{"id":162491,"date":"2021-09-30T11:30:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T15:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?p=162491"},"modified":"2021-10-07T08:54:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T12:54:32","slug":"hadassah-event-to-preview-musical-bordello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/hadassah-event-to-preview-musical-bordello\/","title":{"rendered":"Hadassah Event to Preview Musical \u2018Bordello\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Playwright and lyricist Barbara Bellman was translating poetry for her master\u2019s degree in fine arts at American University when she stumbled across the story of Raquel Liberman, a 20th-century Polish Jewish immigrant who fled to Argentina to start a new life for her family and turned to prostitution after her husband\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\n Bellman, a Philadelphia native, was translating the works of Ukrainian screenwriter C\u00e9sar Tiempo, who published a handful of poems under a persona of a young woman who was a victim of human trafficking by the Zwi Migdal, a Polish white-slavery network.<\/span><\/p>\n By writing the poems, Tiempo wanted, in part, to expose the Zwi Migdal and to share the stories of the exploited women, Liberman included. Liberman went on to testify against the network in court and is partially responsible for the group dismantling.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bellman was fascinated with her story. Similarly to Tiempo, she wanted to tell the story of the endurance of a Jewish woman who, against all odds, triumphed over her oppressors.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not so much that I found it, but it found me, and it hasn\u2019t let go,\u201d Bellman said.<\/span><\/p>\n Bellman\u2019s upcoming musical \u201cBordello\u201d is inspired by Liberman\u2019s story, and the Do\u00f1a Grazia Hadassah chapter will preview it on Oct. 3 at 11 a.m. at the Union League of Philadelphia.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hadassah fundraising event will feature six musicians, six singers and 10 songs from the musical, performed in front of a 300-person audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n