Master Storyteller David Arfa will perform the one-man show “The Jar of Tears: A Memorial from the Warsaw Ghetto” in honor of Yom HaShoah, the Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust. It will last an hour with a time for discussion afterwards. This full length storytelling performance is based on the life of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro, known as the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto. Rabbi Shapiro wrote while in the ghetto and buried his writings in a milk jug which were found nearly a dozen years later by construction workers. This telling re-imagines his sermons as journal entries; his diary to God. It is a portrait that provides a window into his changing experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto and shows his struggle to remain a compassionate leader among the most difficult of circumstances.

The Jar of Tears has been performed widely including in Warsaw Poland. David has won the Cohen Center's Hildebrandt Award for Holocaust memorial art based on its depth of vision and artistic quality. Maggid David Arfa (Mah-geed; Storyteller) is dedicated to Judaism’s storytelling heritage and ancient environmental wisdom. His latest CD of stories, The Life and Times of Herschel of Ostropol: The Greatest Prankster Who Ever Lived won a nationally acclaimed Parents' Choice Award . His first CD of stories, The Birth of Love: Tales for the Days of Awe, includes ancient mythology, old world Yiddish tales (set in the Berkshire foothills), medieval folktales and other surprises.