Tweet
GREENBERG CENTER LAUNCHES ITS NEW HOLOCAUST GENOCIDE-STUDIES INITIATIVE
Connecticut Jewish Ledger
Sept 11 2013
Posted by JudieJacobson on September 11, 2013
By Cindy Mindell
WEST HARTFORD - With the opening of its new exhibition and educational
program, "Genocide: Israel Charny and the Scourge of the Twentieth
Century," the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the
University of Hartford takes up the mantle created by Charny nearly
35 years ago.
Charny co-founded the first academic institution dedicated to
Holocaust and genocide studies in Jerusalem in 1979, together with
Shamai Davidson z"l and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Their Institute
on the Holocaust and Genocide may also be the first whose researchers
linked the two phenomena in their studies.
Earlier this year, the landmark institution joined forces with the
Greenberg Center, the result of a shared vision between Charny and
Greenberg professors Richard Freund and Avinoam Patt. The Greenberg
Center's new initiative includes management of the Genocide Prevention
Now Teaching Website, created by the Jerusalem Institute, as well as
a host of programs designed for University of Hartford students and
faculty, area educators, and the community at large.
The exhibition, "Genocide: Israel Charny and the Scourge of the
Twentieth Century," marks the launch of this new initiative, which
includes a series of courses, workshops, public programs, exhibitions,
and web-based projects, all designed for students and educators as
well as for the community at large.
The Greenberg Center has focused on Holocaust and genocide education
over the past two decades through annual workshops and exhibitions,
many designed for educators. The center will now work to preserve the
testimonies of second and third generation Holocaust and genocide
survivors for an international educational oral history resource,
"In Our Own Words." A pilot project will be launched in the greater
Hartford community this fall by Dr. Avinoam Patt, the Philip D.
Feltman Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Greenberg Center,
and director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization. As part of his
course, "Responses to the Holocaust," honors students will interview
some 20 children of Holocaust survivors through CT Voices of Hope,
a program of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut.
Patt is working with Karen Jungblut, director of research and
documentation at the University of Southern California Shoah
Foundation, who will interact with the class via Skype.
"We want to find out how being the child of survivors impacts one's
own identity and life choices," Patt says. After its inaugural year,
the oral history project will be replicated by Patt's colleagues
at academic institutions in England, Israel, Australia, and Rwanda,
resulting in a global archive of interviews.
As part of its new educational initiative, the Greenberg Center
recently named Dr. Joseph Olzacki as a special advisor on genocide and
Holocaust education. Olzacki is co-creator of the Identity Project, a
Holocaust and genocide education program that launched at Bloomfield
High School in 2006. At the time, Olzacki was director of visual
and performing arts and public information for the Bloomfield Public
Schools, and he designed the initiative together with Rabbi Philip
Lazowski of West Hartford and the Jewish Federation Association of
Connecticut (JFACT).
Since 2010, Olzacki has established a relationship with the government
of Rwanda, working with human rights and educational organizations on
anti-genocide curricula. In March, he helped organize the inaugural
event for the Greenberg Center's Genocide and Holocaust Education
Initiative, bringing Rwanda president Paul Kagame to the university
to participate in an academic symposium on the aftermath of genocide
and to deliver a public lecture.
Patt hopes that, through Olzacki's work, the Greenberg Center will
be able to sponsor exchange students from Rwanda.
Olzacki's photos of Rwandan genocide sites will be featured in the
new exhibition.
"This is not a morbid exhibit; our intent is not to show anything
that is grotesque or inappropriate for a young audience, but rather
three sites of genocide over the course of the 20th century and what
they look like today," Patt says. "There are pictures of memorials,
sites where genocide happened. The exhibition reflects on the process
of destruction without showing the end results of destruction."
Among the photographs is the work of University of Hartford professor
Mari Firkatian, a descendant of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Firkatian's photos highlight the reconstruction of the Sourp Giragos
(Holy George) Church in Diyarbakir, Turkey, which is being restored
thanks to the efforts of the town's mayor and Armenians who fled the
city in 1915. Photographs taken by members of the Greenberg Center's
Sobibor Documentation Project in Poland show the Sobibor Extermination
Camp and nearby Wlodawa Synagogue, and the Majdanek Concentration
and Extermination Camp.
