Tower Theater's 23-24 season is focused on Theater for Social Change, generating awareness for social issues facing our community. Brighton Beach Memoirs is our second step in that journey: Neil Simon’s hilarious story of a family’s familiar struggles and what it means to grow up, underscored by a looming World War II, immigration, and growing antisemitism. But this story takes places in Brooklyn in 1937. So how is this family’s story relevant to us here and now?
According to the Anti-Defamation League, since Oct., 2023:
Reported incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, and assault increased by 388% in the U.S.
312 antisemitic incidents were reported in Oct. 2023; by comparison, 64 incidents were reported in Oct. 2022
And, as reported in the White House’s 2023 “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism”:
In 2022, American Jews accounted for 2.4% of the population, but antisemitism drove 63% of religiously motivated hate
36% of Jews experienced antisemitic harassment online in 2021
In 2020, the first 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z found that most young Americans lack basic knowledge of the Holocaust. For example, 63% of survey respondents did not know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, nearly 60% did not know what the concentration camp Auschwitz was, and 11% believed that Jews caused the Holocaust.
Theater has the ability to make us laugh, to make us cry, and to open our eyes to the wider world.
No more hate. Love above all else.
We began this work with The Prom, providing a powerful and heartfelt look at LGBTQ+ issues, and we’ll finish it in the spring by putting our attention on Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Awareness with Heathers: The Musical (April 11, 12, 13). Thank you for taking this journey with us.