#Girl in red background movie#

As Schindler witnesses the terrifying liquidation of the Jewish ghetto by the Nazis, his eye is caught by a tiny girl in a red coat (one of the few images in color in a black-and-white film) being rounded up. Who was the girl in the red coat in Schindler’s List? In the city of Krakow, Oskar Schindler runs a factory in which he employs cheap Jewish labor. It has even been posited that the music was perfect for a diminutive, self-contained, and not yet sophisticated or nuanced performer, evoking the very innocence of the girl in the red coat in Spielberg’s movie. And though the 15-year-old skater stated that the song didn’t have any deep meaning for her, Yulia’s program was choreographed by former Olympic ice-dancing medalist, Ilia Averbukh, a Russian Jew. The haunting melody is filled with drama and melancholy. Paul Wyle skated to it in 1994, Katarina Witt (a German) in 1995, and even Israel’s sibling dance team, Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky, in 2010.

#Girl in red background movie#

Others disagreed, citing the use of the John William’s score to Schindler’s List for Olympic ice skating competitions ever since the movie was made. After all, what judge could vote against the murdered girl in the red coat? Lipnitskaya’s choice of a red costume evoked the iconic image of the murdered 3-year-old child in the movie and was therefore, manipulative. Immediately, social media mocked her performance as “Schindler’s List: On Ice!” Slate Magazine called the musical choice vulgar and Salon magazine said the use of the 1993 Academy Award-winning theme song “raises questions of taste and respect,” even questioning its sportsmanship. It was with less enthusiasm that critics hailed the 15-year-old Russian ice skater, Yulia Lipnitskaya, when she became the youngest person ever to win Winter Olympic gold, performing to the theme song from Schindler’s List in Sochi in February.

We cheered when gymnast Aly Raisman wowed the crowd with her floor performance to the strains of Hava Nagila at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. By Rabbi Judy Chessin, Temple Beth Or, and Chair, Synagogue Forum of Dayton Rabbi Judy Chessin