Margate woman's Holocaust story to be featured in 'The Manya Project' at Stockton Atlantic City

Rosalie Lebovic Simon

ATLANTIC CITY - The stories of Holocaust survivors from South Jersey will be told in three original short plays to be performed at the at the Stockton University John F. Scarpa Academic Center, 3711 Atlantic Ave.

The Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University is sponsoring "The Manya Project, which will be presented in three free performances:

• Rella, Rose, and I: Elizabeth Ehrlich Roth's Story of Survival will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 7.


• Try to Survive: Rose Ickowicz Rechnic's Memory of the Holocaust will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 14.


•  Girl in a Striped Dress: The Holocaust Story of Rosalie Lebovic Simon will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 28.

The plays were created from the memoirs of Holocaust survivors Elizabeth Ehrlich Roth of Vineland, Rosalie Lebovic Simon of Margate, and the late Rose Ickowicz Rechnic of Atlantic City, who died in 2006.

The project is a collaboration with Anthony Hostetter, an assistant professor in the theater department at Rowan University in Glassboro. Hostetter worked with the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton to highlight life stories of Holocaust survivors who had written memoirs through the Stockton Center's Writing as Witness Project.

Rose Rechnic

It is essential that we take advantage of every opportunity to tell the stories of our Holocaust survivors, said Gail Rosenthal, executive director of the Stockton Holocaust Center. It is especially poignant that these are stories of local survivors.

Stockton's Holocaust Resource Center arranged and participated in meetings and interviews with the Holocaust survivors and their families. The final products are original plays written by Hostetter about each of the survivors.  Each play will be performed by recent graduates of Rowan University who performed the plays as their capstone projects.

Erlich Roth

It has been extraordinary, life-affirming, and inspiring working with Rosalie Lebovic Simon, Elizabeth Ehrlich Roth, their families, and the family of Rose Ickowicz Rechnic on these three plays. They all took time from their busy lives to attend first-draft readings of the scripts and offered many suggestions and infinite support for the actors and for me, Hostetter said. I hope these plays do justice to these heroic women who experienced so much tragedy but went onto show the world that humanity, compassion, and love is ultimately stronger that violence and hate."

For New Jersey educators, free resource materials and two professional development hours are available.

The plays are free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with plays beginning at 7 p.m. Parking is available in the lot behind the Scarpa Academic Center.

For more information, call 609-652-4699.