CHAMPAIGN, IL (Chambana Today) – Champaign-Urbana will honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day with two profound events, blending music and personal testimony to commemorate the lives lost during the Holocaust and preserve the rich cultural heritage of Eastern European Jewish communities.
On Monday, January 27 at 5:00 p.m., the MillerComm Lecture Series presents Shotn (Shadows): Songs from Testimonies of the Fortunoff Video Archive at the Spurlock Museum’s Knight Auditorium in Urbana. This moving multimedia performance highlights the voices of Holocaust survivors through poetry and music, derived from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, a vast collection of over 12,000 hours of survivor interviews. These testimonies include songs and poems from survivors recounting their wartime experiences.
The event, free and open to the public, is supported by several University of Illinois departments, including the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide & Memory Studies, and the Holocaust Education Center of the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation. It will feature moving performances and a lecture by Professor Timothy Snyder, who highlights the transformative power of testimonies and their ability to transcend death, bringing history to life.
The following evening, Tuesday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m. the Rose Bowl Tavern in Urbana will host a performance by the Litvakus Klezmer Band, a vibrant klezmer collective founded by Zisl Slepovitch. Known for their “shtetl disco” sound, Litvakus preserves the musical traditions of the Litvak Jews, a community decimated during the Holocaust. The concert will feature Sasha Lurje, an acclaimed Yiddish singer, who will bring Eastern European Jewish music to life with her dynamic performances. The concert is free, with a suggested tip of $10–$20 to support the musicians.
The events also serve as a reminder of the importance of preserving history and celebrating the rich musical traditions that survived the Holocaust. For more information on the events, visit the links for MillerComm details and the Songs from Testimonies website.