"The Gathering"- A Holocaust Survivor Returns to Germany

By Elyse Trevers

Although the Holocaust ended years ago, it continues to impact the lives of the Jewish people, both uniting them and dividing them. This is one of the themes posed in Arje Shaw's moving play "The Gathering" at the Jewish Reparatory Theatre on E. 91 St. in NYC. Shaw has written a touching play about Gabe Stern,a Holocaust survivor, whose experiences create a wall between him and his family. Throughout his life in America, Gabe, masterfully portrayed by Theodore Bikel, keeps his emotions in check. However, he loses all restraint when he learns that President Reagan is going to Bitburg to lay a wreath at the cemetery for German soldiers. His anger is unchecked when his son Stuart, a speechwriter for the president, will do nothing to stop the president. "You hold on," Stuart retorts, "I move on." So Zayde Gabe brings his beloved grandson Michael with him to do his Haftorah in a symbolic act at the cemetary. There the two encounter a German soldier and finally Zayde Gabe must confront his ghosts and hatreds.

Zayde is played by 75 year old Theodore Bikel with energy and passion. His sonorous voice booms whether he's praying or humming. Moving and effective, Bikel is powerful in his emotion and light in his humor. He easily overpowers the other performers who sometimes appear amateurish beside him, but we don't care because he has enough talent for all of them.

Despite the heavy theme the play is filled with humor, much of it through the barbs of Zayde. With a liberal sprinkling of Yiddish, Zayde comments on politics, television and American Judaism. We spend much of the first act laughing and except for the skill of Bikel, Gabe would be a stereotypical comic character. However, the mood changes dramatically when the characters arrive at Bitburg.

Within the context of the play there is an interesting commentary on the bar mitzvah which Gabe labels "another typical American tragedy." Stuart insists his son's festivities include ice swans. He views the reception as an occasion to show off and admonishes the boy not to embarrass his parents in front of their important guests. Gabe, reacting to his Holocaust experiences, has turned from religion. For his 40 years in America he has been irreverent and somewhat indifferent to his Judaism. In fact, the most religious character in the story is the daughter-in-law Diane "the blonde blue eyed shiksa" who converted when she married his son. She's the one who prepares the Shabbat dinner and implores her 13 year old son Michael to understand what he's reading rather than just reciting it. When she's surprised that her father-in-law doesn't understand Hebrew, he retorts, "But the goyishe don't know Latin."

Although the bar mitzvah marks the coming of age for a young man in Judaism, Michael feels it's a sham. He envies the young Native Americans who must perform acts of heroism to reach manhood. The trip to Bitburg symbolizes Michael's' coming of age, but more importantly it is the opportunity for Gabe to confront his guilt over having survived the war camps. Michael gets his introduction to manhood as his grandfather sheds some of the ghosts of his past. In "The Gathering" grandfather and grandson together examine the impact of the past upon the future.

Elyse Trevers is a theater critic from Long Island, New York