Expert on Changing Attitudes about Holocaust and Genocide to Keynote Drew University Event
“Humanity remembers the Holocaust differently today than it did yesterday—due in part to history-changing events, like the fall of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War,” said Joshua Kavaloski, assistant director of Drew’s Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study. Ann Saltzman, Center director, added that “Dr. Berk’s message is especially important because these events, along with the rise in nationalism in many of the former Soviet republics and Eastern & Western European countries, have created a seedbed for new expressions of anti-Semitism.”
Berk is currently the Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies at Union College in New York. In 2010, he was designated an Israel Hero for his defense and advocacy of the State of Israel by Jewish Educational Resources of New York. Previously, in 1996, he received the prestigious Holocaust Memorial Award from the Holocaust Survivors and Friends Education Center. He is an acclaimed teacher, writer and researcher of Russian and Soviet Jewish history; the Holocaust; the American Jewish experience; and anti-Semitism.
Now in its 20th year, the Drew University Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study has served as a leading Northern New Jersey provider of public education, commemoration and research about the oHolHolocaust and genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda. The center’s signature events include an annual remembrance of Kristallnacht and an observance of Yom HaShoah, in addition to its iconic “Conversations with Witnesses” series that offers first-hand testimonies from genocide victims and heroes.
The September 6 event, titled “New Directions in Holocaust Studies: The History of the Holocaust Revisited,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Drew’s Learning Center, room 28. A suggested donation of $10 will be collected at the door. For more information, please contact Carol Brodsky at Drew’s Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study at 973/408-3600, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org or visit www.drew.edu/chs.