This photograph was taken by Leon Cohen and originally appeared in the June 2014 edition of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. It is reprinted with permission.

Thank you to all who attended RUACH’s two successful performances of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center on May 19.

The morning show was performed before more than 200 students from six schools located throughout the Greater Milwaukee area. The evening presentation drew an audience of over 130 attendees, many of whom first listened to a presentation on ‘The Jewish Perspective of Good and Evil’ by Rabbi Michel Twerski, followed by the final performance of ‘The Soldier’s Tale.’

Special thanks go to Alexander Mandl (the conductor), the musicians and the actors for their superb performances; the students, teachers and chaperones from ALBA Elementary School, Bruce Guadalupe School, I.D.E.A.L. Charter School, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, U.S. Grant Elementary School and Westside Academy II for their attendance; and Congregation Beth Jehudah for sponsoring Rabbi Twerski’s presentation.

Thank you to Rabbi Twerski for his outstanding talk, and to our hosts at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, led by Brad Bingheim and Matt Whitmore, for the wonderful job they did, as always. Thank you to David Becker for playing the hero’s role, not just by playing the title character, but by creating a very creative and engaging version of the original libretto.

And last, but certainly not least, thank you so much to our sponsors: The National Endowment for the Arts, the United Performing Arts Fund, and the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, as well as The Helen Bader Foundation for their help in producing the morning performance for the schools.