Steven Levenson's "If I Forget" Haunting Issues for American Jews

Steven Levenson has 2 concurrent plays running on Broadway:  "Dear Evan Hansen" (a contemporary musical with a male high school protagonist) and "If I Forget" which is a serious, comedy/drama with a middle-aged male protagonist.  Both shows are intelligent, entertaining and provocative. Many probbing & uncomfortable issues are covered.  "Evan Hansen" deals with mental illness, anxiety, and social disconnect in a high-tech, social media world.  This musical has a first-rate cast & an excellent musical score that made macabre material palatable yet thought provoking.  "If I Forget" is a 2 Act play set in Washington D.C.: Act 1 is July of 2000.  Act II takes place 6 months later in Feb. of 2001.  The play takes place in the patriarchal home of Lou Fischer; recently widowed and father of the main character Michael (an excellent Jeremy Shamos, B'wy "Clybourne Park") and daughters Sharon & Holly (Kate Walsh, ABC's "Private Practice.")  Michael is an author & college prof about to be granted tenure.  There are multiple contentious topics bravely tackled by Levenson's smart writing.  Michael just published a non-fiction book that argues Jews continually capitalize on the Holacaust and at the same time, ignore socially relevant causes in the world such as present day genocides & social injustice in the US.  Michael's book  is not a hit with his dysfunctionally funny Jewish (regardless of their secular, atheist views) family.  The Univ revokes tenure and ask he render his resignation.  Lou tells his family of his experiences liberating the Jews from dachau at the end of WWII.  Lou's home is the central staging where secrets are shared and family affairs aired.  Michael & his gentile wife have a daughter, Abbe traveling in Israel with Birthright.  Abbe, although never seen onstage, her well being is pervasive as her mental well-being is a constant worry.  The loving but constantly warring factions in the family also include Holly's filandering husband and their son Joey harshly maligned by his mom.  Joey has a small part but a pivotal one.  He has a kind heart & speaks to Michael of caring for his only cousin, Abbe.  The takeaway, and there is quite a lot to take in and digest, are the fault lines around Jewish identity, familial responsibility & love and the legacy left by an individual and the enduring legacies of anti-Semitism and world-wide traumas that reverberate today.  "If I Forget" to mention that Levenson's play is humorous and relatable I would be doing a major injustice.  This is a memorable play, well-written, engaging, with a superb cast and it cleverly sitrs up conversations.