Experience a Powerful Story of Memory, Movement, and Resilience

One of the most effective ways to confront antisemitism is through education — and through art that opens hearts as well as minds. In response to recent events here in the U.S. and abroad, 3RD GEN – A Survivor’s Story is a powerful dance memoir by acclaimed Israeli-American choreographer Shany Dagan that offers a deeply moving opportunity to reflect, learn, and bear witness.

On Thursday, February 26 at 2 p.m., join Jewish Federation of the Berkshires and our generous community partners for a performance of 3RD GEN and talk-back featuring the choreographer. This program is free and open to the community and will take place at the Perles Family Studio at Jacob’s Pillow, 358 George Carter Road in Becket. Security will be in place.

Through movement and storytelling, 3RD GEN honors the resilience of Holocaust survivors while illuminating the vital role their grandchildren play in carrying these stories forward as firsthand witnesses are lost. Drawing from her own family history, Dagan confronts centuries-old patterns of scapegoating and hatred, offering a compelling artistic response to narratives that blame or disparage Jews for complex societal challenges.

Come be part of an experience that uses art to remember, educate, and inspire action.

This Jacob’s Pillow performance launches a three-part Berkshires series by Dagan Dancers, which includes:

• Friday, February 27 – School assembly at Mount Everett Regional Jr./Sr. High School (grades 8–12)
• Saturday, February 28 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Dance workshop for young choreographers and adults at Berkshire Pulse, Housatonic

About Shany Dagan and 3RD GEN

3RD GEN – A Survivor’s Story was born as a Covid pandemic project of Israeli-American dancer and choreographer Shany Dagan. During the lockdown, she revisited the survivor testimonies recorded at Yad Vashem by her maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather. In a studio, she relistened to her grandparents’ voices and started to move in response to their words. Then, she invited her friend Yochai Greenfeld, who will be dancing 3RD GEN in the Berkshires with Morgana Mauney, to the studio and  asked him to listen to her grandfather’s story and recreate it though improvised movement.

A shorter version of the dance was well-received, and so Dagan developed the idea into a full-length dance that would be followed by as talkback. Now the project has evolved, she says, “where my goal is to bring more pieces and more stories to life through movement and music. We are working on new pieces that people send us stories or their grandparents' stories,” both spoken word and written word.

Music for the piece was composed by Luke Wygodny who, like the dancers, responded to the words of Dagan’s grandparent, Emmanuel Dagan and Lily Alter, to whose memory the piece is dedicated. The genesis of the piece was conceived organically in the studio, Dagan explains. She filmed the development process and identified the improvisations that worked the best to develop the dance.

“This was the first time that I sat with my history and with the people who I loved most and listened to their pain,” says Dagan. “Now I'm able to process it for myself and understand where I come from. Though it's based on my Jewish history, but I had friends and audience members who are not Jewish, and they came to us after the show and they said, ‘Wow, it made me think about our own stories.’ That was the first time that I actually realized that everyone can relate. Shared humanity is not just a nice couple of words – it’s we all experience something and we all have history and we can connect on that.”

To Dagan’s Berkshire audience, particularly the students, she says: “It’s not supposed to be a sad performance. It revolves around strength and history and hope and resilience.”

Federation Outreach in Our Schools

Lindsey Brown is a middle school science teacher at Mount Everett Regional in Sheffield, whose son participates in Federation’s PJ Library programs. She says she “noticed that there was a space left in our school that was looking to be filled to bring students together to think through some of the ways that we as a district could face issues like racism, anti-Semitism, anti-LGB and other forms of hate together and come up with a positive way to get students involved.”

And so last year, Brown connected with Federation’s Executive Director Dara Kaufman. “Dara suggested that we partner in bringing Mount Everett into the Hate Has No Home Here campaign. And so we were able to start bringing students together and starting these initiatives here in the middle school and high school in September and October.”

These initiatives include partnering with Change Makers for Good, a group that “works in partnership with school districts to build systems that foster and sustain a culture of belonging.” Founded by Phil Fogelman, formerly of the ADL, Change Makers for Good will provide registered students from Mount Everett with three days of training on how to facilitate conversations with their peers on difficult conversations. Brown says that teachers are also teaching about the “historical components” of World War II and the Holocaust.

In March, the conversations will continue when the MA Mobile Museum of Tolerance visits Mount Everett to hold workshops for students in grades 6 to 12. They’ll focus on “how you can be an upstander rather than a bystander, says Brown, “how to engage in positive digital citizenship and supporting students and their peers through navigating some of these challenging situations.” The school will follow up through the end of the year, and continue to build on the results going forward.

“This interested me personally because I know that there are a lot of students here at Mount Everett that want to do these good works and make a difference and put into place some real change,” says Brown. “But it also interested me professionally in the sense that I feel like students deserve some agency in the way that their school culture is built and how we address some of these challenges that we're all seeing in the news and hearing about nationwide and closer to home here in the Berkshires.”

About this partnership with Federation, Brown sums up: “I reached out initially to the Federation and was met with such wonderful enthusiasm from everyone I spoke with. From there, there has been a genuine human connection – with phone calls, conversations, visits in person with Federation members. Dara herself has taken a specific interest in connecting with schools. And it really just started with me reaching out to Federation and saying, ‘Hey, I'd love to strengthen some of the programs we have here.’”

Our Generous Supporters

This meaningful weekend of performance and education is made possible through the generous support of dedicated community members:

Jane Glaser • Sherri Greenbach & David Goldstein • Roy & Geri Liemer • Sherry Londe • Helice & Steve Picheny  • Heather Thomson Schindler & Jonathan Schindler • Ann Schnessel

 

Photo: Yochai Greenfeld and Morgana Mauney photographed by Andrew Mauney.