About the Film’s Directors and Kesher Participants 

Jesse Bonnell is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker. He collaboratively investigates how constructs of collective belonging shape our personal experiences. His work utilizes the moving image as an archive of our lived experiences ranging from collective trauma to the irreverence of the everyday.

Bonnell has received major support from Theater Communications Group (TCG), United States Embassy Belgrade, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, The Grotowski Institute, The Ahmanson Foundation, Center for Cultural Innovation ARC, Creative Capacity Fund, Next Gen Arts Grant, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, The Dutch Cultural Consulate, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Creative Capital. He has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship, and other residencies at REDCAT, Yaddo, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Headlands Center for the Arts, Abrons Art Center, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. He recently has given art talks about his work on collectivity at NYU Theater and Health Forum and CCA Annual Conference.  Bonnell holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, for which he received the Lillian Disney Scholarship.

Barbara Kaynan is the Kesher Coordinator for Raleigh-Cary Jewish Family Services and co-director of Where Can I Go. She is a registered drama therapist with the North American Drama Therapy Association. She is originally from New Jersey and holds a Master’s degree from New York University’s graduate program in Drama Therapy. Her BA was earned at UNC-Chapel Hill and she is thrilled to be back in North Carolina. Before moving to NC, Barbara worked for three years leading therapeutic theatre processes for Holocaust survivors and adolescents through Witness Theater. Her creative arts therapy experience up north also included providing expressive, clinical support for at-risk youth, hospitalized children recovering from medical procedures and their families, individuals living with chronic and persistent mental illness, adults experiencing acute illness, and older adults living with skilled nursing and memory care needs. Barbara specializes in utilizing an integrative approach to the healing process: incorporating psychodynamic and creative interventions. Her thesis work focused on the role of stage director in the therapeutic theatre process which bolstered her understanding and experience in creating theatre with clients as therapy. Barbara is a published research scholar and current Peer Review Editor for the Drama Therapy Review. She also served as Adjunct Professor at LIU-CW Post teaching drama therapy to undergraduates. Prior to her drama therapy career, Barbara worked as a freelance stage director and in artistic programming both Off-Broadway and in the independent theatre community in New York City. She has worked with a multitude of artistic partners to build communities around new plays that celebrate diversity and examine the human psyche on both an individual and systemic scale. Currently, in addition to her Kesher Coordinator role at JFS, Barbara also works as an Expressive Arts Therapist for Ellenhorn-NC and sees clients through her private practice Carolina Creative Wellness.

2020-21 Kesher Group Participants

Tobi Dicker was born in a displaced person camp in Furth, Bavaria, Germany on May 3 1947, to two survivors of the Holocaust awaiting quota from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) to send them to Israel. Unfortunately, Tobi became ill and needed hospitalization which caused them to miss their quota. After 15 months of recovery and waiting they received new orders to go to the United States, where they arrived in May of 1950. Tobi grew up in New York and moved to North Carolina in 1994. North Carolina is Tobi’s home, her love. She always strives to remind people of the atrocities of the world. The Kesher program is a wonderful vehicle for which she feels a lot of gratitude. Tobi hopes by viewing this film you will keep in the forefront of your mind we can never be complacent or believe catastrophes can never happen again in the form of discrimination, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hatred. Tobi would like to dedicate this movie to her mother, Molly Dutkiewicz, and all other survivors and people who lost their lives.

Marianna Miller was born in Presov, Czechoslovakia on August 8, 1925. She was brought to England at the start of the war  to keep her safe. Both her parents were killed by the end in Banksa Bystirica where there is now a memorial for those who were murdered. Marianna came to the United States in 1954 and had a successful career as a social worker working with families. Marianna moved to North Carolina a few years ago to be closer to her daughter. She enjoys the climate and beautiful landscape as well as the people and their new perspectives. She hopes by viewing this film people will understand her experience and connect it to how we treat refugees and children. She wants people to understand what can happen if we are less than decent to each other. Marianna would like to dedicate this movie to her family, Heidi, and to children everywhere.

Harry Rubinstein was born on December 19 1930, in Cologne, Germany. His family was split up by Nazi immigration rules just before the war. In September 1939, with the help of a special U.S. visa, he gained passage to America with his family. After a successful career as Dean of Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, he moved with his wife to North Carolina and spend retirement closer to their children. Living in North Carolina has allowed them to be part of a vibrant Jewish community and participate in the lives of their children. Harry is a member of the JFS Kesher group and he wants people to see this film to understand the impact of national socialism and Nazism on European Jewish life. Harry dedicates this film to all concerned individuals.