In 2019, Hershey Felder committed to bring Holocaust Survivor Eva Libitzky to the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts to speak to the young artists about her experiences during WW2. Eva had been interned in the Lodz Ghetto and then later at Auschwitz. Miraculously surviving, she then committed to tell her story to students all over the world to educate as to what hatred is capable of bringing upon people. With the onset of COVID, the program at the school had to be postponed. In the interim, Eva succumbed to COVID. Having promised to share her story, Hershey then committed to taking a diverse group of students from the school and two of their leaders to the locations of Eva’s story in Poland. What unravels is a musical story of heartbreak, fear, terror and ultimately one of hope and a better world.

Constructed as a docu-drama, all filmed events take place in real time, with Broadway and Television actress, Eleanor Reissa playing the role of Eva Libitzky as she reveals her life to the young student artists, who are not scripted, or prepared for the sequence of events that take place. The result is a musical film that is unlike any other on the subject matter, where young people of today can see themselves in the story as it unfolds.

THE ASSEMBLY features the music of Sondheim, Flaherty, Fastag, Shemer, live Klezmer by The Klezmerata Fiorentina, and many more. Directed by Hershey Felder, Cinematography by Stefano DeCarli, sound management is by Erik Carstensen, production is by Lilla DiFlorio and Annette Nixon.

 With Moses Libitzky, Eleanor Reissa, Kim Campbell, Igor Polesitsky, Roxane Carrasco, Timothy Farson, Joe Alterman, Stephanie Friedman, Romeo Baccarella, Katelin Banman, Olive Benito, J. Isaiah Foster, Colette Giganti, Giovanny Diaz de Leon, Alexander Meeder, Yzabel Ugalde.