Studio Theater in Exile at Hudson Valley MOCA in Peekskill, New York presented two limited-engagement premiere film screenings of the one-woman play Holocaust Syndrome on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 3:00 PM. A Q&A immediately followed with playwright Aliza Levy-Erber and director Mara Mills. A deeply personal story, Holocaust Syndrome examined a life’s journey spent trying to understand deep-rooted intergenerational trauma, the relationship between a mother and daughter when the mother is unable to nurture her child due to sheer devastation, and how this affected the children—and grandchildren—of survivors.
Holocaust Syndrome is based on playwright, Aliza Levy-Erber’s own lived experience. The story follows Emmi, a child Holocaust survivor whose seemingly successful post-Holocaust life begins to break apart. The daughter of a survivor and a resistance fighter, Emmi fights inner demons by reflecting on, and returning to, the past to find a way to separate her own experiences from her mother’s during the Holocaust. In Emmi’s search for her own memories and feelings, she unexpectedly discovers the story of her father, Richard Levy, while visiting Terezin Concentration Camp. Her search for self grows more fraught as she works with a therapist to find connection and individuality.
Jeremy Gratt served as producer and videographer.
About Aliza Levy-Erber
Rabbinic Pastor Dr. Aliza Levy-Erber was born in Holland during WWII. Her family was forced into hiding at the age of 2 months old and she survived for nearly two years in an underground bunker in the Dutch woods on a diet of grasses, roots, and tulip bulbs. She was smuggled to freedom and reunited with her mother, Sarah after the war. Her father, Richard Levy was murdered in Auschwitz - as were many members of the family at different locations. Levy-Erber lived in Isreal, then Palestine following her mother’s new marriage. In 1959 the family immigrated to the United States.
Dr. Levy-Erber s a physician, rabbinic pastor, college professor, Hebrew teacher, playwright, actor, poet and artist. She has received several awards for her work including the Forbes “Torch of Freedom” Award in March 2024 and the Julian Y. Bernstein Distinguished Service Award by Westchester Jewish Council in May 2024. In November 2019, Dr. Levy-Erber received a Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from The City University of New York for her tireless efforts to educate and engage others – who in turn bear witness - to the experiences of those who suffered from the Holocaust. Rabbinic Pastor Dr. Aliza Levy-Erber has three adult children and now resides in Riverdale, New York.
Mara Mills, Dramaturge and Director Holocaust Syndrome
Mara Mills has taught pre-school through graduate school focusing especially on theatre, literary, and visual arts, creativity, cultural studies, and storytelling. Her theater work as a director began when she directed other kids in shows during the summers at her Great Grandparents Catskill Bungalow Colony “I am much more useful off-stage working with or playwrights.” Mara, as Artistic Director, created two theaters with Jeremy Gratt, as Tech and Producer - The Herbert Mark Newman theater and housed in Studio Theater Exile@HVMOCA. And with Gratt took the Holocaust show about Jewish Resistance Fighters to Budapest. Mara has directed around the Metro area, NY State, and Connecticut for over 35 years. Her focus is to dramaturge and directs original work. Working on Holocaust Syndrome with Aliza has been a long labor of pain and love. Mara has taught and written integrated curriculum and produced work based on inter-genre collaboration often inspired by art at Hudson Valley MOCA. She has also worked with Individual artists, Upstream Gallery, and Winter Gallery, which she ran many years ago when SoHo first gentrified. She was Director of Children’s Jewish Education Group for 13 years as well as teaching the Holocaust as part of the history of world-wide genocide to the graduating 8th graders.
