Year of Altruism Commemorating Kristallnacht with Special Concert

The Year of Altruism will be commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht – known as the “night of broken glass” – on Saturday, November 9, 2013, with “From Ashes to Rebirth,” a special concert in the Peace Center Concert Hall featuring the Greenville Symphony Orchestra and Furman Singers. The concert will begin at 8:00 pm, and tickets range from $45 to $100 and are on sale now through the Peace Center Box Office by calling 864-467-3000 or online at www.peacecenter.org. Box seats are available for $150, and can be purchased through Don Kilburg by calling 864-420-0518 or emailing dkilburg@yearofaltruism.org.

Don Kilburg, who serves on the Year of Altruism Leadership Committee, explained, "The organizers of the Year of Altruism set out to honor the memory of the victims of Kristallnacht 75 years ago by celebrating altruism, focusing on the good of which humanity is capable and contrasting it with the evil of the Holocaust. Maestro Edvard Tchivzhel, the Greenville Symphony, and the Furman Singers have come up with a wonderful evening of music conveying the message of the memorial with poignancy and flourish."

Greenville Symphony Orchestra Conductor and Music Director Edvard Tchivzhel said, “I am very excited and proud to participate with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in the upcoming Year of Altruism programs.  The whole idea of tolerance, altruism and humanity is expressed perfectly in music by many great composers.  Let’s remember, for an example, the passionate call for the co-existence and unity which Beethoven addressed to humankind in his famous choral Symphony Number 9, ‘Be embraced, you millions!’  After almost two hundred years this message still reminds us about this burning topic of our days.”

Maestro Tchivzhel continued, “In accordance to the title, ‘From Ashes to Rebirth’, the music unfolds as a progression from tragedy and despair to the dazzling triumph of faith and humanity over hatred and intolerance.” This powerful series of movements will include iconic works A Survivor From Warsaw, the theme from Schindler’s List, Fiddler on the Roof, and three movements from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.  “From Ashes to Rebirth” will take the audience on a dramatic musical journey from the darkness of the Holocaust into the light of the universality of the altruism in humankind.

The Year of Altruism is a not-for-profit group established in the Spring of 2013 under the 501(c)(3) status of the Community Foundation of Greenville by founders and directors Rabbi Marc Wilson and Robert St. Claire. The mission of the Year of Altruism is to encourage and celebrate altruism in thought, speech and deed, focusing the community on fostering acts of kindness in its organizations and individuals, thus creating a better future, one life at a time. 

Beginning this month and extending through June 2014, more than 60 organizations across the Upstate of South Carolina will take on the challenge of the Year of Altruism. From community-wide events to volunteer work on community projects, the Upstate will come together to celebrate the greatness in humanity.

The genesis of the Year of Altruism began in the spring of 2011 as its founders, Rabbi Marc Wilson and Robert St. Claire, started discussing how to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht, or “the Night of Broken Glass”, is considered, by all estimations, to mark the beginning of the Holocaust – the fateful first evening on which Jewish synagogues, businesses, and homes were destroyed; more than 90 Jews were killed; and 30,000 more were transported to Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps. 

Soon after the planning for the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht began, discussions centered around the ever-present ideal of humanity as opposed to the atrocities of the Holocaust – at the root, the thousands of  "Righteous Gentiles" who risked their lives to rescue, conceal and protect victimized Jews. This seminal conversation led to the idea of going beyond the anniversary of Kristallnacht to bring greater light to and encourage humanity's immeasurable capacity for compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, and idealism as a universal story – not one of a particular place, time, or people, but of the eternal human capacity to live nobly. 

To learn more about this and all Year of Altruism events, visit the Event Calendar on www.yearofaltruism.org.