The Place of No Remembering
Remember that time when you were eight years old and it happened and you were scared and you knew that who you are will not be the same? No, you probably don’t. You probably never will, unless someone reminds you of it, and points out your scar. This is what happened to Tom Stoppard twenty years ago. That moment was so precious to him that he wrote a play to preserve it forever.
Leopoldstadt, now on Broadway is the most Hanukkah play I have ever seen. It is the story of a Jew who forgot he’s a Jew so that he could live a normal life among the nations, and then seeks salvation by reconnecting with his Jewishness. It is a re-dedication of the Temple, a rekindling of his eternal light, a coming out party, a redemption, a payback to his roots, maybe even to his God, for what Stoppard called his “charmed life.”
Hanukkah is about assimilation. The Maccabees are the ur-anti-assimilationists. Leopoldstadt (spoiler alert!) begins in 1899 with a Christmas tree with a Star of David on top. It continues to 1924 with the story of an Austrian Jew so sure of his ability to become a regular Austrian that he converts to Christianity, until Kristalnacht ends all illusions. But it’s the final scene, in 1955, which illustrates the deepest Hanukkah idea.
This is when we meet the playwright. He enters the scene a non-Jew. We watch him speaking to a relative, who…
