'Bolek: The Story that Silence Covered'

Book by Alfredo Ratniewski

Theatrical Adaptation by Todd Salovey

Featuring:

Marco Barricelli as Alfredo

Rosina Reynolds as Zofia

Kate Rose Reynolds as Izabella

A dramatic play reading reveals the story of a family who risked everything to save a Jewish man during the Holocaust in war-torn Poland, and their descendants who, 80 years later, reached out to his son to ensure that history was never forgotten.

Alfredo Ratniewski knew his father as a man of carefully chosen silences. A respected doctor in Mexico City, Bolek carried the weight of a past he refused to speak about, leaving his son with more questions than answers. But when a mysterious email arrives from Poland eighty years after the war, a door to the past swings wide open, revealing a breathtaking journey of survival, courage, and a secret hidden behind a single oil painting.

The program is a 50-minute play reading, followed by a special Q and A with the memoire’s author Alfredo Ratniewski and Izabella Cooper, daughter of the woman from Poland whose family hid and helped save the author’s father.

A special thank you to our community partners:

Ken Jewish Community, A Culture of Peace, House of Israel, Lou Dunst Foundation and Congregation Adat Yeshurun

The Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival on Facebook / Instagram