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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/17549/full/17549/performers-to-reveal-serious-side-of-victor-borge-at-shoah-event/ <br /><br /> <b>Performers to reveal serious side of Victor Borge at Shoah event</b> <br /> Friday, April 5, 2002 | by <p>JOE ESKENAZI </p> <br /><br /><p>Victor Borge's onstage antics included self-tangling sheet music, impromptu appearances from dogs and insects, more pratfalls than a Three Stooges marathon and upside-down piano playing (the sheet music, not Victor).<br /><br /> Yet "The Great Dane" possessed a more serious side. Born Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, the Jewish pianist-comedian who had dared to lampoon Hitler on stage was forced to flee his native country in 1937. In his later years, the legendary performer penned a speech about the Danes' heroic efforts in saving roughly 95 percent of the nation's Jews.<br /><br /> Borge's speech has been converted into "The Legend," a short, musical play that is vintage Borge—minus the pratfalls.<br /><br /> "It's very much in Victor Borge's style, not that there's falling on the floor or playing a crazy piano. But he played a lot with words," said Danish-born actress and musician Ditte Hofman, who has been performing "The Legend" for several years, along with violinist Heide-Marie Goertzen.<br /><br /> The two will present the 20-minute musical soliloquy Monday evening at Berkeley's Congregation Beth El as part of the congregation's Yom HaShoah observance. Admission is free.<br /><br /> "Since he wrote it, of course there's humor, but it's also very dramatic and serious," said Hofman, who is now based in New York. "It's about heroes and helping people in need even though you're risking your own life."<br /><br /> Hofman was first offered the chance to perform "The Legend" by Borge himself back in 2000. After his death on Dec. 23 of that year, just days shy of his 92nd birthday, the Thanks to Scandinavia organization the pianist co-founded asked Hofman to perform the piece at a tribute to Borge.<br /><br /> Since then, "The Legend" has been staged at a number of New York-area theaters, schools and synagogues, often in conjunction with Holocaust-related studies by young people.<br /><br /> Thanks to Scandinavia became an institute of the American Jewish Committee in August of 2000, and awards roughly 100 scholarships a year to Scandinavian students and teachers to study in both the United States and Israel.<br /><br /> Beth El staffers felt "The Legend" was particularly apropos for Yom HaShoah considering that senior Rabbi Ferenc Raj, a Hungarian immigrant, was himself saved thanks to the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg.<br /><br /> Also attending Monday's performance will be Paul Eric Boch, Denmark's honorary consul general, and Ernest Weiner, regional director of the AJCommittee.<br /><br /> Borge's play "starts out very humorously, telling a little bit about all the different kinds of Danes. The first part is more cartoonish. The second part is serious," said Hofman. "This is one of Borge's more serious works."<br /><br /> While the words are Borge's, the music is Goertzen's. The native Oregonian first improvised the score after Hofman showed her pictures of Danes and Denmark. Goertzen also includes well-known Danish and Jewish tunes, including "Hava Negillah."<br /><br /> "While we can never forget the Shoah, we should also never forget how wonderful these people [the Danes] were," said Maggie Sontag, Beth El's program director. "That they stood up to the Nazi regime is incredible. Everyone else just rolled over."</p> <p> </p>

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