2005-2006

Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

The people, programs, and events advancing scholarship in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies

YEAR END ACTIVITIES AND 2005 GIFT REPORT June 2005 through May 2006 Whoever fails to increase knowledge, decreases knowledge

—The Ethics of the Fathers “Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.” It is my privilege to be grateful to a near-by and far-flung community that has grown—and continues to build—the Strassler Family Center. Each person brings gifts, skills, and strengths to shape our endeavor. Thanks to administrative assistant Margaret Hillard for her attentive supervision of infra- structure systems through the Center’s exponential expansion and for the superior standard of efficiency she has set; to program manager Dr. Tatyana Macaulay for her commitment and passion which produce bold, exciting, and perfectly organized events as well as fruitful collaborations with other educational organizations; and to bookkeeper Ghi Vaughn who has wrapped her arms around a complex financial system and keeps us in the clear. A special welcome to Dr. Mary Jane Rein, who has joined the Center as executive director, and brings new energy and ideas to this engaged and active community.

I thank, too, my colleagues in other departments who generously mentor our doctoral stu- dents. This past year, Clark professors Eric Gordy, Beverly Grier, Walter Schatzberg, and Jaan Valsiner served as key advisors to Center graduate students. They were joined by colleagues at other universities: Evan Bukey; Barbara Harff; Cynthia Hooper; Sam Kassow; Ellen Kellman; Eric Markusen; Robert Melson; Milton Shain; Robert Jan van Pelt; Eric Weitz; and Piotr Wrobel. Giving the gift of time and expertise, each enriched the intellectual universe of the student, and thus enriched the entire community. AUTHORS Stefanie Fischer, Professor Shelly Tenenbaum, director of the Undergraduate Concentration in Holocaust and Tiberiu Galis, Naama Haviv, Genocide Studies, serves our entire undergraduate body, and I am deeply appreciative of the Rachel Iskov, Judith Jaeger, work she continues to undertake, reshaping the concentration as the Center has grown. I am Jeffrey Koerber, grateful, too, to Associate Provost Nancy Budwig who, with her time and effort, manifests the JulieAnne Mercier-Foint, engagement and support of the University administration. Mary Jane Rein

To all I say with Shakespeare: I thank you for your voices: Thank you. EDITOR Judith Jaeger Judith Jaeger, interim director of University Communications, is the editor-in-chief of this Report, and she deserves all the credit for a document that, despite the fact that it grows each CREATIVE SERVICES year, becomes a smoother enterprise to produce. Finally: please note the new design, which MANAGER allows us to report our always increasing volume of activities in a reader-friendly format. Kay Hartnett It is—as is the design throughout—the genius of Sandy Giannantonio.

PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Carlin, Jeffrey Koerber, Tammy Woodard

DESIGN Giannantonio Design

PRINTER XXXXX 40 SAVE THESE DATES

SAVE THESE DATES Please join us for the exciting array of upcoming public programs! Call 508-793-8897 for further information, or visit the Center’s Web site, www.clarku.edu/departments/holocaust, for a complete listing of events.

FALL 2006 NOVEMBER 8, 2006 • 4 P.M., ROSE LIBRARY “Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Date, time and location to be announced Cambodia: Some Lessons for the Compara- “Stop the Darfur Genocide!” tive Theoretical Study of Genocide” U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA) • A NEW BOOK! Edward Kissi, Assistant Professor of Africana SEPTEMBER 12, 14, 16 AND 17 • ROOM 320, Studies, University of South Florida JEFFERSON ACADEMIC CENTER “Our Destiny is FATELESS” NOVEMBER 30, 2006 • 4 P.M., The Center is co-sponsoring a screening of ROSE LIBRARY this film with the Worcester-based Cinema “The Holocaust, Communism, and the 320 film series. The film will be shown at Jews of Warsaw” 7:30 p.m. on September 12, 14 and 16, and Piotr Wrobel, Associate Professor of History, at 1 and 3:40 p.m. on September 17. Tickets Konstanty Reynert Chair of Polish Studies, are sold at the door: $5.50 for the general University of Toronto public, $3.50 with a current Clark ID or for those age 60 and older. SPRING 2007 SEPTEMBER 20, 2006 • 4 P.M., ROSE LIBRARY MARCH 15-MAY 31 • COHEN-LASRY HOUSE “The Past and the Future of the Memory “Neighbors who Disappeared” of the Holocaust in Poland” Exhibition of photographs from the Jewish • A NEW BOOK! Museum in Prague Joanna Michlic, Assistant Professor of MARCH 15 • 7:30 P.M., ROOM 320, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Richard JEFFERSON ACADEMIC CENTER Stockton College of New Jersey “Between Civilization and Statecraft: OCTOBER 5, 2006 • 7:30 P.M., TILTON HALL Armenia at the Crossroads” “Hurricane Katrina and the Destruction Raffi Hovannisian, Founding Director, of a Culture” Armenian Center for National and Interna- tional Studies Elizabeth English, Associate Professor, Louisiana State University Hurricane Center APRIL 18 • 7:30 P.M., TILTON HALL OCTOBER 19, 2006 • 7:30 P.M., “Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors TILTON HALL in Postwar America” “Search for Mengele” • A NEW BOOK! David Marwell, Director, Museum of Jewish Beth Cohen, 2003 doctoral graduate of the Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Strassler Center and lecturer, University of Holocaust California, Northridge A lecture in memory of Simon Wiesenthal. This lecture is supported by the Asher Family Fund. OCTOBER 26, 2006 • 4 P.M., COHEN-LASRY HOUSE “The Anti-Jewish Policy of the Fascist Regime” Lilliana Picciotto, Historian, Center for Con- temporary Jewish Documentation, Milan, Italy

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR 1

Letter from the Director

August 2006

Dear Friends, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but decade. Once lit, the fire of this emerging the lighting of a fire,” the poet William field glows incandescent. Butler Yeats observed. This certainly has proved true in the case of the Strassler The education we provide comes at an Center for Holocaust and Genocide opportune moment. Evaluating the state Studies. I came to Clark 10 years ago, in of American intelligence work, many September 1996, cradling a vision of a analysts have noted an inability to ask degree-granting research center actively the right questions. “I can’t believe that involved in the public realm. With the as a nation we are incapable of getting support of imaginative and generous this right,” the New York Times quoted donors, the energy of fellow faculty, and Henry Rowen, former senior official at the the commitment of the administration, Pentagon and at C.I.A. headquarters. His we initiated a rich undergraduate program solution: “You better have some people in Holocaust and Genocide Studies that who understand history. Instead they’ve now offers some 26 courses taught by 15 gotten sucked into the current-intelligence professors in six departments; mounted a business, which is death to knowing cutting-edge doctoral program specifically what’s going on.” We agree. Focusing on Debórah Dwork in Holocaust History, followed by a doctor- Holocaust history and genocide studies, Rose Professor of Holocaust al stream in Genocide Studies; developed we study the past in order to analyze the History meaningful partnerships with academic present and give shape to the future. Director, Strassler Center institutions and public organizations in We aim to recognize genocidal ideologies for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Europe and America; renovated a building before they take control, and to develop to house the Center and won six architec- strategies for deterrence. tural awards for it; purchased a core research library that has grown by five The need is great, and the timing urgent. hundred books each year; run an outreach The number of people murdered in Darfur lecture series free and open to the public; continues to climb, sectarian violence and participated in significant public serv- rages in East Timor and Iraq, and Iranian ice projects and debates. Our first doctoral officials have unleashed a program to class has earned their degrees, and our identify and monitor all persons of the second will be graduated this year. And Bahai faith. As we here at the Center we continue to grow, welcoming Professor grow and shape the field of Holocaust Robert Melson, past president of the Inter- history and genocide studies, we hold national Association of Genocide Scholars, fast to the wisdom of Abraham Joshua whose expertise expands our teaching and Heschel: To be is to stand for. research agenda in comparative genocide studies. All this, in the span of a single We look to you for support, as we move forward together.

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 2 VISITING PROFESSOR PROFILE

Dr. Barbara Harff: Proventus Distinguished Visiting Professor

The Center community has long admired full-steam ahead in her work, shifting Barbara Harff for her brilliant research focus from prediction to prevention. into the causes of genocide and her work to identify where genocidal activity is likely “People talk about prevention, but nobody to emerge in order to allow for political knows what works,” Harff noted. She aims prevention and humanitarian intervention. to identify just that, undertaking a histori- Faculty, graduate students, and undergrad- cal survey of potential genocides that were uates welcomed Harff’s return to the Center prevented or averted, who was involved, as the Proventus Distinguished Visiting what they did to stop the mass murder, and Professor for the fall 2005 semester. how it worked. She set her students at Clark to this task as well. Undergraduates Proventus Distinguished Visiting Professor A pioneer in the field of genocide studies, studied a specific case, developed a hypo- Barbara Harff Harff serves as senior consultant to the thesis about how the genocide was stopped White House-initiated State Failure Task and then analyzed what happened nine Force (now called the Political Instability months prior to the genocide to see if their Task Force) and is internationally known hypothesis was correct. Harff’s graduate for her data-based analyses of the precon- students studied a past case and also a ditions and accelerators of genocide and current case. “The Strassler Center politicide. Most recently, she serves as is one of a kind. an expert for Juan Mendéz, whom U.N. “We need a plan based on past action,” This is a program that Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed said Harff, who also emphasized the need has great promise.” as his Special Advisor on the Prevention of to learn about specific local conditions —Dr. Barbara Harff Genocide. Much of her research explores from individuals working on the ground. the relationship between ethnic conflict and political mass murder, with the aim of Harff is a longtime friend to the Center, finding ways to respond to and constrain serving as the Strassler Distinguished intra-national aggression. Professor in the fall 2003 semester, and an inspiring mentor to its doctoral For the past decade, Harff has focused on candidates. As a scholar engaged with early warning and risk assessment to pre- politics and government, she is a model dict conflicts. As part of her work on the for students who anticipate careers for- Political Instability Task Force, she and mulating and implementing human rights her colleagues compiled a comprehensive policies. data set of factors related to past genocides “Professor Barbara Harff and developed highly predictive models to “Professor Harff has always given me is one of the most help identify countries in which potential valuable guidance in shaping my research,” intellectually generous for genocide or political mass murder looms Galis said. “She is one of the most intellec- professors I have ever met.” large. A true scholar-advocate, Harff and tually generous professors I have ever met.” —graduate student her colleagues insisted that the data set Tiberiu Galis be made available for free, on the Internet, For her part, Harff holds great admiration for use by scholars and policy makers. for the Center and its mission.

