This year’s Yom HaShoah marks 80 years since the Holocaust’s end. The Holocaust Education Resource Center invites the community to gather in remembrance on Sunday, April 27, at 3 p.m. at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center in the Daniel M. Soref Community Hall.
Their featured speaker, Jordan Bielsky — an actor, writer, poet, musician and Jewish advocate — will reflect on his grandfather Tuvia Bielski’s heroism during the Shoah, which saved more than 1,200 Jewish lives, as well as “how to move through the world as a proud Jew right now, when it seems like everyone is working against us doing that.”
Born in New York City and now based in Los Angeles, Bielsky’s creative path includes roles in the films and TV shows “Get Shorty,” “How I Met Your Father” and “Sugar,” in which he starred alongside Colin Farrell. While acting is his primary craft, Bielsky says his “first love” was music, which introduced him to the arts. He wouldn’t discover his love for acting until his senior year at Bard College, when he learned of the making of “Defiance,” a film telling his family’s story.
“They were making a movie about my grandfather, Tuvia Bielski, and his brothers who were the leaders of [the Bielski partisan group], the largest armed rescue of Jews by Jews during the Holocaust,” Bielsky said. “And I wrote an email to the director being like, I’ll drop everything. Just let me be a part of this.”
After going on a “family pilgrimage” to the “Defiance” set in Lithuania and living his family’s story “three-dimensionally,” Bielsky embraced the power of acting to “reflect humanity back out to people.” He has since performed his family’s story in “Remembrance of Things Present,” a 2023 program telling stories of Holocaust survivors’ descendants produced by the Jewish story company The Braid.
“The Shoah is a part of my consciousness,” Bielsky said. “I’m endlessly proud to share my family’s story. I’m proud to stand up for Jewish people. I’m proud to speak truth.”
At the commemoration, he plans to talk about “what it means to grow up as a Bielsky, a Jew, and an Israeli,” as well as “being proud of who you are.”
In addition to his creative work, Bielsky said he is committed to service and advocacy supporting Jewish people. He serves as an advisor in the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles Young Leadership program at the Community Leadership Institute, where he mentors young Jewish professionals. He also worked after Oct. 7 to send civilian and medical supplies to Israel and has volunteered with Shabbat Angels, a Los Angeles group that supports Orthodox Jews by ensuring their safe passage to and from synagogues.
“What is being a Jew if not for community?” Bielsky said. “There’s a reason why when somebody dies, the mourning ritual is so based around being supported by your community. So when it comes to Yom HaShoah events, it’s more important than anything to be able to do that together, to remember together, to tell our story together.”
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Yom HaShoah commemoration
Commemoration with featured Speaker Jordan Bielsky
Sunday, April 27, 3 p.m.
Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center Daniel M. Soref Community Hall, 6255 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Whitefish Bay.
RSVP: Milwaukeejewish.org/Yamim
More info: MichaelM@MilwaukeeJewish.org or 414-963-2716
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