A light through the darkness

For Simon Starr, the core inspiration for A Path to the Light – HaDerech el Ha’Or – is deeply rooted in a quote by Viktor Frankl. The message that “no one can control our inner world, our imaginations and dreams belong only to ourselves, and we can define the narrative of our perceived reality. Regardless of what external circumstances are imposed upon us.”

Through a collaboration between voices that are around today and voices of those who were stifled or extinguished during the Holocaust, A Path to the Light, presented by the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia, ensures the words and thoughts of the Jews of Theresienstadt are remembered.

“It felt like such an important message to communicate and share – it’s an eternal state that we can aspire to,” Starr told The AJN. “The idea was for the music to reflect the writings of the children, Viktor Frankl, the many artists and thinkers who were in Theresienstadt, a lot of which weren’t consumed by the difficulties and tremendous challenges of day to day life there, but to include reference to the richness of our inner worlds. Not too heavy, not too light, just right.”

As Starr pointed out, Jews still lived, created, performed, thought and wrote during that time. And despite the hardships endured, there was so much light that shone through, “generated from our inner light”.

In 2023, the musician was approached by the War Memorial to create performances to commemorate the Shoah. A show was performed at the Concert Hall with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and while HaDerech el Ha’Or was supposed to be performed at the same time, the show was cancelled. The venue that was producing it didn’t want to be associated with something Jewish in a post-October 7 world.