Exodus<\/em> 23:9).<\/p>\nIt\u2019s also a Newfoundland tradition, Hein explains. As a large island, Newfoundland often faces harsh winters that can make food production difficult. When you know what it\u2019s like to not have enough, you are more inclined to share, he said.<\/p>\n
To research the show, Hein and Sankoff traveled to Gander for the tenth anniversary of 9\/11 in 2011, interviewing as many people as they could, and distilling many of their stories into the musical that has now performed worldwide. Including the 9,000 local Newfoundlanders and 7,000 unplanned visitors, the pair joked that they were telling 16,000 stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it really felt that way,\u201d Hein said. \u201cEvery story was better than the next.\u201d <\/p>\n
One such story was that of Rabbi Leivi Sudak, a British Chabad rabbi who was traveling from London to New York to visit the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.<\/p>\n
In the show, the viewer meets Rabbi Sudak when Beulah, a teacher and a main organizer of the emergency efforts, is listing some of the options the guests had to eat. Someone points out a kippah-wearing man who hasn\u2019t eaten anything. <\/p>\n
\u201cTurns out he\u2019s an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and he only eats kosher food,\u201d Beulah explains to the audience (the show doesn\u2019t so much break the fourth wall as reject its existence outright). Newfoundland is home to many faiths, Beulah says, but not many Jews.<\/p>\n
So the rabbi is given space to create a kosher kitchen, where he helps provide food for Jewish passengers as well as a handful of Hindus, Muslims and vegetarians. <\/p>\n
Though Hein and Sankoff never met Sudak while writing the show, the rabbi himself told the New York Jewish Week that the depiction is an accurate one. <\/p>\n
And it sets up the show\u2019s emotional climax: a moving medley that overlays three different religious prayers for peace, including \u201cOseh Shalom.\u201d In the midst of the prayer, Ed, an old man from Gander, seeks out Rabbi Sudak to share something he hasn\u2019t even told his wife: he\u2019s Jewish. He was born in Poland, and his parents sent him away before the war. <\/p>\n
As the men sing together, the rabbi hands Ed a kippah.<\/p>\n
The \u201cPrayer\u201d scene encapsulates not only the diversity of the strangers sent to Gander, but also the radical openness of the community that was created amongst the islanders and the visitors (alternately referred to in the show as \u201cplane people\u201d and \u201ccome from aways\u201d). <\/p>\n
\u201cTelling that story instantly resonated with us,\u201d said Hein. \u201cIt was one of the many, many stories that we were like, \u2018This needs to be in here, this is a very special point.’\u201d<\/p>\n
In real life, not only did Sudak give Ed a kippah \u2014 he also kept in touch with the man, and later gifted him a Jewish prayer book and tallit. Years later, Ed\u2019s son told Sudak that his father was buried wearing the kippah and tallit.<\/p>\n
There was one minor tidbit about Sudak that the play does not mention. His return flight to London was scheduled for a Saturday, which posed a challenge for the Shabbat-observant rabbi. If he missed that flight, he would still be in Gander on Rosh Hashanah.<\/p>\n
But his new friends stepped up yet again: they drove Sudak and two other observant passengers 500 miles to an airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd thanks to them I walked into my in-laws\u2019 home in Brooklyn seven minutes before candle lighting on Erev Rosh Hashanah,\u201d Sudak told the Jewish Week.<\/p>\n
This year, the Broadway return of \u201cCome From Away\u201d and its debut on Apple TV+ \u2014 filmed for an audience of 9\/11 survivors and first responders \u2014 also intersect with the High Holidays. But its creators will be back in Gander, where a ceremony commemorating the events of the show is taking place.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, we\u2019ve been so busy we haven\u2019t even thought about that coincidence,\u201d Hein said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to not be with our family, but at the same time we\u2019re going to be with our family in Gander, and going to be celebrating them and breaking bread with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hein and Sankoff added that the message and production of their show only gains meaning during the Jewish new year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are renewing,\u201d said Sankoff. \u201cWe\u2019re going back to Broadway, but we\u2019re hopefully going back stronger, going back more inclusive, with more diversity, with more compassion for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of starting anew feels relevant on multiple levels: Rosh Hashanah, the gradual reopening of a society plagued by COVID-19 and the widely popular show returning to the stage and debuting on the screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, the concept of a new year [provides] the opportunities to change and remember what we can be,\u201d said Hein. \u201cThat we can be better, that we can come together in more ways than we can possibly imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome From Away\u201d is now available for streaming on Apple TV+ and returns to Broadway Sept. 21.<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/9-10-21-ComeFromAway1-scaled.jpg\")