With her recent retirement as a professor “The Strassler Center is one of a kind. of political science at the U.S. Naval This is a program that has great promise.” Academy, Harff now has the time to move ■ Judith Jaeger

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES EVENTS 3

Dan Bar-On: “Story-Telling, Silence, and Silencing”

The Strassler Family Center was honored among the perpetrators’ families was even “A dialogue within to welcome Dr. Dan Bar-On, the David more profound than among the victims’ yourself enables you to Lopatie Professor for Post-Holocaust families. become open to a dialogue Psychological Studies at Ben-Gurion with someone else from a different culture.” University, Israel, and co-director of the Bar-On eventually brought together Peace Research Institute in the Middle descendants of Holocaust survivors and —Dr. Dan Bar-On East, as its Greenberg Distinguished Nazi perpetrators. They found that the sto- Visiting Scholar in September. During his rytelling project helped them understand intensive week-long visit, Bar-On met their family histories, and work through with the Center’s graduate students and difficult conflicts and personal trauma. delivered two public lectures: “Storytelling, Silence, and Silencing: The Case of Using what he had learned, Bar-On started Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and of a new project in his native Israel, bringing Nazi Perpetrators” on 14 September 2005 together Israelis and Palestinians who in the Center’s Rose Library; and “The have suffered during the ongoing conflict Disarmament of History: Israel-Palestine” in the Middle East. His colleague and col- on 15 September 2005 in Tilton Hall of laborator is a Palestinian, Professor Sami the Higgins University Center (see page 4), Adwan of Bethlehem University. They and enjoyed a home reception hosted by have applied their approach to people in Stefanie Bradie and Peter Herman. conflict in other parts of the world as well: Catholics and Protestants in Northern In his lecture on “Storytelling, Silence, Ireland, and blacks and whites in South and Silencing,” Bar-On described how his Africa. Their work challenges people from Greenberg Distinguished own history as the son of German Jews opposite sides of a historical trauma to Visiting Scholar Dan Bar-On, the David Lopatie Professor who escaped from Nazi Germany to Israel develop narratives that bridge their differ- for Post-Holocaust Psycholo- shaped his academic career. As a young ences. gical Studies at Ben-Gurion psychologist, Bar-On treated families of University, Israel, and co-director of the Peace Holocaust survivors, which encouraged “A dialogue within yourself enables you to Research Institute in the him to investigate how the trauma of the become open to a dialogue with someone Middle East Holocaust influenced the children and else from a different culture,” Bar-On grandchildren of survivors. He interviewed explained. descendants of Holocaust survivors and found that a deep familial silence about For the Center’s graduate students, who the past often prevailed. This prompted met with Bar-On to discuss their research, “Dr. Bar-On took the Bar-On to start a project he referred to as this was an important message. time to acknowledge our “storytelling” to help survivors and their academic goals and children break the silence. “Dr. Bar-On talked with me about the professional pursuits same event but from two different per- and provided us with Bar-On’s next question: How do descen- spectives,” said graduate student Jeffrey exceptional advice.” dants of Nazi perpetrators deal with the Koerber. “I saw his point: that in order to —graduate student past? Hesitant, but also driven to explore understand an event and what it means, JulieAnne Mercier-Foint the human experience of the Holocaust, we need to listen to all of the actors.” Bar-On began to interview children of Nazi ■ Stefanie Fischer perpetrators. When he started this project in the late 1980s, he found that the silence

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 4 EVENTS

Dan Bar-On: “The Disarmament of History: Israel-Palestine”

History becomes a weapon, The Center was privileged to open its Declaration of 1917, for example, recog- Bar-On argued, when 2005-2006 public lecture series with a nized the need of the Jewish people for a one collective uses it to presentation on 15 September 2005 by national home, but ignored the rights of deny the beliefs of Dan Bar-On, the David Lopatie Professor Palestinians to similar recognition. This another collective, or to delegitimize the claims of Post-Holocaust Psychological Studies inequality led to the riots of 1920-21 in of that other collective. at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. As the Palestine and to ensuing conflict for Center’s Greenberg Distinguished Visiting decades to come. Scholar for fall 2005, Bar-On delivered this public lecture as well as a talk on Bar-On and Adwan have collaborated “Storytelling, Silence, and Silencing: since the post-Oslo period in Israel- The Case of Descendants of Holocaust Palestine to bring communities of Israelis Survivors and of Nazi Perpetrators” on and Palestinians together. Their aim is to 14 September 2005 in the Center’s Rose disarm these moments in history. With a Library (see page 3). The audience packed group of Israeli and Palestinian teachers, Clark’s Tilton Hall to hear about Bar-On’s Bar-On and Adwan have created a new grassroots work on mediating the Israeli- textbook to develop what Bar-On calls a Palestinian conflict. He has studied this “bridging narrative.” This narrative is not conundrum as a psychologist and as the intended to change people’s positions on Dr. Dan Bar-On co-founder and co-director, with Palestin- the rights and wrongs of history, Bar-On ian Professor Sami Adwan of Bethlehem explained, but to help each side under- University, of the Peace Research Institute stand the other better. The textbook pres- in the Middle East (PRIME). ents both historical narratives. The Israeli and the Palestinian narratives are printed Introducing his topic, on the far left and right of each page, while Bar-On discussed his a middle section, purposely blank, encour- conscious decision in ages the crafting of a new narrative. the mid-1990s to move the focus of his work Writing the textbook created connections away from Holocaust between educators on both sides of the research to a study of conflict. This grassroots attempt at mediat- the Israeli-Palestinian ing the conflict complements any top-down Center Director and Rose conflict. He simply “couldn’t stand by and political compromise negotiated by those in Professor Debórah Dwork watch what was happening without getting power. For Bar-On, both are necessary to (left), Dr. Dan Bar-On, Strassler Professor involved.” bring a wholesale resolution to the conflict. Thomas Kühne, and Kaloosdian/Mugar History becomes “armed,” Bar-On Bar-On’s lecture fascinated the audience Professor Simon Payaslian explained. History becomes a weapon and spurred lively discussion during when one collective uses it to deny the the question-and-answer session and the beliefs of another collective, or to dele- reception after the lecture. Mulling over “Bar-On’s ideas of bridging gitimize the claims of that other collective. what she had heard, Caitlin Mahoney, narratives between groups To mediate conflicts, therefore, the history a Clark graduate student studying peace on two sides of conflict are involved must be “disarmed.” psychology, found “Bar-On’s ideas of particularly useful.” bridging narratives between groups on —Clark psychology graduate Bar-On pointed out many instances in two sides of conflict particularly useful.” student Caitlin Mahoney which history has become armed in the ■ Naama Haviv Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Balfour

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES EVENTS 5

Simone Lässig: “German Jewry of the 19th Century”

The Center community gathered for a riv- advance in society. While not all Jews eting luncheon talk on 22 September 2005 became bourgeois and many remained by the German historian Simone Lässig impoverished, a greater number of German from the German Historical Institute in Jews achieved leading positions in busi- Washington, D.C. and the University of ness, the arts, and academia than their Dresden, Germany. co-religionists in other European societies. Lässig explained that for many, the idea Lässig opened her presentation by showing that German Jews had maintained their Dr. Simone Lässig (standing) that she not only possesses a great mind, Jewish identity while becoming leaders in delivering a luncheon talk on “German Jewry of but a great sense of humor. “American many spheres of German creative and pro- the 19th Century” in the speakers often start their talk with a joke. ductive life was inconceivable. Looking at Center’s Kent Seminar Room Germans are not famous for their humor; the past through the lens of the hence, I will not even try to be witty,” Holocaust, it is easier to imag- she said, instantly winning the audience. ine the mass murder of a mar- Lässig then turned to the serious topic of ginalized group than her presentation on “German Jewry of the to accept that the victims were 19th Century,” which cast new light on integral members of German how Jews became so successful in 19th society. Lässig’s scholarship century German society in comparison refocuses history, and returns with Jewish communities in other Euro- the victims to the dignity they pean countries. held in the pre-Nazi era. ■ Stefanie Fischer In the 19th century, German Jews ascend- ed into the bourgeois class with greater success than any other minority group. Previously, scholars assumed that Jews Center in the Mail 2006–2007 achieved this by relinquishing aspects of “The Center is a wonderful place with a their religious identity in order to adjust very nice atmosphere. Stimulating, warm to the dominant culture. Lässig, however, and friendly. I went down to your library. demonstrated the contrary. She found that Beautiful! key Jewish traditions and customs, as Cecilie Banke, Department of Holocaust Studies taught and practiced in Jewish schools, at the Danish Institute for International synagogues, associations, and social clubs, Studies, regarding her visit to the Center with “A f t er Lässig’s talk it is her colleague Martin Mennecke (see page 17) clear: We need to offer a helped Jews in their efforts to become part seminar on German Jewry of higher German society. “I watched a thousand students and teachers to explain the lives of sit at the edge of their seats...captured by your Jews in Germany before In Germany, as opposed to other European passionate words and detailed information. the war.” nations, education—not religion or capi- That was the pinnacle of a wonderful two-day —Clark professor Walter program. What impressed me most was your tal—opened the door to bourgeois society. Schatzberg, in response Education, in short, was an access point passion not just for your subject, but for the to Dr. Simone Lässig’s talk students. You were so clearly focused on them for upward mobility: professional, cultural, at the Center as individuals.” and social. Jewish elementary schools Eileen Gress, executive director of The Curricu- were open to every member of the Jewish lum Initiative, regarding Dwork’s participation community and provided better education in a TCI-organized program at Choate-Rosemary than secular elementary schools. This Hall (see page 24) afforded poor Jews the opportunity to continued on page 33

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 6 EVENTS

W. Richard West Jr.: “Native America in the 21st Century”

The Center was proud to host W. Richard arts of the Native peoples of the Western West Jr. on 27 September 2005. His lec- Hemisphere. “The museum focuses on ture, “Native America in the 21st Century: the profound survivance of Indian culture, Out of the Mists and Beyond the Myths,” rejecting the notion of the vanishing gave the Center the opportunity to welcome Indian, that has formed many Indian members of Worcester’s Intertribal Indian museums in the past,” he explained. Center, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Connecticut, the Indian Museum in “In order to understand the future of New Hampshire, the New England Native Indian America more perfectly, we must American Institute, members of the Nip- first appreciate the past,” West began his muck Council and other Native Americans talk. While it is difficult to do justice to in New England. West’s lecture adds a new such an extensive and rich history in just dimension to the Center’s examination of one lecture, West mesmerized his audience cultures targeted for annihilation and and taught them a great deal in a short W. Richard West Jr., brings our attention to the New World. time. founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian West is well-known for his commitment American Indians had enjoyed a distinct to American Indian concerns. A citizen and complex culture that had thrived in of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes a variety of domains, from earthworks of Oklahoma and a Peace Chief of the to astronomy, without the “assistance” Southern Cheyenne, he is dedicated to of Europeans, for hundreds of years. cultural, educational, and governmental “Demographers have estimated that in issues important to American Indians. 1492, approximately 75 million people West serves as vice chair of the American lived in the Americas, with some 6 to 9 Association of Museums/International million occupying what is now known “In order to understand Council of Museums, and is a member as the United States,” West noted. the future of Indian of the National Parks and Conservation America more perfectly, Association, the Ford Foundation, the Contact with Europeans proved fatal we must first appreciate National Support Committee of the Native to hundreds of thousands of Native the past.” American Rights Fund, and the American Americans. Social and economic dev- —W. Richard West Jr. Indian Resources Institute. astation continued to haunt the Native American population throughout the Most recently, West is the founding director 20th century. Despite this disconcerting of the National Museum of the American history, West remains optimistic. Indian (at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.), which is dedicated to “However stressed and deeply affected the life, languages, literature, history, and their cultures may be, Native Americans maintain a continuing resiliency, vitality, (back row, from left) and dynamism, which is astonishing con- Clark professors Jody Emel, Jannette Greenwood, sidering what has come their way for the Shelly Tenenbaum, and past 500 years,” he emphasized. Look Thomas Kühne; (front row, to the current cultural revival, in which from left) Chris Creelman, a member of the Worcester American Indians are seeking to embrace International Indian Center, their past and advance their future, he W. Richard West Jr., Center advised. Director Debórah Dwork, ■ JulieAnne Mercier-Foint and Jennifer Hanlon ’08

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES EVENTS 7

Barbara Harff: “How Do We Prevent the Next Genocide?”

