Saul Rubinek shares his family’s full Holocaust story with Canadians for the first time

He’s previewing his new play at a virtual Kristallnacht memorial event.
Photo by Rory Lewis

Saul Rubinek has had a prolific career dating back to the 1960s. He’s acted at the highest echelons of Canadian theatre, enjoyed stints on popular sitcoms like Warehouse 13 and Frasier, and played supporting roles in classic films such as Unforgiven, True Romance and The Trotsky.

Coming off some of his most visibly Jewish roles—a main character in Amazon’s Hunters, about Nazi hunters in the 1970s, and guest spots on Jewish shows Schitt’s Creek and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—the veteran actor, now in his 70s, is taking on a more personal project. He’s diving into his family history with a new play he wrote, called All in the Telling, which dissects how the Holocaust affected his family—starting with his parents, who are both Polish survivors.

Until he can get it produced in a theatre after the pandemic fades away, Rubinek is previewing parts of it himself, for Canadians for the first time, at a virtual Kristallnacht memorial event being put on by the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship in Ottawa. He joins today to discuss his inspiration and process in telling this delicate story for the first time.

What we talked about:

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