A Branch for Jerusalem: The play is about that spark in the human spirit which believes silence and disappearance are even greater enemies than death. (Screen Play Series)

By Myrna Treston

"A Branch For Jerusalem" is about a journey when the way was blocked and time had stopped.This is a play about the personalities, dreams, conflicts and loves of a family set against a background that closed in on them. In this play we follow the Peretzes, Meriam and Asher and their two sons, Mordechai and Emmanuel, from 1936 through 1942, from their comfortable home in the Jewish quarter of a large Polish town to a resistance camp in the forest and, finally, to a room in the Warsaw Ghetto. They are an upper-middle class family and when we first meet them the boys are teenagers, exuberantly preparing a birthday celebration for their mother. Act One is set in the Peretz home in the Jewish quarter of a large Polish town. The three scenes cover the period from the Spring of 1936 through September 1939. Act Two is set in a Polish forest, 1942. The setting for Act III is a room in the Warsaw Ghetto, also 1942.Although the flood of events of World War II and, more particularly, Hitler's "Final Solution", threaten to engulf this family, this is a play about choices and about the freedom to choose even among bad choices. Even as they struggle with survival there is celebration, hope and humor. This is also a play about silence and disappearance but, even more pronounced, it is about that spark in the human spirit which believes silence and disappearance are even greater enemies than death.The characters in "A Branch For Jerusalem" are fictional, but the historical context is true. Because the accuracy of the historical context of this work is important to me and to the subject matter, the play was submitted to the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance for their scrutiny and approval. Their response: "Our Senior Researcher reviewed your play and thought it outstanding." A copy of the play's preface, Why "A Branch For Jerusalem," is available to those interested in knowing more about this project.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1521301484
• ISBN13: 9781521301487
• Release Date: May 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"