"These photos are meant to raise awareness, that these are places that
once existed, still exist, and have great meaning to the people who
suffered there," Patt says. "The last stage of genocide is denial. By
showing images of the sites of destruction and genocide, we teach
that these are real places and that these things happened. It's our
duty to raise awareness."
The Greenberg Center will present several programs on Holocaust and
genocide education during the fall semester:
~U Monday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m.: Lecture and Exhibit Opening: "Genocide:
Israel Charny and the Scourge of the Twentieth Century" KF Room
and Museum of Jewish Civilization, Mortensen Library, University
of Hartford. (For an in-depth interview with Dr. Israel Charny,
see below.)
~U Monday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m.: Film Screening - Sneak preview of Deadly
Deception at Sobibor, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Sobibor
Revolt on Oct. 14, 1943. Wilde Auditorium, University of Hartford .
Tickets: (860) 768-4228
~U Monday, Oct. 28, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.: 14th Annual Holocaust and
Genocide Education Workshop: "Learn from the Past, Teach for
the Future", 1877 Club, Harry Jack Gray Center, University of
Hartford, Registration required by Friday, Oct. 18: (860) 768-4964
or [email protected]
~U Monday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m.: "The Nazi Universe of Persecution: Recent
Findings of the USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos" with Dr.
Martin Dean, Applied Research Scholar and Editor, USHMM Encyclopedia
of Ghettos, Wilde Auditorium, University of Hartford
~U Saturday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m.: Symposium on Archaeology and the
Holocaust: "70 Years after the Sobibor Revolt: Special Kristallnacht
Program" with Yoram Haimi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Wilde Auditorium, University of Hartford
~U Monday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m.: Kristallnacht Program: "Holocaust Denial:
A New Form of Anti-Semitism" with Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor
of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
UConn Greater Hartford Campus, 85 Lawler Road, West Hartford. Program
information: (860) 768-4964
http://www.jewishledger.com/2013/09/greenberg-center-launches-its-new-holocaust-genocide-studies-initiative/
Connecticut Jewish Ledger
Sept 11 2013
Posted by JudieJacobson on September 11, 2013
By Cindy Mindell
WEST HARTFORD - With the opening of its new exhibition and educational
program, "Genocide: Israel Charny and the Scourge of the Twentieth
Century," the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the
University of Hartford takes up the mantle created by Charny nearly
35 years ago.
Charny co-founded the first academic institution dedicated to
Holocaust and genocide studies in Jerusalem in 1979, together with
Shamai Davidson z"l and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Their Institute
on the Holocaust and Genocide may also be the first whose researchers
linked the two phenomena in their studies.
Earlier this year, the landmark institution joined forces with the
Greenberg Center, the result of a shared vision between Charny and
Greenberg professors Richard Freund and Avinoam Patt. The Greenberg
Center's new initiative includes management of the Genocide Prevention
Now Teaching Website, created by the Jerusalem Institute, as well as
a host of programs designed for University of Hartford students and
faculty, area educators, and the community at large.
The exhibition, "Genocide: Israel Charny and the Scourge of the
Twentieth Century," marks the launch of this new initiative, which
includes a series of courses, workshops, public programs, exhibitions,
and web-based projects, all designed for students and educators as
well as for the community at large.
The Greenberg Center has focused on Holocaust and genocide education
over the past two decades through annual workshops and exhibitions,
many designed for educators. The center will now work to preserve the
testimonies of second and third generation Holocaust and genocide
survivors for an international educational oral history resource,
"In Our Own Words." A pilot project will be launched in the greater
Hartford community this fall by Dr. Avinoam Patt, the Philip D.
Feltman Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Greenberg Center,
and director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization. As part of his
course, "Responses to the Holocaust," honors students will interview
some 20 children of Holocaust survivors through CT Voices of Hope,
a program of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut.
Patt is working with Karen Jungblut, director of research and
documentation at the University of Southern California Shoah
Foundation, who will interact with the class via Skype.
