The 15th Annual Martin & Doris Rosen Summer Symposium "Women and Gender in the Holocaust"
Summer Symposium on Remembering the Holocaust held July 23-28 at Appalachian
BOONE—The 15th Annual Martin and Doris Rosen Summer Symposium on Remembering the Holocaust will be held July 23-28 at Appalachian State University's Plemmons Student Union. This year's symposium puts a particular emphasis on the roles and struggles of women in the Holocaust and explores the significance of gender in this genocide. The event is organized by Appalachian's Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies and named for symposium benefactors, the late Doris and Martin Rosen.
The week-long symposium brings internationally- and nationally-acclaimed scholars, authors, and educators to Boone. The event's faculty and speakers include Professor Pamela Nadell (American University), Auschwitz survivor Dr. Susan Cernyak-Spatz, Rabbi Judy Schindler (Temple Beth El), Holocaust children's book author Kathy Kacer (Toronto), Dr. Racelle Weiman (independent Holocaust educator), and Professor Michael Berenbaum (American Jewish University). For the first time, Appalachian's Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies is collaborating with Yad Vashem, the World Center for Holocaust Research, Documentation, Education and Commemoration, in Jerusalem. Sheryl Ochayon, JD, from Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies, will be in attendance and giving presentations.
The free and open to the public symposium provides public and private school teachers, university faculty, students and community members information and insights about the victims, perpetrators, and consequences of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. In addition, the program widens the focus to explore Jewish religious and cultural life before the Shoah. Reflecting this year's emphasis, the symposium participants will not only learn and ponder how Jewish women have shaped Jewish religion and culture, struggled for survival in the face of Nazi onslaughts, and participated in the resistance against fascist forces and authorities, the audience will also gain knowledge of how the Nazis targeted Jewish women and how Gentile German women participated in the slaughter on a much larger scale than previous scholarship had established.
Contributing to the international reach and composition of the event, secondary-school teachers from Latvia, Hungary, and Romania will be among the participants and discuss the teaching of the Holocaust in their countries.
As in years past, North Carolina teachers can receive continuing education units for attending the lectures, workshops, discussions, and demonstrations.
This year's events will also include "Faces of Resistance: Women in the Holocaust," a powerful exhibit that explains how Jewish women across the continent resisted the Nazis and their many collaborators. The traveling exhibit, researched and put together by Moreshet, the Mordechai Anielevich Memorial, in Israel, will be on display in Plemmons Student Union for the duration of the symposium and freely accessible to the public.
The symposium is sponsored by The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Martin and Doris Rosen Endowment, the Community Advisory Board and Friends of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies, Appalachian's College of Arts and Sciences, Program on Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, and the University Bookstore, the Boone Jewish Community/Temple of the High Country, Havurah of the High Country, the Margolis Family, the Ruth and Stan Etkin Symposium Scholars' Fund, the Leon Levine Foundation, the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, Echoes and Reflections of Yad Vashem (in collaboration with the USC Shoah Foundation and the Anti-Defamation League), and the AJS Distinguished Lectureship Program at the Association of for Jewish Studies.
For a schedule of events and complete list of speakers, please visit http://holocaust.appstate.edu/2016_Schedule. To register for CEUs, visit https://holocaust.appstate.edu/symposium/registration.
| Video | Presenter Biography |
Kathy Kacer is a writer for Canadian young readers. Her novels are stories of hope, courage, and humanity in the face of adversity. Examples of her Holocaust historical fiction are Secret of Gabi's Dresser, Night Spies, Clara's War, and The Diary of Laura's Twin. Examples of her historical non-fiction are The Underground Reporters and Hiding Edith. Her books have won the Silver Birch, Red Maple, Hackmatack, and Jewish Book awards. They have been published around the world including Germany, China, Slovenia, Thailand, England, Japan, Belgium, and many other countries. | |
Dr. Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's and Gender History and is Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University (AU). A specialist in American Jewish history and women's history, she teaches a variety of courses in Jewish civilization. Her awards include AU's highest faculty award, Scholar/Teacher of the Year (2007) and the American Jewish Historical Society's Lee Max Friedman Award for distinguished service to the profession. Her books range from Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women's Ordination, 1889-1985 (Beacon Press, 1998), which was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award to a co-edited volume entitled Making Women's Histories: Beyond National Perspectives (New York University Press, 2013). Past chair of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society, she was deeply involved in the activities commemorating 350 years of Jewish life in America. She is currently president of the Association for Jewish Studies. | |
Dr. Michael Berenbaum is currently the director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and Professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University. He has also been the executive editor of the New Encyclopaedia Judaica, a second edition of the monumental 1972 work, which now consists of 22 volumes. For three years, he was president and chief executive officer of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. In addition, he served three years as director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and from 1988-93, he served as its project director, overseeing its creation. Dr. Berenbaum has authored and edited 16 books, scores of scholarly articles, and hundreds of journalistic pieces. | |
Dr. Michael Berenbaum's keynote presentation at the 2016 Martin & Doris Rosen Summer Symposium "Women and Gender in the Holocaust" |