Barbara Harff, the Proventus Distin- The risk-assessment model is based on guished Visiting Professor in fall 2005, and factors which correlate strongly to the professor of political science at the U.S. occurrence of genocide: political upheaval, Naval Academy in Annapolis, uses history prior geno/politicides, the presence of to point the way to a better future. A large a minority ruling elite, exclusionary crowd of students, faculty, and Worcester ideologies, regime type, and trade policies. community members gathered in the Rose This model has been shown to indicate Library at Cohen-Lasry House on 19 accurately whether genocide is likely to October 2005 to hear Harff examine the occur in a particular locale. Early warning important question “How Do We Prevent is a newer and much more complex model, the Next Genocide?” still being perfected. The early warning model monitors the same risk factors on Harff’s research focuses on risk assess- a daily basis, in conjunction with 10 ment and early warning of genocides and accelerators which, if present, may indi- politicides. She has written some 50 theo- cate a regime’s imminent turn toward retical articles, chapters, and monographs genocide. This system is currently being on these subjects. Her publications include used to track 27 high-risk cases. two seminal books, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics (1994) and Early Warning of Harff suggested that these models offer Communal Conflict and Genocide: Linking sufficient data for effective genocide Empirical Research to International prevention. She discussed how future Responses (1996), both co-authored with preventative measures could avoid the T. R. Gurr. Harff’s current research tests traps into which many of the previous Proventus Distinguished Visiting Professor Barbara sequential models of the causes and accel- efforts have fallen, traps mostly related Harff with genocide scholar erators of ethnic warfare and humanitarian to the pregenocidal state’s peripheral Erik Markusen disasters. Since 1995, she has been a sen- position in the international system. ior consultant to the White House State Failure Task Force, established to develop The audience found Harff’s work and her empirically based early warning models of presentation gripping. For faculty and political crises. Recently, she took the lead students engaged in research and activism in the Task Force’s analyses of the precon- in genocide prevention, Harff provided a ditions and accelerators of genocide and valuable theoretical framework for under- politicide. She serves as well as an expert standing pregenocidal dynamics and a to Juan Méndez, special advisor to U.N. down-to-earth narrative of the hands-on Graduate student Secretary General Kofi Annan on the prevention work that happens on the Naama Haviv, a long-time Prevention of Genocide. ground. Graduate student Naama Haviv, admirer of Harff’s work, a long-time admirer of Harff’s work, was was thrilled to gain insights helpful to her own Harff drew upon this research in her pres- thrilled to gain insights helpful to her own research on population entation of three cases of genocide preven- research on population transfer policies transfer policies in the tion, both successful and unsuccessful: in the Middle East. Harff is a model for Middle East. Cambodia, Rwanda, and Macedonia. Close students like Haviv who look forward to examination and statistical analysis of careers in government and nongovernment these cases produce two distinct models: positions. one for risk assessment and another for ■ Tiberiu Galis early warning.

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 8 EVENTS

Eric Weitz: “Germans Abroad”

The Center was pleased to welcome Eric and complicit witness. Officers and diplo- Weitz as the speaker for Clark’s first mats in the area watched the genocide Modern History Colloquium session on unfold with indifference or, in some cases, 2 November 2005. Weitz is director of the lively assistance. The German population Center for German and European Studies, at home actively dissented against these a consortium of the Universities of genocides, however. This stands in stark Minnesota and Wisconsin funded by the contrast to German popular response to the German Academic Exchange Service. Holocaust, when few protested, most com- Considered one of the nation’s foremost plied, and all too many enjoyed the profits. scholars of Nazism and Japanese fascism, Weitz is also the Arsham and Charlotte Did Germany’s role in these early geno- Ohanessian Chair in the College of Liberal cides lead to the Holocaust? Can scholars Arts at the University of Minnesota. He pinpoint a causal link between Germans spoke to an overflowing audience in the who committed or were complicit in earlier Center’s Rose Library about “Germans genocides and perpetrators of the Holo- Eric Weitz, the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Abroad: The Herero and Armenian Geno- caust? Weitz’s current research project Chair in the College of cides and the Origins of the Holocaust.” includes an investigation into German mil- Liberal Arts at the itary personnel who may have participated University of Minnesota The audience that day included Catharine in the Herero or Armenian Genocides. Newbury, a goverment professor at Smith He hopes to uncover specific people who College, and her seminar students who had advised, taught, or knew later Nazis. traveled to Cohen-Lasry House for Weitz’s Weitz reminded the audience that there talk. Their much welcome visit underscores is nothing essential about Germans that the Center’s mandate to reach out to com- caused them to commit or condone geno- munities beyond its walls. cide. Rather, the question is rife with historical problems that call for rational What students and faculty received was and empirical study, and Weitz encouraged no ordinary lecture. Weitz delivered a the students in his audience to tackle them. stimulating discussion of the framework and essential questions that must be Learning in detail how a successful scholar answered if current researchers are to formulates research questions was a rare Rebekah Phillips, a Clark determine causal links in the German role privilege of great benefit to students in psychology graduate in the Herero and Armenian genocides the audience. Rebekah Phillips, a Clark student, noted apprecia- and the Holocaust. psychology graduate student, noted appre- tively, “Weitz gave us an ciatively, “Weitz gave us an important important glimpse into how to set up a framework Scholars recognize German agency in glimpse into how to set up a framework for study, especially each of the three earliest genocides of the for study, especially when that study is when that study is very 20th century. Germans were the colonial very controversial.” Clark students were controversial.” perpetrators of the genocide of the Herero fortunate to have a scholar such as Weitz (1904-1907) in German Southwest Africa offer his expertise so generously—in his (present-day Namibia). During the Armen- field of study and in research methods. ian genocide, in which the Young Turk ■ Naama Haviv government of the Ottoman Empire was the major actor, Germany stood as an ally

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES EVENTS 9

Peter Hayes: “From Aryanization to Auschwitz”

How did German businesses benefit from executives tipped off the Gestapo so that Nazi policies against the Jews? The Center they could seize a Czech company from its As time passed, Degussa was delighted to welcome back its long- Jewish owners. became increasingly time friend, Dr. Peter Hayes, the Theodore involved in schemes that Z. Weiss Professor of Holocaust Studies at After the November Pogrom in 1938, made money for the Northwestern University, who addressed Degussa melted down precious metal company while furthering the antisemitic policies this question in a discussion of his recent objects handed over by Jewish families and genocidal aims of book, From Cooperation to Complicity: to pay the exorbitant fines and “special the Nazis. Degussa in the Third Reich. Degussa is taxes” exacted by the Nazi government. an acronym for the German Gold and The company offered the same service as Silver Separation Institute, Inc. Speaking Germany pilfered treasuries across Europe. to an appreciative audience of students And it was Degussa that processed the and members of the greater Worcester gold and silver amalgam fillings from the community, Hayes explained that while teeth of Jews murdered in annihilation dwarfed in size by such companies as IG camps. Its subsidiaries were equally Farben (the subject of another book by complicitous, exploiting some 3,400 slave Hayes), Degussa nevertheless played a laborers at factories at the Ravensbrück pivotal role in the expropriation of Jewish concentration camp, Lodz, and Gleiwitz. assets and mass murder during the Its most notorious act of complicity was Holocaust. the production of hydrocyanic acid pellets by Degesch, a wholly owned Degussa sub- At the start of the Nazi regime, few party sidiary since 1922. Known by the trade members were employed by Degussa and name Zyklon B, hydrocyanic acid pellets only a couple of Degussa’s management were used in the gas chambers of Ausch- Peter Hayes, the Theodore Z. Weiss Professor of Holocaust were identified antisemites. Digging witz-Birkenau to murder more than one Studies at Northwestern through the company’s records, Hayes million people, most of whom were Jews. University and author found company executives evinced some of From Cooperation to ambivalence about the measures against Hayes found that five years before Hitler Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich Jews: while they agreed that Jews should came to power, Degussa executives had be removed from German society, they did decided to diversify the company. The not support legal discrimination. Initially Nazi policy of “Aryanization” pragmatic in its dealings with the Nazi of businesses owned by Jews government, the company participated in helped them achieve their business dealings that benefited the firm. goal. He found, too, that while As time passed, however, Degussa became Degussa’s initial decisions increasingly involved in schemes that under Nazism were aimed at made money and furthered the antisemitic the economic bottom line, by policies and genocidal aims of the Nazis. the early 1940s the company promptly acquiesced to gov- Degussa effectively doubled in size ernment directives even when through the purchase of businesses Jewish economically irrational. Degussa Joan Freedman (left), owners were forced to sell. While it offered had become the Nazi state’s willing tool Dr. Peter Hayes, Center Director Debórah Dwork, fair market value for these companies in of exploitation and murder. and Rif Freedman 1933 and 1934, by late 1937 Degussa ■ Jeffrey Koerber paid far less. Traveling along this calculat- ed antisemitic trajectory, in 1943 Degussa

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 10 EVENTS

Beverly Grier: Invisible Hands

The searing legacy of colonialism in Africa The topic is also personal for Grier, who provides a historical context for under- has spent time in Africa as a student and standing genocidal violence today. On researcher. 1 February 2006, the Center community engaged with this matter as it celebrated “When you go to Africa, you see that a new book, Invisible Hands: Child Labor children are ubiquitous in the workforce,” and the State in Colonial Zimbabwe, by she said. During her visits, she formed Clark Professor Beverly Grier. relationships with children who were domestic servants. While scholarship on “We thank Professor Grier for her path- land and labor in Africa abounds, Grier breaking scholarship, and we thank her, noted, it focuses on adults. “I wanted too, for her outstanding intellectual gen- to make the invisible hands of children erosity to the Center’s doctoral students,” visible.” Center Director Debórah Dwork said introducing Grier to the overflow crowd With the establishment of colonial of faculty and graduate students in the Zimbabwe’s Native Juvenile Employment Kent Seminar Room. Act which required children to carry a labor pass that allowed them to sign bind- ing legal documents without parental consent or oversight, the hands of children as young as eight years old were put to Clark Professor Beverly work in farming, domestic service, and Grier discussing her new book Invisible Hands: the mining industry. Boys could leave Child Labor and the State home and survive on their own with wages in Colonial Zimbabwe earned through this work, while girls were at the Center pursued by their parents.