"We want to find out how being the child of survivors impacts one's
own identity and life choices," Patt says. After its inaugural year,
the oral history project will be replicated by Patt's colleagues
at academic institutions in England, Israel, Australia, and Rwanda,
resulting in a global archive of interviews.
As part of its new educational initiative, the Greenberg Center
recently named Dr. Joseph Olzacki as a special advisor on genocide and
Holocaust education. Olzacki is co-creator of the Identity Project, a
Holocaust and genocide education program that launched at Bloomfield
High School in 2006. At the time, Olzacki was director of visual
and performing arts and public information for the Bloomfield Public
Schools, and he designed the initiative together with Rabbi Philip
Lazowski of West Hartford and the Jewish Federation Association of
Connecticut (JFACT).
Since 2010, Olzacki has established a relationship with the government
of Rwanda, working with human rights and educational organizations on
anti-genocide curricula. In March, he helped organize the inaugural
event for the Greenberg Center's Genocide and Holocaust Education
Initiative, bringing Rwanda president Paul Kagame to the university
to participate in an academic symposium on the aftermath of genocide
and to deliver a public lecture.
Patt hopes that, through Olzacki's work, the Greenberg Center will
be able to sponsor exchange students from Rwanda.
Olzacki's photos of Rwandan genocide sites will be featured in the
new exhibition.
"This is not a morbid exhibit; our intent is not to show anything
that is grotesque or inappropriate for a young audience, but rather
three sites of genocide over the course of the 20th century and what
they look like today," Patt says. "There are pictures of memorials,
sites where genocide happened. The exhibition reflects on the process
of destruction without showing the end results of destruction."
Among the photographs is the work of University of Hartford professor
Mari Firkatian, a descendant of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Firkatian's photos highlight the reconstruction of the Sourp Giragos
(Holy George) Church in Diyarbakir, Turkey, which is being restored
thanks to the efforts of the town's mayor and Armenians who fled the
city in 1915. Photographs taken by members of the Greenberg Center's
Sobibor Documentation Project in Poland show the Sobibor Extermination
Camp and nearby Wlodawa Synagogue, and the Majdanek Concentration
and Extermination Camp.
"These photos are meant to raise awareness, that these are places that
once existed, still exist, and have great meaning to the people who
suffered there," Patt says. "The last stage of genocide is denial. By
showing images of the sites of destruction and genocide, we teach
that these are real places and that these things happened. It's our
duty to raise awareness."
The Greenberg Center will present several programs on Holocaust and
genocide education during the fall semester:
~U Monday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m.: Lecture and Exhibit Opening: "Genocide:
Israel Charny and the Scourge of the Twentieth Century" KF Room
and Museum of Jewish Civilization, Mortensen Library, University
of Hartford. (For an in-depth interview with Dr. Israel Charny,
see below.)
~U Monday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m.: Film Screening - Sneak preview of Deadly
Deception at Sobibor, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Sobibor
Revolt on Oct. 14, 1943. Wilde Auditorium, University of Hartford .
Tickets: (860) 768-4228
~U Monday, Oct. 28, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.: 14th Annual Holocaust and
Genocide Education Workshop: "Learn from the Past, Teach for
the Future", 1877 Club, Harry Jack Gray Center, University of
Hartford, Registration required by Friday, Oct. 18: (860) 768-4964
or [email protected]
~U Monday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m.: "The Nazi Universe of Persecution: Recent
Findings of the USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos" with Dr.
Martin Dean, Applied Research Scholar and Editor, USHMM Encyclopedia
of Ghettos, Wilde Auditorium, University of Hartford
~U Saturday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m.: Symposium on Archaeology and the
Holocaust: "70 Years after the Sobibor Revolt: Special Kristallnacht
Program" with Yoram Haimi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Wilde Auditorium, University of Hartford
~U Monday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m.: Kristallnacht Program: "Holocaust Denial:
A New Form of Anti-Semitism" with Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor
of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
UConn Greater Hartford Campus, 85 Lawler Road, West Hartford. Program
information: (860) 768-4964
http://www.jewishledger.com/2013/09/greenberg-center-launches-its-new-holocaust-genocide-studies-initiative/