research TV’s hottest reality-dating show — only to discover she’s been made a contestant, and the bachelor is her high school crush. Past and present collide against an exuberant pastiche score that uses vintage musical styles to highlight modern absurdities.”
“Praised as ‘a musician [who] can make biofuels funny’ (CBC), Sara is known for whip-smart satire on a panoply of topics. Her digital musical, ‘Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System, created during her former life as an academic, has garnered over 84,000 YouTube views. Naturally, she had a field day with the subject of reality dating.
“The topic just begs for campy zaniness, which I think we all need in these times — but also for a more cerebral critique of what these shows say about the culture that spawned them,” says Kreindler. And thanks to the romance context, the satire is woven into a deeper, more personal story. “It’s satire with a heart.”
Here is some more information about Sara Kreindler, taken from a 2009 article I wrote about her:
“Born in Israel, Sara’s precocious talent was nurtured by her mother, Reena, whose own particular talent is literary, not musical. According to Reena, however, Sara was singing from the time she was a baby, and she began to study piano at the age of four.
“As a young girl, Sara began writing her own songs and poems, along with the “occasional musical”, notes Reena. Yet, Sara’s rare talent put her at odds with the typical interests of other children her own age, on top of which she attended a school to which she was exposed to a fair degree of antisemtism.
“As a result, Sara says, being bullied was a common aspect of her childhood. On one occasion, when she was nine, she notes, Sara fought back against one particular bully by reciting the following little ditty:
“I write so many epigrams to you that all the people laugh.
I’m tired of writing epigrams.
I want to write your epitaph!”
“Sara went on to compose a musical titled ‘Flutesong’ while she was a student at Vincent Massey Collegiate, she says. After doing her undergraduate work at the University of Manitoba, majoring in Psychology, Sara won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University.
“Sara eventually earned a doctorate in Social Psychology and returned to Winnipeg, where she began teaching at the University of Manitoba, but she said she didn’t enjoy the “mass production” style of teaching upwards of 300 students at a time, so she switched careers and began doing health research for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.”
All the while Sara has been continuing to compose and perform her own songs, often teaming up with her mother, as she has for “A Perfect Man.”
Showtimes and ticket information for The Perfect Man are available at:
http://www.thegargoyletheatre.com/upcoming-events/the-perfect-man
Local News
Rabbi Kliel Rose to leave Congregation Etz Chayim for new post in Ottawa
The following email from Congregation Etz Chayim Executive Director Morissa Granove was sent to members of the congregation on Friday, April 10:
“Dear Members and Friends,
“As we know, Rabbi Kliel recently spent a weekend with Kehilllat Beth Israel where he has since been offered a position. After much thought and consideration, he has made the decision to sign a contract in Ottawa. He will continue to lead our congregation through Yom Kippur.
“This news marks a significant ending for our Etz Chayim community, and at the same time with change comes opportunity. Congregation Etz Chayim will soon embark on our own Rabbinical search with excitement as we look for our perfect candidates and explore the new possibilities that will help us to continue to shape a strong future for our synagogue and members.”
Kliel Rose took up the position of rabbi at Etz Chayim in August, 2018.
In an article announcing his appointment to the position in the June 6, 2018 issue of The Jewish Post & News, Myron Love wrote:
The congregation has been without a permanent rabbi since last summer when Rabbi Larry Lander chose to retire – after ten years here – and relocate to Toronto.
Kliel Rose is already a well-seasoned rabbi. He was ordained in 2004 by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
He previously served as spiritual leader at the West End Synagogue in Nashville and Temple Enamu-El in Miami Beach. His current posting is Beth Shalom Synagogue in Edmonton.
Following the example of his parents, Kliel Rose has been active in interfaith dialogue and human rights work for which he was honoured in 2014 with the Human Rights Hero Award by Truah: The Rabbibic Call for Human Rights.
He has also participated in the Kellogg Management Education for Jewish Leaders program at Northwestern University and was most recently chosen to be among 20 rabbis from different denominations chosen to train in the Clergy leadership Incubator – a two-year program, under the leadership of Ranni Sidney Schwarz, intended to educate younger rabbis in innovative thinking, change management and institutional transformation.
In Edmonton, Rose also served as Jewish chaplain at the University of Alberta and took the lead on a program called “Faith and Inclusion”, whose mandate was to support individuals with cognitive and physical learning challenges to feel more welcome within various faith communities.