“I began to see childhood as socially Invisible Hands is the first historical treat- constructed, not biologically determined,” ment of child labor and the construction Grier explained. of childhood in African studies. It is also one of the few studies of child labor that Farm schools later emerged and attracted represents children as active agents in child laborers by offering free education. the construction of their own childhood. In the 1940s and 1950s, migration from Analyzing previously misinterpreted or farms to cities increased and children sur- neglected official documents, Grier found vived mainly through illegal activities. The that children and adolescents were a major recent roles of African children as anti- The recent roles of African preoccupation of colonial settlers in min- apartheid activists, guerrillas, and child children as anti-apartheid ing and agriculture, and of state officials soldiers are not new, Grier argued, but a activists, guerrillas, and charged with developing conditions favor- continuation of a tradition of child labor. child soldiers are not new, Grier argued, but able to the accumulation of capital. a continuation of a In short, she concluded, “I hope my book tradition of child labor. Invisible Hands grew out of Grier’s early shows there is a long history of agency work on labor in Ghana and how labor and resistance, a long history of children demands were met by pawning women and making history in Africa.” girls, who were used as collateral for loans. ■ Judith Jaeger

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES EVENTS 11

Robert J. Sternberg, “Hate, Genocides, Terrorism, and Massacres”

Genocide begins with hatred. Esteemed whip up passion, instill commitment, and cognitive psychologist Robert Sternberg produce action. Since hatred is learned, it helped the Center community better is important to teach people to understand understand hatred through an illuminating its complex nature, how it is fomented, lecture on “Hate, Genocides, Terrorism, and how it can lead to violence and mass Robert Sternberg, Dean of the School of Arts and and Massacres” on 23 February 2006. murder. Sciences at Tufts University Sternberg is Dean of the School of Arts and the director of the and Sciences at Tufts University and the “Professor Sternberg’s lecture brought to Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and director of the Center for the Psychology the Clark community a new look at the Expertise at Yale University of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise processes of emergence, detection, and at Yale University. He has written more possible prevention of social situations than 1,000 books, book chapters and leading to genocide,” said Clark psychol- “I was most impressed journal articles, and has won roughly ogy professor Jaan Valsiner, who teaches with the Center. The people two dozen awards for his scholarship. an advanced seminar on the cultural obviously care about and support each other, and the Sternberg’s recent work, The Psychology psychology of genocide. intellectual atmosphere just of Hate, is an edited collection of articles. comes alive. Really, what “This was an intriguing and alarming a wonderful place!” Sternberg explained his theory of hate.The lecture, a real challenge to Holocaust theory begins with the triangular structure and genocide scholars,” added Thomas —Robert J. Sternberg of hate: negation of intimacy, or distancing Kühne, the Center’s Strassler Family from the target group; passion in hate, Professor of Holocaust History. “We have “Dr. Sternberg’s lecture the intense anger or fear in response to a to think about new approaches in explor- challenged me to think threat; and decision/commitment in hate, ing the historical dimensions of hate.” about genocide from a which involves contempt and devaluing the completely different angle target. Sternberg has created a taxonomy of Corey Simon ’06, a double major in psy- than I, as a sociology seven levels of hate, derived from combina- chology and international development major, am used to, and opened my eyes to a whole tions of the three legs of the triangle. Hate and social change, had been looking new set of nuances regard- intensifies with added emotions like dis- forward to this lecture ing genocides as a whole.” gust, anger-fear, devaluation-diminution, since last semester. revulsion, loathing, revilement, and the “The Psychology of —Amanda Graizel ’06, Strassler Center and Clark need for annihilation. The more compo- Hate ties together my University/Hillel joint intern nents of hate a person experiences, the interests in psychology greater the danger to the target population. and the effects of war- time conflict on victims,” “A s one of the best-known The second part of Sternberg’s theory rests she explained. cognitive scientists in the on hateful stories. Stories are used to jus- world, Professor Sternberg tify or fuel hatred. Such stories often rely David Coyne, director represents the best contri- bution to the solving of on common narrative elements that may of Clark Hillel, noted the practical impli- basic human problems that describe the target as stranger, controller, cations of Sternberg’s theory. “Once again, contemporary psychology death, enemy of God, or faceless foes. The the Strassler Center has enriched the cam- can offer. I think his cogni- stranger story implies that members of a pus with a program that provokes serious tive perspective relates very targeted group are “not like us.” Sternberg thought and demands immediate action.” well with the interdiscipli- argues that different stories incite particu- ■ Rachel Iskov nary scholarship currently developing at Clark.” lar components of hate. Stories are used as propaganda in order to negate intimacy, —Clark psychology professor Jaan Valsiner

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 12 EVENTS

Mark Hanis: Genocide Intervention Network

Clark students study the past in the hope colleges and universities involved in the of shaping a better future. On 15 March effort. People from across the country 2006, Mark Hanis inspired Clark students, contributed a total of $250,000 to support faculty, and staff to do just that. Students the African Union, and letter-writing and faculty packed the Center’s Rose campaigns doubled the number of congres- Library to overflowing on 15 March 2006 sional sponsors of the struggling Darfur to hear how Hanis cofounded the Genocide Peace and Accountability Act. Intervention Network (GI-Net) to help stop Mark Hanis, cofounder the current genocide in Darfur. After he was graduated from Swarthmore, of the Genocide Hanis and others expanded the Genocide Intervention Network Hanis was an undergraduate student at Intervention Fund into GI-Net, which Swarthmore College when he and his focuses on growing the political will to friends learned about the state-sanctioned stop genocide by establishing the first mass killings in Darfur, where the Sudan- permanent anti-genocide constituency. ese government has been working since GI-Net’s mission is to educate the public February 2003 to eliminate non-Arab about genocide, advocate for government “Mark’s vision and dedica- tion makes him a hero in tribes. According to reliable accounts, the policies that stop genocide, and raise our contemporary world.” death toll has reached at least 400,000, funds to support efforts like the African with 5,000 more killed every month. In Union peacekeeping mission. —Shelly Tenenbaum, addition, some 2.5 million Dafuris have director of Clark’s under- graduate concentration in been displaced, fleeing the violence. Urging Clark students to participate in GI- Holocaust and Genocide Net, he noted: “The Center gives you an Studies. “People keep saying ‘never again,’ and it’s advantage over other schools in being able happening now, on our watch,” Hanis said. to speak about genocide and the situation in Darfur.” He and his fellow students decided to act. They educated themselves about genocide “When he learned about the genocide in and the issues in Darfur, and concluded Darfur, Mark Hanis asked, ‘what can I do?’ that treating the problem as a security issue The answer he formulated led to the cre- could make the greatest impact. They ation of the Genocide Intervention Network, developed a plan to raise money to help an organization that empowers citizens with African Union forces in Rwanda get to the tools to prevent and stop genocide,” Students listened intently Darfur to provide security. In February said Shelly Tenenbaum, director of Clark’s to Mark Hanis’s lecture about the genocide in Darfur 2005, they launched the Genocide Inter- undergraduate concentration in Holocaust and efforts to stop it. vention Fund, which offered an unprece- and Genocide Studies. “Mark’s vision and dented opportunity for private donors to dedication makes him a hero in our con- contribute to a peacekeeping mission temporary world.” capable of increasing security for civilians “The Center gives you an endangered by genocide. Inspired by Hanis, undergraduates soon advantage over other established a GI-Net chapter of Students schools in being able to In addition to seeking donations, the group Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND) and speak about genocide and undertook 100 Days of Action to mobilize already have many plans for the 2006-07 the situation in Darfur.” college students. Students from 42 states academic year (see page 34). —Mark Hanis converged on Washington, D.C. on 6 April ■ Judith Jaeger 2005, and spent the next 100 days getting

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES EVENTS 13

Christian Gerlach: “Extremely Violent Societies”

Mass violence and popular participation For Gerlach, collaboration and its links to was the subject of a lecture by Christian the state (acting as a primary perpetrator) Gerlach, assistant professor of history at merit closer examination. He discussed the University of Pittsburgh, held in the three key aspects: the complexities and Rose Library at Cohen-Lasry House on evolution of the motivations for genocide; 1 March 2006. His lecture, “Extremely the significance of local conditions and Violent Societies: An Alternative to the popular participation in the implementa- Concept of Genocide,” presented a fresh tion of mass killings in comparison to the theoretical framework for understanding acts of the state; and the linkages between acts to destroy national, ethnic, racial, popular participation and the policies and or religious groups. Gerlach argued that policy makers. many existing theories of genocide are insufficient to explain the processes of One additional and compelling case that mass violence. Rather than follow tradition- Gerlach cited was Indonesia in 1965-66. al concepts of genocide that emphasize the Although classified by many scholars as centralized policies of the state, Gerlach a politically motivated genocide or politi- underscored the significance of broad cide directed against Communist Party popular participation. members in Indonesia, Gerlach noted the widespread acts of violence and mass Gerlach discussed genocide in the murder against ethnic Chinese and other, Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, and the more isolated ethnic groups. While the Soviet Union, describing the multiple Indonesian army was the primary perpe- causes for each case as well as the range trator of the politicide, local religious of actors in the implementation of geno- or ethnic groups allied with the army’s cide. In the Ottoman Empire, for example, policies participated widely. International Christian Gerlach, assistant the Ittihadist government deported and actors also had a hand in the course of professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, murdered Armenians, Assyrians, and other events in Indonesia, such as the United speaking at the Center’s groups beginning in 1915 based on poli- States providing the Indonesian government Rose Library cies of ethnic exclusion and economic con- with lists of names of several thousand fiscation. Nazi Germany implemented its Indonesian communists. policy to annihilate the Jews of Europe, as well as the Roma (gypsies), and perpetrat- In sum, Gerlach emphasized the impor- ed the economic exploitation of non-Jewish tance for scholars to consider the broad populations of occupied nations. In the range of acts and actors in the development Soviet Union, the official focus of persecu- and implementation of genocide. tion was political opponents, but this also affected whole ethnic groups considered Gerlach is the author of many renowned obstacles to the implementation of party books on the Holocaust, including Gerlach emphasized the importance for scholars to policies. Gerlach outlined in each of these Kalkulierte Morde (Calculated Murders), consider the broad range three cases that the genocidal policies of which examines German economic of acts and actors in the the state benefited ethnic or social groups and extermination policy in occupied development and imple- at the local level and provided incentives Belorussia between 1941 and 1944. mentation of genocide. for collaboration. His examples included Gerlach also co-annotated the published the Kurds’ involvement in the Armenian edition of Himmler’s appointment book Genocide and a whole host of non-German for the years 1941 and 1942. collaborators during the Holocaust. ■ Jeffrey Koerber

