Who: Governor Andrew Cuomo, Whoopi Goldberg, Renée Fleming, Adrien Brody, Billy Joel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Lang Lang, Joyce DiDonato, Lea Salonga, Lauren Ambrose, Mayim Bialik, Julia Bullock, Christian Reif, Steven Skybell, Isabel Leonard, Lester Lynch, Jelani Remy, Jackie Hoffman, Elmore James, Daniel Kahn, John Brancy, Peter Dugan, Cantor Rebecca Garfein, Sasha Lurje, Dani Marcus, Rachel Zatcoff, J. David Williams, Glenn Seven Allen, Patrick Farrell, Jennifer Zetlan, Blythe Gaissert, Gerald Steichen, Thomas Bagwell, Zalmen Mlotek, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, more
What: Gala concert honoring the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of WWII and the seventy-seventh anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Where: We Are Here Live
When: Sunday June 14, free (donations accepted here), 2:00
Why: The Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, and Sing for Hope have joined forces with the Lang Lang International Music Foundation for the gala event “We Are Here: A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope,” an afternoon of virtual music, theater, and civic discussion honoring the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of WWII and the seventy-seventh anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, placing everything in context with the current pandemic, societal changes stemming from the murder of George Floyd, and the rise of anti-Semitism around the world. Among the performers and presenters are Whoopi Goldberg, Adrien Brody, Billy Joel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Lang Lang, Lea Salonga, Lauren Ambrose, Mayim Bialik, Julia Bullock, Steven Skybell, Jackie Hoffman, Zalmen Mlotek, and many others. Forward editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren will discuss the 2019 documentary Who Will Write Our History, about the secret group Oyneg Shabes that led the Warsaw Uprising, with executive producer Nancy Spielberg, writer, producer, and director Roberta Grossman, and consultant Dr. Samuel D. Kassow; Gov. Cuomo will deliver special remarks; and Renée Fleming will premiere a new work by composer John Corigliano, with text by Kitty O’Meara. The title of the show, “We Are Here,” comes from the Yiddish song “Zog nit keyn mol,” which means “Never Say” and is known as “Hymn of the Partisans”; it concludes: “So, never say the road now ends for you, / Although skies of lead block out days of blue. / Our longed-for hour will yet come — / Our step will beat out — we are here!”