A heartbreaking story: love and loss during the Holocaust in Greece

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Sydney luminary Vic Alhadeff is the playwright behind “Torn Apart by War”, inspired by true events and the subject of a play-reading at Sydney’s Emanuel Synagogue this weekend.

Becky Hazan and Salvatore Alhadeff

An ensemble cast of some of Sydney’s most beloved Jewish performers will bring to life Vic Alhadeff’s work.

Vic Alhadeff is a former CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, former editor of the Australian Jewish News and former Chair of Multicultural NSW.

The play tells the story of his father’s agonising decision to leave the Greek island of Rhodes for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on the eve of the Holocaust.

The departure from Rhodes was triggered by the enactment of a series of antisemitic decrees by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini against the Jews of Italy, which at the time included Rhodes Island.

Vic Alhadeff

Alhadeff’s father Salvatore was engaged to be married to Becky Hazan at the time of his departure from Rhodes, and the play encapsulates the heartbreaking impact of the ensuing events on the young couple. The story of the love and the loss is not for J-Wire to tell. The play tells the tale.

Commemorating 80 years since the destruction of the Jewish communities of Rhodes and the other Dodecanese islands, the program is presented by Emanuel Synagogue in conjunction with the Consulate General of Greece and with the contribution of the Rhodes Jewish Museum. It will include an address by Consul-General Yannis Mallikourtis, a dramatised play-reading of Torn Apart by War directed by Dr Liz Hovey and performed by Geoff Sirmai, Joanna Weinberg, Tony Sloman and Hovey herself, followed by a Q&A with Vic Alhadeff.

This will be followed by a special musical performance by Rabbi George Mordecai.

BOOKINGS: https://events.humanitix.com/remembering-rhodes-torn-apart-by-war-emanuel-synagogue