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 14 EVENTS

Benjamin Lieberman: “Driven off the Map”

Much of Europe was more ethnically expulsion of French Acadians from Nova diverse a century ago than today. The Scotia in 1755. These purges were initiated Ottoman city of Salonika, with its Turkish, by Western European powers. Central and Jewish, Greek, Bulgarian, and Armenian Eastern European rulers governed ethni- populations, is now the Greek city of cally diverse territories without resorting Thessaloniki. Jewish L’vov, Polish Lwow, to wholesale expulsions. By the end of the and German Lemberg became Ukrainian 19th century, Armenians in the Ottoman Lvov. East Prussian Danzig is now Polish Empire and Jews in Russia were increas- Gdansk. Forced expulsions have taken ingly the target of mass violence. Strassler Center Executive Director Mary Jane Rein place throughout history and around the (left), Nancy Waters, globe. Lake Van in Asia Minor, the tradi- Ethnic purges were based on racial, politi- Kaloosdian/Mugar Professor tional center of Armenian heritage, now cal, or social factors. In the aftermath of Simon Payaslian, Cyndee lacks a living Armenian population on its World War I, diplomats sought to ease eth- Freeman, Dr. Ed Morin ’57, Ben Lieberman, Strassler shores. What caused these transformations? nic conflict through negotiated “population Professor Thomas Kühne, What are the links between past occur- exchanges,” such as between Greece and and graduate student rences of ethnic cleansing and current Turkey in 1923–24. During the years of Rachel Iskov genocides? And why do some events the Social Revolution and Great Terror, remain a part of popular memory, while Soviet authorities forcibly removed ethnic others are almost completely forgotten? and national groups to remote areas based on the perceived need to accelerate col- Benjamin Lieberman explored these lectivization of agriculture or to secure themes in his lecture, “Driven off the perimeter border territories. During the Map: How Ethnic Cleansing Remade Nazi years, various Eastern European Modern Europe,” sponsored by the Asher countries oppressed Jews, either in concert family, at Tilton Hall on 23 March 2006. with German annihilationist policies or as Lieberman is a history professor at a result of homegrown antisemitism. Fitchburg State College and author of the recently published book Terrible Fate: Nazi racial policies targeted Slavs, Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern although in Lieberman’s view, they were Benjamin Lieberman, Europe, a comparative study of violent not the target of genocide. German policies author of Terrible Fate: transformations in European history. toward Slavs were motivated by the desire Ethnic Cleansing in the Lieberman focused on three waves of for living space in a new German “east.” Making of Modern Europe social violence in which ethnic cleansing In the wake of liberation by the Red Army, played a pivotal role: the decline of the the Soviet Union resettled ethnic groups Ottoman and Russian empires, the rise in Eastern Europe to suit its security and fall of ultra-nationalist Nazi Germany, concerns. Ethnic cleansing and and the resurgence of nationalism in mass violence occurred former Communist multi-national states. Lieberman closed his discussion with a in a variety of political Common to all of them is the complicity series of observations. Ethnic cleansing contexts in 20th-century of ordinary citizens. and mass violence occurred in a variety Europe, but universal of political contexts in 20th-century to all situations was the involvement of The removal of whole populations is not a Europe, but universal to all situations was ordinary people at all modern phenomenon. Lieberman discussed the involvement of ordinary people at all levels of repression. precursors, such as the expulsion of levels of repression. Jews from Spain in 1492, scattering of ■ Stefanie Fischer Huguenots from France in 1685, or the

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES SIMON PAYASLIAN 15

Simon Payaslian: “Power, Politics, and the Armenian Genocide”

The American response to humanitarian by the United States assumes recognition crisis is as complicated today as it was by Turkey, which is extremely unlikely. a century ago, as the Center’s Professor He added that members of the European Simon Payaslian demonstrated. The Union today use the Armenian Genocide Center proudly hosted a public lecture by just as world powers in the late 19th and Payaslian, first incumbent of the Robert early 20th centuries used the Armenian Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Question—for their own interests and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of benefits. According to Payaslian, some Armenian Genocide Studies and Modern European countries use Turkey’s refusal Armenian History, on 20 April 2006. to recognize the Genocide to keep Turkey Clark students and faculty and community out of the European Union. members, along with renowned professor of Armenian history and great friend to the Another audience member questioned Simon Payaslian, first Center Richard Hovannisian and his wife, Payaslian on the role of religious institu- incumbent of the Robert Aram and Marianne Dr. Vartiter Hovannisian, filled Tilton Hall tions during the Armenian Genocide. Kaloosdian and Stephen for the lecture and to celebrate the publica- Some Armenians had close ties with the and Marian Mugar Chair of tion of Payaslian’s new book United States missionaries and supported their work, Armenian Genocide Studies and Modern Armenian Policy toward the Armenian Question and because the missionaries provided some History the Armenian Genocide. Payaslian’s highly protection for the Armenians and a path anticipated lecture, “Power, Politics, and toward immigration to the United States, the Armenian Genocide,” came at a time while others resented the missionaries when the Armenian Genocide was in the and their influence on their communities media due to a lawsuit seeking to include and the Armenian Orthodox Church. The denial Web sites in the Massachusetts role of the missionaries remains the sub- “A s Professor Payaslian’s state curriculum guide. ject of debate. While missionaries might research reveals, the have protested the deportation of the disturbing lack of response by the U.S. government In his new book, Payaslian places Ameri- Armenians, Payaslian said, they generally to international crises is can responses to the Armenian Question sought good relations with the Ottoman nothing new. He shows and the Genocide within the broader government in order to protect their own us how vital it is to look context of U.S. foreign policy toward the property and establishments. beyond immediate interests Ottoman Empire from the 1890s to the to a long view of events.” 1920s, particularly during the Wilson Payaslian’s lecture was well worth the —Clark University administration. He detailed how the eco- anticipation, provoking much thought and graduate student nomics of American business interests, discussion. He challenged conventionally missionary initiatives, and the U.S. Navy held views on this subject and presented a greatly influenced American foreign policy, sharp and hard-hitting assessment of U.S. and shaped the government’s response to policy toward the Armenian Genocide. the Armenian Question and the Genocide. ■ JulieAnne Mercier-Foint

The questions following the lecture reflect- ed deep interest in Payaslian’s research Bill Hausrath ’53 (left), and further revealed his expertise in and Center Director Debórah passion for his subject. One guest asked if Dwork, and Kaloosdian/Mugar the United States would ever recognize the Professor Simon Payaslian Armenian Genocide. Payaslian hoped so, but noted that recognition of the Genocide

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 16 LINKAGES

Linkages

Just as the Holocaust and genocide touch to take Yiddish language and directed all corners of the globe, so must the reading courses with Kellman. Kellman’s Center’s mission of teaching, research, courses strengthened a crucially important and public service, if such atrocities are to competency for Koerber, as his disserta- be prevented in the future. The Center’s tion focuses on the experience of Jews in faculty, and graduate and undergraduate the Vilna District. The Center anticipates students are not alone in their work. sharing faculty expertise with pleasure: Rather, they strive each year to develop NEJS students are most welcome! new partnerships and collaborations with individuals and institutions in the local College of the Holy Cross Center Director Debórah community, throughout the country, and Following last year’s tremendously suc- Dwork speaking at the Stockholm Congress around the world. These mutually benefi- cessful collaboration with the College of cial relationships enhance and deepen our the Holy Cross on the exhibit “A Child knowledge of the Holocaust and genocide Artist in Terezín: Witness to the Holocaust, and bring us closer to our goals of analysis Drawings by Helga Weissóva-Hosková, The Center looks forward and prevention. Terezín, 1941-1944,” the Center explored to developing new additional opportunities for such joint intellectually stimulating American Jewish Committee activities. Strassler Professor Thomas and mutually beneficial The Center’s relationship with the AJC has Kühne took up this important task, meeting pojects with the College of the Holy Cross and its grown ever stronger since Center Director with William Shea, director of the college’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Rose Professor Debórah Dwork joined Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, and Culture. its Anti-Semitism Task Force last year, at as well as several faculty from the college the request of Bob Goodkind, AJC Presi- to discuss ideas for future collaboration. dent and a good friend of the Center. Over The Center looks forward to developing the past year, the Task Force has estab- new intellectually stimulating and mutually lished a program of immediate response beneficial projects. to address the problem of antisemitism, as well as a long-term plan to analyze and Culture without Borders: assess the nature of new manifestations of Stockholm Congress antisemitism. The AJC’s goal of fighting Dwork served as academic advisor to antisemitism complements the Center’s an international congress on “The New educational mission. Education, after all, European Cultural Landscape and the is the best defense against antisemitism in Jewish Experience,” held in Stockholm its old and new guises. in March 2006. The congress was organ- ized as part of Culture Without Borders, Participants in the Brandeis University—Near Eastern a one-year project that unfolded between Stockholm Congress, which and Judaic Studies 15 August 2005 and 14 August 2006 and was organized as part of Thanks to the suggestion of Professor Marc was sponsored by the Jewish Cultural Culture Without Borders: George Klein (left), Brettler, NEJS department chair, Dwork Heritage Foundation; Culture 2000 Diana Pinto, Shmuel and he developed a partnership agreement, Programme of the European Union; Jewish Eisenstadt, Amos Elon, ratified by their respective institutions, Museum, Berlin; Jewish Museum, Prague; Michael Brenner, Charles which enables NEJS students to take Fondation du Judaisme Français; Museum Lewinsky, Josef Gorny, Nelly Hansson, Omar Akbar, courses at the Center, and vice versa. This of the History of Polish Jews; and the Göran Rosenberg cooperative agreement—and Professor Jewish Community of Stockholm. The Ellen Kellman’s generosity—allowed congress brought together key thinkers Claims Conference Fellow Jeffrey Koerber from the academic, cultural, and political

