Lee Oskar visit to Nashville Gordon JCC

Letter from Carrie Mills – Curator, Gordon Jewish Community Center, Nashville, TN

The extraordinary talent, painter, musician, creative visionary, Lee Oskar’s exhibition and gallery talk, “Never Forget”, in the Sig Held Gallery at the Gordon Jewish Community Center of Nashville during the month of April 2022 coinciding with Yom Hashoah, was an event and evening for those present that will most likely not be forgotten.

Surrounded by his invocative and haunting art, Lee held the audience spellbound, riveted, and deeply moved by the story of his family’s experience in the Holocaust. There were not many dry eyes in the house.

The next day he followed up with another afternoon talk for the weekly senior luncheon event at the center, which was also open to the public, and infused it with incredible musical performances both exemplary and exhilarating. Lee kept the audience engaged and involved as he eloquently spoke and soulfully played his harmonica along tracks he produced.

His show was up for a month at the center. Lee sold a large amount of work and music which he graciously gave a generous percentage to the center.

While Lee’s ongoing contribution to the world from his days in the band “War” and his legendary harmonica playing and manufacturing, it is Lee Oskar’s moving art exhibit and music for “Never Forget” that stands as an important contribution to our Jewish community, our world, and humanity’s collective, that not only commemorates the personal and collective experience and horrors of the Holocaust, it stands as a reminder to us all why we must never forget.