23rd Annual Martin and Doris Rosen Symposium
The 23rd Annual Martin and Doris Rosen Symposium, supported by the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Martin and Doris Rosen Symposium Endowment, and the local Jewish community, will be held July 10-16, 2025, at the Appalachian State University campus in Boone, North Carolina.
This year’s theme is “Rescue during the Holocaust: The Power of Courage.” We will explore exciting and emotional stories of rescue during the Holocaust to better understand the dire situation of European Jews leading up to, during, and after the Holocaust. These lessons will be carried into the present day to address issues of antisemitism, which has risen by almost 400% since 2022.
Using experiential learning practices, in particular Universal Design of Instruction, we will consider Holocaust topics like survivor testimony, Judaism, major rescues, teaching the Holocaust through the arts, antisemitism in America and Germany, and much more.
By the week's end, you should have a strong grounding in the context of the Holocaust, the events of the Holocaust, ethical positions learned through Holocaust lessons, and how to emotionally protect yourself and your students through the learning process. You will leave with teaching materials, lists of resources, a book collection, access to a teacher's website on the Holocaust, and lesson plans for teaching Holocaust topics.
The Symposium provides approximately 40 hours of instruction, discussions, demonstrations, and public programs designed for teachers, students, and the community. Teachers who complete all forty hours will receive 4 CEUs.
Registration
Register at appstate.irisregistration.com/Form/25MDSYMPOSIUM. Note: The $35 registration is only for teachers who wish to attend all or part of the symposium for CEU credit.
Scholarships
Symposium expenses are $1,575, but scholarships are available to fully cover the costs (see below). The expenses include all food; lodging; events, speakers, and workshops; offsite transportation during the symposium; and books and materials.
35 full scholarships are available. If you plan on attending the Symposium on a scholarship, please complete the scholarship application at forms.gle/kzTwvD22BUBDLc3DA. The registration application is independent of this scholarship application—you must complete this application to be considered for a scholarship.
Contact
The co-directors are Lee Holder and Amy Hudnall, assistant director of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies (CJHPS) at Appalachian State. Questions can be directed to Hudnall by email at hudnallac@appstate.edu or holocaust@appstate.edu or phone at (828) 262-6025.
About Marc Chagall’s Chagall Window
The stained glass rendered on this year’s Symposium program is by artist Marc Chagall who was born in 1887 to a Hasidic Jewish family in Vitebsk Russia. Many of his paintings reflected his rural Jewish childhood. In 1923, he and his family settled in Paris as his paintings began to gain popularity across Europe except among the rising Nazi leaders. To them, his work reflected what they called “degenerate art.” During the book burnings in the 1920s, texts about Chagall were among those burned, and his work was displayed in the now-famous Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich, 1937.
Chagall’s reputation as a degenerate artist put him and his family at risk. To save him, the International Rescue Committee and journalist Varian Fry stepped in and smuggled Chagall and his family out of Europe. Over 13 months Fry and his team smuggled 1500 refugees out of Europe and into the United States (1940-1941). They provided aid to another 2000. At first, Chagall, was not sure he wanted to go, he asked Fry if there were cows in America, of which Fry assured him there were, much to Chagall’s relief. Chagall lived out the war in the United States and returned to Paris in 1947, although he retained a tender affection for the US and the IRC.
That affection manifested in one of his largest stained glass works, created for the United Nations’ US offices in 1967. This piece has come to be known as the “Peace Window” and “commemorates the Secretary-General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjold, who was killed in a plane crash in 1961.” The glass includes Chagall’s classic bucolic subjects like cows and symbols of peace. In another window now residing in Chicago, he wrote that he “constructed the windows as a tribute to the freedom of artistic expression enjoyed by the people of the United States.” This UN stained glass also manifested his joy in America’s freedom of artistic expression and serves as a reminder of the artistic restraints he escaped under Nazi Germany through the help of Varian Fry and the IRC.
Takac, Balsz. April 28, 2020. “All the Stained Glass Windows of Marc Chagall.” Widewalls. widewalls.ch/magazine/marc-chagall-stained-glass-windows.
“The Power of Welcome: Painting a Picture of Hope: Artist and Refugee Marc Chagall.” Jun 17, 2019. International Rescue Committee. rescue.org/article/painting-picture-hope-artist-and-refugee-marc-chagall.
“America Windows” Art Institute Chicago. Educator Resource Packet. artic.edu/artworks/109439/america-windows.