Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week

View complete Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee Archives here

Music in the Holocaust: Gideon Klein Award Presentations

RECORDING AVAILABLE HERE

During the Holocaust, many musicians and other artists were persecuted by the Nazis, some because they were Jewish, others because of the content of their art. The Gideon Klein Award offers $5000 to a student in any major to create an original work, prepare a performance, or do research related to music or musicians of the Holocaust. The student will also offer a public presentation at Northeastern during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week and archive the project on the Jewish Studies and Holocaust Awareness Committee Archives websites. 

Kalah Karloff ’20, 2020-2021 Gideon Klein Scholar, will present her work “Music and the Holocaust: “We Made Music in Hell” and Professor Emeritus Joshua Jacobson will present “Music and the Holocaust: A Retrospective on the Gideon Klein Award.”

Karloff’s project examines how music was used as a form of torture by the Nazis in concentration camps and how the effect of music on the human body can change with its context.  Professor Jacobson will provide a retrospective of the many musical projects fostered by the Gideon Klein Award, with his own commentary.

Karloff wrote a paper called “Music and the Holocaust: “We Made Music in Hell” as part of which specific songs are assessed musically and lyrically to explore the reason behind these choices, with clear applications to our own day. It is accompanied by a video collage of musical examples entitled Musical Selections from Music and the Holocaust: “We Made Music in Hell”. Her project is now available through the University Library Digital Repository Service here.

28th Annual Robert Salomon Morton Lecture: David Nirenberg

Does the Past History of Anti-Semitism Tell us Anything about it’s Future?

RECORDING AVAILABLE HERE

From their earliest origins to the present moment, Christians and Muslims have given shape to their faiths by interacting with and thinking about Jews and Judaism. How has that long history of thought contributed to anti-Semitism in the past and present? And what can the study of that history offer the future?

David Nirenberg has written widely about the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures interrelate with each other. He is the author of, among other books, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages; Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition; Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism Medieval and Modern; and Aesthetic Theology and its Enemies: Judaism in Christian Painting, Poetry, and Politics. In addition to his scholarly publications, he has written for the London Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Raritan, and Dissent, and contributed to numerous documentaries and films in Europe and the US. Professor Nirenberg teaches in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of History at the University of Chicago, where he is also the Dean of the Divinity School.

Philip N. Backstrom, Jr. Holocaust Survivor Talk: Esther Adler

RECORDING AVAILABLE HERE

Esther Adler was born in Germany to Polish parents and escaped as a teenager to Palestine after experiencing the events of kristallnacht. Her story includes years of separation from and reunification with her parents and brothers. She eventually graduated from the Teacher’s Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York and has spent many years as a teacher in both formal and informal settings. She has published a collection of poetry and an autobiographical novel, Best Friends: A Bond that Survived Hitler.

PAST EVENTS

An Original Animated Film and an Exploration of Archived Survivor Testimony

September 24, 2020 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. via Zoom

An original animated film based on The Children’s Tree of Terezin, created by Yael Sheinfeld ’21, Gideon Klein Scholar.

The Children’s Tree of Terezin is a powerfully moving, true story about children and hope in desperate circumstances by Dede Harris, illustrated by Sara Akerlund. Film animation by Bea Tolan, videography by Joshua Noll.

From the Archives: A presentation by Jessie Sigler ’20 on enhancing the online Holocaust Awareness Week archives to make over 25 years of survivor talk videos more descriptive and accessible to the public.

Beyond Duty: Diplomatic Heroism During the Holocaust

March 2020

Co-sponsored by the Consul General of Israel to New England and the Jewish Studies Program

HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE AWARENESS WEEK EVENTS ARE SPONSORED BY THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, THE JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM, THE HUMANITIES CENTER, THE HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE AWARENESS COMMITTEE, AND THE OFFICE OF THE PROVOST.