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES LINKAGES 17

spheres to explore the role of minorities implementing policies to address current and integration in fueling the creative genocides. Immediatey invited to serve on process in arts and science and in shaping the doctoral committee for a student in the future of Europe, using the Jewish comparative genocide, Markusen graciously narrative as a case study. In addition to agreed with alacrity. her work as academic advisor, Dwork presented the opening remarks, chaired a panel on “Integration and Cultural Creativity: The Jewish Perspective,” and chaired the final panel discussion, closing the congress with a “Summary and Con- clusions” presentation. Genocide Scholar Erik Markusen with Center Danish Institute of Director Debórah Dwork International Studies Searching to connect his Jewish roots in Worcester with his profound respect for his father-in-law’s experience as a parti- san in World War II, Dr. Howard Kulin The Center was pleased to welcome approached the Center to initiate an excit- Cecilie Banke and Martin Mennecke from ing new partnership. Kulin’s father-in-law the Department of Holocaust Studies at the fought with the partisans, was imprisoned Danish Institute in April to further explore by the Germans in a concentration camp, opportunities for collaboration further. and was eventually released with other Banke, a historian and sociologist, seeks Scandanavian prisoners. A family archive to explain current phenomena through documents the experience. Kulin the study of history. Her current research approached the Department of Holocaust interest is the impact of the Holocaust on and Genocide Studies of the Danish Insti- European politics and culture. Mennecke, tute to identify an American partner for a a lawyer, focuses his work at the Institute collaborative program. Genocide scholar on peace keeping, intervention, and transi- Erik Markusen, who divides his profession- tional justice. He is heavily involved with al time between the Institute in Copen- the Danish National Day of Remembrance hagen, where he is a research fellow, and educational outreach program. The Center the Department of Sociology at Southwest and the Danish Institute have been work- Minnesota State University, immediately ing to develop a formal collaboration, and recommended Clark. This was a fortuitous Banke and Mennecke’s discussions with suggestion for the Worcester-born Kulin faculty and graduate students moved this “I would hope that Europe who sought the preeminent American pro- process forward. In addition to its wealth can start to take in the gram. of scholarship in the field of Holocaust Holocaust and face it, with and genocide studies, the Danish Institute all the darkness and all Markusen traveled to Clark in October offers unique learning opportunities by the skeletons.” 2005 to lay the groundwork for a program virtue of its location. The Museum of —Cecilie Banke, Danish of faculty and student exchanges. Doctoral Resistance in Copenhagen, the Dutch Institute for International students at the Center eagerly welcomed Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Studies Markusen, well-known to them for his and the Anne Frank House are among seminal work in the field of comparative some of the key sites for Holocaust genocide studies. He described his work research located near the Institute. Banke, in areas around the globe collecting evi- Mennecke, and the Center community left dence about genocidal activity. The value the discussions energized to pursue initia- of such hands-on experience is tremen- tives that will help broaden and deepen the dous for students who envision careers field of Holocaust and genocide studies.

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 18 LINKAGES

Genocide Education Project Jewish Foundation for the Righteous The Center and the With his commitment to the Center’s The JFR and the Center continue to move Genocide Education public service mission, Kaloosdian/Mugar forward together in their mission to provide Project share the crucial Professor Simon Payaslian is pleased outstanding Holocaust education to stu- mission of preventing to serve on the advisory board of the dents and teachers of all levels, as well genocide by helping teachers, students, and Genocide Education Project. This San as to museum and memorial personnel. educational organizations Francisco-based nonprofit organization Dwork’s nearly 10-year association with teach and learn about helps educators teach about human rights the JFR grew stronger with the passing of genocide. and genocide, with a special focus on another year. She is in her third year on the Armenian Genocide. The Genocide the JFR’s Board of Trustees and her second Education Project develops and distributes as chair of the Board’s Education Commit- instructional materials, provides access tee and Strategic Planning Committee. She to teaching resources, and organizes edu- was honored to be appointed vice chair of The JFR and the Center cational workshops. The Center and the the Foundation in January 2006. Support- continue to move forward Genocide Education Project share the ing the JFR’s educational programs, Dwork together in their mission crucial mission of preventing genocide by continues to teach in the JFR Summer to provide outstanding helping teachers, students, and educational Institute for Teachers, first held at Clark Holocaust education to students and teachers of all organizations teach and learn about geno- and now held at Columbia University, and levels, as well as to museum cide. Payalsian’s work with this organization she also taught in the JFR’s advanced and memorial personnel. also dovetails perfectly with his ongoing winter seminar for “graduates” of the sum- outreach to Armenian communities in mer institute. Strassler Professor Thomas Worcester and throughout the country. Kühne has taught in the JFR’s advanced winter seminar in the past.

Jewish Partisan Education Foundation On 7 October 2005, the Center, in con- Debórah Dwork (left), junction with the Jewish Partisan Educa- the JFR’s Director of tion Foundation (JPEF), was pleased to Education Jonathan Gruber, and Maria Kershenbaum, host a one-day teacher workshop about a Holocaust rescuer Jewish armed resistance activities against the Germans. Mitch Braff of JPEF led the workshop, which was held in the Center’s Rose Library. Twenty-six teachers and staff from area high schools and Center graduate Genocide Intervention Network students Rachel Iskov and Jeff Koerber Mark Hanis, cofounder of the Genocide participated in the workshop, which Intervention Network (GI-Net), spoke at explored the experience of some of the Clark in March (see page 12) about how approximately 30,000 Jews who escaped he and his fellow students at Swarthmore from ghettos and camps to join hundreds College mobilized a national movement to of thousands of non-Jewish partisans, or call attention to the ongoing genocide in to form their own fighting groups. Located The Center community Darfur. His passion was contagious and in Poland, the Soviet Union, Lithuania, takes great pride in inspired Clark undergraduates to establish Greece, France, and other regions, these how students in the undergraduate Holocaust a GI-Net chapter of Students Taking Action groups blew up thousands of armored and Genocide Studies Now Darfur (STAND). The Center commu- convoys and undermined the German war Program transform their nity takes great pride in how students in machine. In addition to armed resistance, education into action. the undergraduate Holocaust and Genocide countless actions contributed to survival, Studies Program transform their education such as smuggling food into ghettos and into action. contacting resistance groups on the out- side. Jews also practiced their faith, taught children to read, or gave theater perform-

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES LINKAGES 19

ances or concerts. This spiritual resistance helped Jews maintain their dignity and self-respect. Mitch Braff from the Jewish Partisan Education The teachers also learned about individual Foundation leading a partisans, such as Frank Blaichman, who workshop for teachers in the Worcester Public Schools was 16 years old at the time of the German invasion and escaped a ghetto to join other Jews hiding in a nearby forest. There, he encouraged the formation of a defense unit. He obtained firearms by dressing as a Soviet paratrooper and threatening a well-armed local farmer. Gertie Boyarski described how Clark offered institutional escaped the ghetto in Derechin, Poland, support from the start. She talked about with her family just before a Nazi roundup. her own training in modern European “I plan on incorporating She later joined a partisan group of history and why college-level teaching of the themes discussed Russians, Poles, and Jews. Abba Kovner, Holocaust history must be normalized. The in today’s workshop on the well-known Israeli poet, had been a visit concluded with promising discussions Jewish partisans into member of the HaShomer HaTzair youth about the growth of Keene’s Cohen Center, my history courses.” movement in Vilna before the German and the possibility for future collaboration —Teacher at Worcester’s occupation. Emerging as a leader of under- between the two institutions. South High School ground activities, he advocated armed resistance against the Nazis. Kovner super- kNOw GENOCIDE: vised the escape of the fighters to the United Against Denial forests, where he commanded the Jewish The Center is proud to join kNOw GENO- Unit composed of Ghetto fighters. Work- CIDE in the fight against genocide denial. shop participants examined these individ- This new multi-ethnic coalition was uals to identify factors that aided survival. launched on 21 April 2006 following a commemoration ceremony marking the Keene State College 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Kühne began laying the foundation for The kNOw GENOCIDE coalition counters partnership between the Center and Keene ongoing denial of known cases of genocide, State College when he organized a work- such as the Darfur, Cambodian, Rwandan, shop on “Male Bonding and Mass Murder: and Armenian genocides, as well as the The Germans and the Holocaust,” held on Holocaust. kNOw GENOCIDE is particu- The Center is proud to 10 February 2006 at Keene State’s Cohen larly concerned by a recent law suit join kNOw GENOCIDE Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. against the Massachusetts Department of in the fight against Following this successful collaboration, Education for excluding Web sites that genocide denial. the Center was pleased to host a delegation deny the Armenian Genocide from its State from the Cohen Center in April. The group Curriculum Guide. kNOw GENOCIDE of faculty, administrators, and donor Jan maintains that refusal to teach genocide Cohen came to Clark to learn how the denial is not unconstitutional censorship, Strassler Center developed its graduate but rather a commitment to upholding and undergraduate programs. Keene State the basic educational mission of teaching wishes to develop its minor in Holocaust reliable and factually accurate materials. Keene State seeks to develop its minor in studies into a major, and the Strassler In addition to the Center, the coalition Holocaust studies into Center is honored to be considered a model includes the Armenian Assembly of a major, and the Strassler for Keene’s programs. Dwork described America, Armenian National Assemblies Center is honored to be a the genesis and evolution of the Strassler of Massachusetts, Cambodian Mutual model for Keene’s programs. Center, discussed the practicalities of Assistance Association, Genocide Inter- fundraising and academic planning, and vention Network, Irish Immigration Center,

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 20 LINKAGES

Jewish Community Relations Council, Dwork and van Pelt. The free exhibition was Massachusetts Council of Churches, on view at the New York Public Library’s Rwanda Outlook, and the University of Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Geno- More information about the exhibit is at cide Studies. The Center community stands www.nypl.org/press/2006/salaarchive.cfm. strong with these fine organizations against the crimes of genocide and genocide denial. Worcester Public Schools The Center welcomed teachers from the Museum of Jewish Heritage— Worcester Public Schools to Cohen-Lasry A Living Memorial to the Holocaust House on 17 March 2006 for a workshop The Center continues to maintain firm ties that examined families in Belgium forced with the MJH. In addition to serving on to live under German occupation, and the the MJH’s Academic Review Committee, differences between Nazi concentration Dwork delivered a lecture to teachers camps and the death camps. Christian de participating in the MJH symposium “Life Marcken, who found himself and his family in the Shadows: Hidden Children and the caught in Belgium in 1939, told the teach- Dwork and her co-author Holocaust” in November 2005. As always, ers about life for him, his parents and four Robert Jan van Pelt, Dwork enjoyed sharing her knowledge with siblings under the extreme cruelty of the Distinguished University the teachers and, according to education Nazi regime. De Marcken, now an Ameri- Professor at the University program manager Nili Schiffman, her lec- can citizen, described the struggles his of Waterloo and great ture served as a perfect introduction to the family went through to stay alive under friend of the Center, historical context of the symposium and to the Germans’ watchful eyes. His father shared the privilege of the exhibition of the same title. Dwork also fought with the partisans, which made it contributing their expertise to Ann Kirchner’s taught in the museum’s gallery educator much more dangerous for the family. In the “Letters to Sala” exhibit. program, which gave her the opportunity to second half of the workshop, Ph.D. candi- educate the people who interact with the date Jeff Koerber explained the locations visitor public most directly. of and differences between concentration camps and death camps. The questions New York Public Library and discussion were thoughtful and clearly Dwork and her co-author Robert Jan van showed that Koerber’s presentation stimu- Pelt, Distinguished University Professor at lated the teachers’ interest. the University of Waterloo and great friend of the Center, shared the privilege of con- The positive feedback from the partici- tributing their expertise to Ann Kirchner’s pants in this and the JPEF workshop “Letters to Sala” exhibit, which was on illustrate not only the success of the view at the New York Public Library from Center’s educational outreach initiatives, 7 March to 17 June 2006. This compelling but the effectiveness of workshops in exhibition of a unique cache of Holocaust- general in educating teachers about era letters and photographs received by the Holocaust and genocide and their Kirchner’s mother, Sala Garncarz, illumi- prevention. nates Sala’s life from the time she entered ■ Judith Jaeger a labor camp in 1940 until her liberation in 1945. Dwork served as adviser to Ann Kirchner and Curator Jill Vexler. An illus- trated companion book, Letters to Sala: A Young Woman’s Life in Nazi Labor Camps, features the story of Sala’s internment and liberation and an essay on Sala’s world by

