Middle schoolers throughout the Omaha area have been learning about the Holocaust — and much more —through the story of a child prodigy who dreamed about becoming a concert pianist.
Her name was Lisa Jura, and in 1938, her parents put her on a Kindertransport from Vienna to London amid Nazi attacks on Austria. They believed music would give their 14-year-old daughter the strength to survive until the family was reunited.
“Hold on to your music, and I will be with you always,” Lisa’s mother, Malka (who also was her piano teacher), told her before she got on the train.
Lisa never saw her parents again. Throughout the war, she lived in London with other young refugees and, through her music, inspired them not only to survive but also to dream. Her parents perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Daughter Mona Golabek wrote about Lisa’s story in her book, “The Children of Willesden Lane.” Like Malka before her, Lisa was her daughter’s piano teacher, and Mona followed them into the world of piano performance.
Mona created a foundation, Hold on to Your Music, in honor of her mom. In addition to the book, she has been telling Lisa’s story through song since 2012 at piano concerts around the world.
And to supplement the project in Omaha schools, she’s performing twice at the Holland Center on Thursday.
“This is a story about man’s humanity to man,” Golabek said in a recent phone interview. “When you look at man’s inhumanity to man, you must tell stories about how people have the courage to do the right thing and help others. We are all cut from the same cloth so we have to find ways to break down the walls that divide us.”
The project, known as the Willesden Read, came here through the Jewish Federation of Omaha and the local Institute for Holocaust Education. Representatives from both organizations read the book, and they knew the Golabek foundation’s project and curriculum were in line with their mission.
“It’s very educational and fits with how we deal with diversity, moral responsibility and fighting antisemitism,” said Jane Nesbit, the Institute’s education coordinator.
Nesbit and Pam Monsky, assistant director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, say antisemitism was on the rise before Hamas terrorists attacked an Israeli kibbutz on Oct. 7, killing more than 110 people, taking hostages and sparking a war that’s still raging.
But it has been getting noticeably worse since then, they said.
The Jewish community is less than 2% of the U.S. population, but 54% of all religiously motivated attacks in the country are on Jews, they said. The 2022 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics report backs up that statement.
One of the places they’re seeing more antisemitism is school, they said.
“Right now, the Jewish community is facing a lot of obstacles and challenges (with) the start of the war,” said Monsky, one of the people who worked to bring Golabek to Omaha. “We had been planning this since last summer, so (the war) didn’t factor in with the decision. Antisemitism has been rising in schools. Every week we get some kind of incident in the schools.”
In the interview, Golabek said she has seen evidence that her book and the work of the Hang on to Your Music Foundation can be part of the solution. She said people from all races, religions, ethnicities and socioeconomic standings have read her writing and attended her concerts and tell her it has changed them.
“Everyone can relate to the universal theme of making something of their lives. Everyone can relate to being separated from their family and the absolute despair that ensues,” she said. “When I set out, I thought that maybe only Jewish audiences would relate to it, but I was excited to see the plethora and abundance of people from all walks of life. I am thrilled in this day of antisemitism that my mother’s story can become a beacon of life.”
So far, she said, the concerts, the book and the curriculum have impacted 5 million students and teachers across the globe.
Golabek’s multimedia performances are at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The afternoon concert is for teens from 17 Omaha public and private middle schools. Each kid who attends gets a copy of the book. Grants from the Henry Davis Family Foundation, Lozier Foundation and Rich and Fran Juro provided for 2,000 books and covered other expenses.
Tickets for the evening performance are $36 and they’re available at ticketomaha.com
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Mona Golabek, a concert pianist and an author, will perform for Omaha middle school students Thursday. They have been studying her book, “The Children of Willesden Lane,” about her mom, a child piano prodigy who was sent on the Kindertransport to London to escape the Holocaust.
Author and concert pianist Mona Golabek travels around the world to tell her mother’s story through song. Her mother, Lisa Jura, fled from Austria on a Kindertransport train to escape the Nazi takeover and eventual Holocaust. Lisa never saw her parents again but lived to become a concert pianist herself after inspiring her fellow refugees. Here, Golabek is speaking to youths in Zimbabwe.