Northeastern University’s commitment to remembrance and awareness of the Holocaust is long and deep. Since 1977, the University has hosted an annual week-long series of events dedicated to remembering the Holocaust. The Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee was organized in 1991, made up of Northeastern students, faculty, and staff of various religious and ethnic backgrounds.
The Committee’s mission is to publicly remember the Holocaust each year, not only as historical fact and a memorial to its millions of victims, but also as a warning that the horrors of the past must never be repeated.
Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week events are designed to bear witness to the Holocaust’s events and to explore issues arising out of the war of extermination against Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis. Speakers ask how lessons learned from the Holocaust can be further applied to contemporary issues. Annual Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week events include:
- The Robert Salomon Morton Lecture, which brings to campus a well-known scholar or public figure for a public lecture;
- The Philip N. Backstrom, Jr Lecture series, which invites a Holocaust survivor to speak;
- The Northeastern Holocaust Commemoration, which features a talk by a distinguished Northeastern faculty member and a presentation by the recipient of the Gideon Klein Award, given to a student to study some aspect of the arts and the Holocaust;
The Holocaust Awareness Committee Archives is housed within the Northeastern University Libraries Archives and Special Collections.
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Type of Program
- Initiative