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES VOLUNTEER PROFILE 21

Center Volunteer Keeps Yiddish Alive

On Wednesday afternoons at the Center spoke it at home, and from other families this year, it wasn’t unusual to hear the who also spoke the language. Now, he and melody of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” his fellow volunteer teachers from Beth ring through Cohen-Lasry House, the Israel are part of the movement to revive “It’s a two-way street. verses belted out in Yiddish as part of Sam the Yiddish language. The people who’ve come Gordon’s weekly Yiddish class. Gordon, to my class at Clark have who has volunteered his time teaching “It’s an uphill battle to keep this going. learned something from Yiddish at the Center for the last few But I always say, Yiddish is still alive in me, and I’ve learned years, loves to use music in his classes. Worcester.” something from them.”

—Sam Gordon, “We like to have fun and do things that are It’s certainly still alive at the Strassler the Center’s volunteer easy for students to learn and remember,” Center, where the weekly class was Yiddish teacher said Gordon, who became involved with cosponsored this year by Clark Hillel and keeping the Yiddish language alive at attended by Clark undergraduate and grad- Congregation Beth Israel in Worcester. The uate students, and Worcester community congregation’s Beth Israel Senior Outreach members. One participant came to Clark Network, Gordon explained, decided to from Brookline, Mass., for class each build relationships with schools and com- week. Gordon shared with them the many munity organizations by teaching Yiddish. Yiddish teaching materials he has collect- Classes took place at the Eisenberg, ed over the years. He has so much now, Tatnuck on the Park, and Bet Shalom he said, that “it causes marital problems assisted-living communities, the Jewish at our house.” Gordon’s wife, Carolyn, Community Center, and Beth Israel senior chuckled in agreement. housing. Many of these and other classes continue today. A few years ago, Gordon Gordon typically teaches two to three Sam Gordon (front row, approached Dr. Tatyana Macaulay, the classes a week, including a class at the third from left) and his Strassler Center’s program manager, about New Jewish Academy, an elementary wife Carolyn (front row, second from left) with starting a class at Clark. It was a kind of and middle school in Worcester. members of his Yiddish homecoming for Gordon, who attended the class at the Center. University for two years in the 1930s. “The most exciting and exhilarating time Pictured with the class is Saul Seder ’21 (front I’ve had is teaching Yiddish to these young row, seated), who passed “I always said that we should do something people,” Gordon said. He plans to continue away in the spring. here because Yiddish is the language of working with children and the Holocaust,” Gordon said. The greatest with his students at the number of victims of the Holocaust were Center. “It’s a two-way Jews from Eastern and Central Europe, street. The people who’ve whose language and common culture were come to my class at Clark Yiddish. “When this terrible tragedy struck have learned something them, Yiddish became even more important from me, and I’ve learned because it was their way of communicating something from them.” with each other.” Hearing Yiddish at the ■ Judith Jaeger Center reminds students of the culture the Nazis sought to destroy.

Gordon, like many of his generation, learned Yiddish from his mother, who

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 22 VOLUNTEER PROFILE

A Valued Member of the Center Community: Amanda Graizel

Lending a hand to facilitate the Center’s A Holocaust history course sparked busy schedule of events this year, Amanda Graizel’s passion for Holocaust and geno- Graizel ’06 served as an intern for the cide studies and related fields. She Center, with support from Hillel Interna- participated in Clark’s Prague/Terezín tional and an anonymous donor to Clark Program, in which undergraduates travel Hillel. to these cities to learn first-hand about the Holocaust, and was just two courses shy of A sociology major with a concentration in a concentration in Judaic studies as well. Holocaust and genocide studies, Graizel proved a valuable and enthusiastic mem- “It all connects,” she said. “I can take ber of the Center community. During the information and insights I’ve learned in a “A manda’s gifts are the enormous energy and fall semester, she ran the Yiddish Tisch, a class about the Holocaust and connect it cheerfulness with which weekly Yiddish class taught by volunteer to classes on race or deviant behavior.” she accomplished Sam Gordon (see page 21), and promoted everything on her plate.” the Center’s many events to her fellow At the Center, Graizel enjoyed the cama- —Dr. Tatyana Macaulay, students. raderie of the graduate students, who Program Manager recommended books to her and spent time at the Center Graizel’s role as an activist and student discussing topics of common interest. leader shines bright. In the spring, her work with the Center and Hillel focused on “I love everyone at the Center, and I’m the genocide in Darfur. She helped organ- sad to be leaving,” said Graizel a few ize a lecture given by graduate student weeks before her graduation from Clark. JulieAnne Mercier-Foint and Abu Assal, “Dr. Macaulay is awesome, and Dr. Dwork a refugee from Darfur, which coincided is an amazing teacher—and like your with a talk by Mark Hanis of the Genocide mom when you’re not at home.” Intervention Network (see page 12). Graizel was also involved with Clark’s new Students The Center community has equal appreci- Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND) chap- ation for the time and energy Graizel put ter, participating in lobbying workshops into her work on behalf of the Center’s and activities, such as the 30 April 2006 students, faculty, and staff. rally in Washington, D.C. She helped organize fundraisers and a vigil to call “Amanda’s gifts are the enormous energy attention to the situation in Darfur. and cheerfulness with which she accom- plished everything on her plate,” says Program Manager Dr. Tatyana Macaulay, who described Graizel as “the Guardian Angel/hostess” for the Yiddish Tisch.

Graizel plans to pursue work in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies, either in Shira Moskovitz ’09 (left), advocacy or education. She is interested in Ashley Borell ’06, Mark Hanis, Amanda Graizel ’06, lobbying for legislation related to genocide and Joanna Brinton ’06 prevention and intervention or working with schools on Holocaust and genocide education. ■ Judith Jaeger

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES FACULTY NOTES 23

Faculty Notes

The Center’s intellectual reach is extended opened at the New York Public Library by the teaching, research, and public serv- just before Dwork flew to Stockholm. ice activities pursued by faculty throughout Dwork and her coauthor Robert Jan van the year. Pelt (who holds a Distinguished University Professorship at Waterloo in Canada) “How are you doing?” someone asked wrote an essay, “Sala’s World, 1939-1945: Debórah Dwork, founding director of the Sosnowiec, Schmelt’s Camps, and the Center and Rose Professor of Holocaust Holocaust” to follow Ann Kirchner’s bio- History. “Never better!” she replied. She graphical piece on her mother, Sala, in a meant it. Delighted by the Center’s fruitful companion volume to the exhibition. If engagement with its three-part mandate anyone wishes to know how a concentra- of research, teaching, and public service, tion camp inmate received (and sent) she was pleased, too, that she had terrific letters, Dwork and van Pelt’s essay will opportunities to deploy her energies in explain. As in past years, Dwork served these endeavors. Committed to using her on the American Jewish Committee’s Anti- scholarly knowledge in the public realm, Semitism Task Force; she chaired two Debórah Dwork (center) is pictured here with Choate Dwork was happy to have been asked to board committees for the Jewish Founda- student Marla Spivack (left) join the board of the Jewish Cultural tion for the Righteous and was honored to and Adrien Uretsky ’02, Heritage Foundation, and to serve as the be appointed Vice-Chair of the Foundation; New England director of The Curriculum Initiative, Academic Adviser for a major project sup- and served on the academic boards of the at Dwork’s presentation ported by the JCHF. “The New European International Research Institute on Jewish at Choate-Rosemary hall Cultural Landscape and the Jewish Women at Brandeis University and of Experience,” the jewel achievement of Facing History and Ourselves. a year-long initiative, Culture Without Borders, was sponsored by the Culture Undergraduate teaching and graduate 2000 Programme of the European Union; student mentoring remain a constant Jewish Museum, Berlin; Zidovske Muzeum source of cheer for Dwork. She thoroughly v Praze; Fondation du Judaisme Français; enjoyed revamping her two-semester Museum of the History of Polish Jews, sequenced course on the history of the and the Jewish Community of Stockholm Holocaust into a one-term, entry-level, in addition to the JCHF. “All credit for gateway course. “I could not have taught mounting this multi-national, multi-disci- this course earlier in my career. It is only plinary congress goes to Lizzie Scheja, now, having researched and pondered the former cultural attaché at the Israeli history of the Holocaust for nearly two Debórah Dwork (center) Embassy in Stockholm; now an independ- decades, that I am in a position to teach a with Dale Daniels (left), ent cultural affairs wizard. My job was 15-week course that presents three narra- executive director, and simply to advise.” Dwork took to the tive lines at once: the big picture, details Jane Denny, director of education, at the Center for lectern for several presentations and panel to support that broad conception, and Holocaust Studies, Brookdale discussions (see page 16). As she said, meaningful bridges to the world in which Community College, where “Stockholm is a gorgeous city. But in we live today,” she explained at the first Dwork spoke to an audience of more than 2,000. March? Only such a significant enterprise session. Evidently, it was worth the incu- could have pulled together such a dazzling bation: the students’ evaluations showed array of thinkers in March!” Dwork was that they appreciated it, too. Dwork served equally pleased to serve as an advisor to as advisor for first-year undergraduate Ann Kirchner and curator Jill Vexler on students, a history honors’ student, and a their “Letters to Sala” exhibition which first-year graduate student, and as disser-

