Carolyn Enger | The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies

Carolyn Enger

The Mischlinge Exposé is a many-layered multimedia performance centering around my family history and personal experience with Judaism. The performance interweaves the music, art and thoughts of prominent converts with testimony of my father, Horace J. Enger’s and my godmother, Rosemarie Steinfeld’s experiences in Germany. Performances of works by Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, Alexander Zemlinsky, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Hans Eisler and Paul Ben-Haim illustrate the personal situations described by Rachel Varnhagen and Heinrich Heine. Through the lens of historical context and the artistic and poetic testimony of prominent converts, the performance traces my family story of conversion from Judaism to Christianity and back to Judaism."