Schindler On Ice

By a show of hands, please – how many of you thought that Yulia Lipnitskaia’s (or Lipnitskaya) gold medal winning figure skating to the” target=”_blank”>writing in Salon, thought that the performance was nothing less than kitsch. 

I am not so sure. All of which brings us to the interesting cultural history of Stephen Spielberg’s epic film “Schindler’s List.”

“Schindler’s List” was released almost exactly twenty years ago. It is the story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand Polish Jews from the death camps by employing them in his factories. He saved more Jews during the Shoah than any other single person.

For me, the film’s greatest power was in its utter refusal to portray Oskar Schindler as a saintly figure, but rather to show him as a complex, corrupt, ethically-challenged man who almost blundered his way into becoming a righteous gentile.

No doubt about it, though. Oskar Schindler was a hero. If you find yourself in New Jersey, turn on your GPS or your google maps – and you will find Schindler Street, Schindler Drive, Schindler Way – more than 25 streets in New Jersey named for Oskar Schindler. There is also the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center in West Orange, New Jersey. It is because Murray Pantirer and the late Abraham Zuckerman, who died just two months ago, two of New Jersey’s greatest real estate entrepreneurs, had been on Schindler’s list. Not only that: they treated Oskar Schindler as an honored member of both their families, financially supporting him, ensuring that he lived the rest of his life in dignity.

“Schindler’s List” was not the first time that the American movie-attending public had encountered the Shoah. But it was to leave an indelible emotional imprint upon those who saw it.  The film has achieved iconic status in American Jewry. You will recall the episode of “Seinfeld” in which the despicable mailman, Newman, spotted Jerry and his kashrut-observant girlfriend Rachel making out during a showing of “Schindler’s List.” Newman then ratted Jerry and Rachel out to his parents, who, of course, were appalled at the desecration of a “holy” film experience. (But, of course, a cinematic representation of a particular aspect of the Shoah, even a redemptive one, is hardly the same as the historical experience itself – which I have always suspected is precisely the point that Seinfeld was making).

Back to Yulia Lipnitskaia.

Ever since Yulia’s moment of grace on the ice, I have been thinking about the implications of her choice of music and costume. I now believe that what she was doing was far more beautiful, even in its subtlety, than we might have originally imagined.

I find myself wondering: Yulia grew up in Yekaterinburg, which is Russia’s third largest city. There is a