Lifestyle

On February 3,  we arrived at the Los Angeles opening of Borrowed Spotlight in West Hollywood. The exhibition unfolded across three packed gallery rooms, along with a smaller adjoining space where a short film played on loop — intimate clips of Holocaust survivors speaking directly with the celebrities paired with them, sharing their stories face to face.

At the front of the gallery lay the coffee-table book the team has been working on for nearly four years. It is remarkable, filled with striking portraits and excerpts of testimony from each survivor, thoughtfully paired with a public figure helping to amplify their story. Lining the walls were large-scale photographs of the survivors — some alone, others mid-conversation — each accompanied by a brief paragraph recounting their lives. Interspersed throughout were quotes pulled directly from their words.

While the room was filled with celebrities who participated in the project, what mattered most was that the survivors themselves were there. Many of them had come.

One woman, nearly 100 years old, stepped onto the stage wearing a sparkling cobalt blue sweater. When we spoke with her afterward, she lit up talking about her pregnant granddaughter, who was also in attendance. Overcome with excitement, she shimmied and danced in place, full of life and animated. Nearby stood another survivor, 108 years old, dressed in a bright red sweater and gold sneakers. The energy in the room was alive in a way that felt rare and deeply moving. One survivor shared that he had not spoken his story aloud for more than 90 years before finally telling it for the first time with the Borrowed Spotlight team.

South African–born photographer Bryce Thompson also spoke during the evening, reflecting on the years he spent working on the project. Though he is not Jewish, he described feeling a deep responsibility to help preserve and share these stories, many of which had never been told publicly before.

Quotes from survivors lined the gallery walls:

“If you don’t tell your story, people won’t know.” — Gabriella Karin
“When someone puts out their hand, you never let it go empty.” — Yetta Kane
“My grandchildren are my revenge.” — Elizabeth Wilf

With fewer Holocaust survivors alive each year, the urgency of preserving these stories — in their own words — felt especially present.

One of the most moving moments of the evening came when 108-year-old survivor Risa Igelfeld stood up and signed her name on the back of her portrait.  She beamed as she did it.  As Jenna Dewan, who was paired up with her, reflected, ” I left with a really life-changing moment. It blew me away that somebody that I was dancing with survived the unimaginable and has such positivity and light and life force to her still at 108. And it just changed the way I see life and I hear life, my perspective.’

The photo exhibition runs until March 1 at Hancock Park.

Risa Igelfeld, Jenna Dewan