CONCILIATION Comes to Fertile Ground Next Month

Playwright, author and actor David Fuks' latest play, “Conciliation” will receive a staged reading on April 6, 2025 at 1:30 pm at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE). This is Fuks' third production at the Fertile Ground Theatre Festival in Portland.

 “Conciliation” is focused on two families impacted by the Holocaust. It portrays a fictional therapy session taking place in Berlin where a German family (who are descendants of Nazis) and an American Jewish family (who are descendants of Holocaust survivors) work together in an effort to develop mutual understanding.

Fuks, who is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, shares, “It is an unanticipated truth that both the descendants of Holocaust survivors and descendants of the Nazi aggressors of World War Two might have issues in common. Both may have been raised by parents who might have been emotionally unable or unwilling to discuss their experiences. Both may have heard stories that have shocked them and caused them to struggle with the ‘secondhand smoke' of anger or grief or shame. Both may also wish to find a path to move through this emotional legacy by seeking the truth and expressing their humanity.”

A talkback with the audience will follow the performance. Members of the OJMCHE Holocaust Education Speakers' Bureau and the Next Generation Group (both of which Fuks is a member) are being invited to the performance and to participate in the talkback session. The event will be video recorded and made available to OJMCHE as a teaching tool.