Erev Tisha B’Av Service & Film: “The Presence of their Absence”

Join the Actors’ Temple for a screening of “The Presence of their Absence,” the story of Fred Zaidman, a Los Angeles son of a Holocaust survivor, on a journey of discovery to trace his roots and “inherited trauma,” followed by a Q&A with the director, Donna Kanter, as well as food suitable for the holiday after the service.

In the film, we follow Fred Zaidman on his journey to trace his inherited trauma. Armed with only scant clues from his late parents who had survived concentration camps in Poland and Germany, Fred ventures into the unknown to tell his story for the first time. With helpers in Poland, at Yad Vashem in Israel, at Bergen-Belsen, Germany – and with an unlikely source – a Baptist minister in Atlanta who guides him through a cemetery in Poland. Fred finds roots, unshackles his pain, and reconstructs his future.