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 24 FACULTY NOTES

tation director for seven doctoral candi- izing with Choate-Rosemary Hall. Happy dates. She took great pleasure in the intel- to have the opportunity to accede to a past lectual growth of the honors’ student and student’s request, Dwork accepted readily. doctoral candidates as reflected in their It was a daunting task: a lecture to a few written work. “Scholars never work out hundred students covering “The Long their thoughts precisely until they set History of Antisemitism” one day, and a themselves the discipline of the printed talk on “Choices and Decisions During page. I loved seeing their thoughts emerge the Holocaust” to over 1,000 the next. through cogent narratives grounded in As it transpired, this served as experience cutting-edge research. That’s the goal: for for a talk on “Rescue: One Person Can them to take this field in new directions.” Make a Difference” to some 2,400 middle and high school students, teachers, and An internationally recognized historian community members hosted by the Center of the Holocaust, Dwork spent quite a for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Com- bit of time abroad this year. She was the munity College. As in previous years, sole American participant in The New Dwork participated in education programs European Cultural Landscape and the held by the Museum of Jewish Heritage Jewish Experience congress and, as the for New York City school teachers as well Academic Advisor, she found herself in as for their gallery educators, and she meetings from Paris to Tel Aviv. On the served as a mainstay speaker in the subject of her own research, she was national education program run by the happy to have the opportunity to present Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. two talks with her co-author van Pelt at Concordia University in Montreal. And For Dwork, public service also means she was delighted that the publication serving as an expert for the press, to in May of the Czech translation of their provide an educated voice in the public co-authored book, Auschwitz, sparked inter- debate on Holocaust- and genocide-related views in every major newspaper, magazine, issues. This year, Dwork was pleased to and journal—as well as TV and radio work with journalists on a range of issues talks. Dwork and van Pelt had revised from the prison sentence meted out to their manuscript for the Czech translation, denier David Irving by the Austrian courts and had added a new chapter, which W.W. to the lawsuit brought in Massachusetts Norton, their American publishers, will in an effort to force the Department of include in the next edition. Dwork doubts Education to include Web sites that deny that the publication of a long-needed new the Armenian Genocide in its State edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica will Curriculum Guide. prompt that kind of popular response but, a faithful user of this central resource, Thomas Kühne, the Strassler Family Dwork was glad to have written the entry Chair in the Study of Holocaust History, on “Auschwitz” with van Pelt for the continued to enrich the intellectual life of venerable publication. the Center and the University during his second year at Clark. Kühne takes great Thomas Kühne This year, as always, Dwork reached out pleasure in his role as teacher and mentor beyond her classroom at Clark to teach for the Center’s undergraduate and gradu- students elsewhere, and to teach school ate students. He mentors graduate students teachers and Holocaust museum and Robin Krause, JulieAnne Mercier-Foint, memorial personnel. She was thrilled when and Stefanie Fischer. Ever generous with Adrien Uretsky ’02, a former undergradu- his time, Kühne served as advisor to Jody ate student now doing terrific work with Manning ’07, who was the first U.S. intern The Curriculum Initiative, invited her to at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and speak at a two-day program she was organ- State Museum in Poland, during summer

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2005 (see page 34), and Nick Reynolds ’06 contribute to the Clark community, Kühne on his honors thesis on the expulsion of presented the paper “Male Bonding and Germans from the Sudetenland in 1945. Mass Murder: German Soldiers and the Kühne also led a directed reading with Holocaust” at the University’s conference Reynolds, Fischer and Daniel Roberts “Rethinking Women and Gender: Women’s ’07—all this while also teaching and and Gender Studies at Clark University” pursuing his own research. on 16-17 September 2005.

Recognizing that a leading Ph.D. program Kühne takes seriously the Center’s public relies upon the resources of a first-rate service mission, seeking opportunities to library, Kühne gladly supervises the Rose work with other organizations to help Library. To this end, he collaborates with shape the field of Holocaust and genocide Diana Bartley—who has been filling the studies. The only scholar from the United Rose Library’s shelves with books urgently States and a specialist on the German needed by faculty and students—on the military’s involvement in the Holocaust, Center’s “wish list” of research materials. he served on the committee to evaluate A gracious ambassador for the Center, the influential Military History Institute at Kühne also participates unstintingly in its Potsdam, Germany. He explored opportu- scholarly planning work, from serving on nities for collaboration with the College of the Steering Committee to the Graduate the Holy Cross in Worcester (see page 16), Admissions Committee. Indeed, he con- and his workshop at Keene State College tributes to the University beyond his work in Keene, N.H., is likely to be the first of at the Center. He is on the Steering many collaborations with that institution as Committee for the new Difficult Dialogues well (see page 19). The local community program, administered through Clark’s tuned in for Kühne’s discussion of “Does Higgins School of Humanities, and the the Nazi ideal dominate body aesthetics?” Modern History Colloquium is his initia- as part of the “Worcester: Academically tive. Speaking” series on WTAG AM radio.

An internationally respected historian of Kühne published a seminal book this Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Kühne year, Kameradschaft: Die Soldaten des is a sought-after speaker. He participated nationalsozialistischen Krieges und das 20. in the panel discussion “Self-Discipline Jahrhundert (Comradeship: The Soldier and Survival: Servicemen’s Diaries and of the Nazi War and the 20th Century) to Subjectivity in China and Japan, 1937-45” critical acclaim in Germany. The Center at the 120th-annual meeting of the Ameri- community eagerly awaits the publication can Historical Association, held 5-8 of his next book, Belonging and Genocide: January 2006. Kühne organized a workshop A German Story, which is under contract on “Male Bonding and Mass Murder: The with Yale University Press. It will explore Germans and the Holocaust” at Keene the connection between community build- State College’s Cohen Center for Holocaust ing, national belonging, and the Holocaust. and Genocide Studies on 10 February Delving into earlier periods of German 2006. He also gave invited lectures on history, Kühne has submitted a book “Comradeship: Hitler’s Soldiers and the chapter, “From Electoral Campaigning to Morals of Mass Murder” at the College of the Politics of Togetherness: Localism and the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., on 2 Democracy in Imperial Germany,” to a March 2006, and “Togetherness and Mass volume on Localism in Imperial Germany, Murder: The Germans and the Holocaust” edited by David Blackbourn and James at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for Euro- Retallack. Kühne reviewed numerous pean Studies at Harvard University on books for a variety of journals and elec- 3 April 2006. Always mindful of ways to tronic media, including one by Isabell

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 26 FACULTY NOTES

Hull on the beginning of the Germany examines the diplomacy of Western powers tradition of genocidal warfare until 1918, toward the Ottoman Empire and the inter- Jürgen Matthäus et al. on the ideological nationalization of the Armenian Question, indoctrination of Holocaust perpetrators, followed by the events leading to the and two books on Jewish life in post- Armenian Genocide. In addition to his Holocaust Germany by Jay H. Geller and teaching responsibilities, Payaslian served by Y. Michal Bodeman. as an adviser to six first-year students and five history majors this year, and also Simon Payaslian, Kaloosdian/Mugar serves on a dissertation committee. The Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies and Center is fortunate to have Payaslian Modern Armenian History, took center maintain a watchful eye on its Web site stage this year with the publication of his and serve on the Graduate Admissions and book United States Policy Toward the Steering committees. An active member Armenian Genocide, which offers a new of the University community, Payaslian perspective and challenges conventional also serves as the faculty advisor for the views of U.S. policy since World War I. Truman Scholarship and the Armenian He examines how U.S. missionary, eco- Students Association. He most certainly nomic, and geopolitical interests blunted impressed prospective undergraduate the Wilson administration’s opposition to students as the host of the Holocaust and genocide. Wilson’s government, Payaslian Genocide Studies Program during Clark’s argues, was not seriously interested in the admitted students open house in April Simon Payaslian Armenian cause and merely utilized the 2006. Clark alumni were equally Armenian Question to pursue its domestic impressed with Payaslian’s lecture at an and international political and economic alumni event at the Museum of Tolerance objectives. The Center, Clark and local in Los Angeles in February 2006. communities celebrated this achievement with Payaslian at a lecture and book With his outstanding reputation as a launch on 20 April 2006 (see page 15). scholar of the Armenian Genocide, This event also commemorated the suc- Payaslian continues to represent the cessful completion of the Challenge to Center at organizations and institutions fund the Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair. throughout the country. He presented Payaslian offered a most fitting thank-you the paper, “The Legacy of the Armenian to the generous alumni and friends who Genocide,” at the sixth-biennial confer- contributed to the challenge with his fas- ence of the International Association of cinating lecture “Power, Politics, and the Genocide Scholars, held in Boca Raton, Armenian Genocide,” demonstrating to Fla., from 4-7 June 2005. On 15 October those gathered that evening the important 2005, he presented a paper, titled “The scholarship the chair supports. Church Bearing Witness to the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923,” at the University Payaslian spent the fall 2005 semester of Southern California, under the auspices on sabbatical, pursuing research for his of His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of new book project on Armenian history, the Great House of Cilicia. Payaslian which included a research foray in Erevan, delivered a lecture on “The Armenian Armenia. Payaslian returned for a busy Genocide and Reconciliation: Causes, spring 2006 semester, teaching courses on Consequences, and Lessons,” at West “European Roots,” “The British Empire,” Chester University in Pennsylvania on and “Western Powers and the Armenian 9 November 2005 and a lecture on “U.S. Genocide.” This last is a new course devel- Policy and the Armenian Genocide” at oped by Payaslian that surveys obstacles the University of Texas, Austin on 7 April to international responses to genocides 2006, where he also conducted a day-long within a comparative perspective, and seminar on the Armenian Genocide on

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES FACULTY NOTES 27

8 April 2006. Payaslian presented another Ethnic Relations Concentration, and the Armenian Genocide workshop at Yale Women’s Studies Program. University on 27 April 2006. This year, Tenenbaum taught the courses Payaslian is a true friend of the Armenian “Introduction to Sociology,” “Race and community, both locally and across the American Society,” “Genocide,” and country. He delivered a public lecture on “Women and Jewish Culture,” as well as “An Assessment of the Historiography on an internship seminar. She supervised U.S. Policy toward the Armenian Question” three undergraduate students and one at the National Association for Armenian graduate student in directed studies this Studies and Research in Belmont, Mass., year. If that weren’t proof enough of her on 9 March 2006, gave a public lecture dedication to undergraduate teaching and about U.S. policy toward the Armenian research, Tenenbaum served as a trusted Question and signed copies of his new adviser to 10 first-year students and 12 book at the Armenian Community Center sociology majors, and also sponsored a in Ridgefield, N.J., on 12 March 2006, panel of seven students for Academic and served as the keynote speaker at the Spree Day, Clark’s annual showcase of 24th commemoration event for the Armen- undergraduate scholarship and creative ian Genocide in Whitinsville, Mass., on endeavors. She helped to initiate the Clark 23 April 2006. chapter of Students Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND) and serves as its faculty A passionate advocate for education about adviser (see page 18). the Armenian Genocide, Payaslian is dedi- cated to keeping the Armenian Genocide Even with a plate overflowing with ad- and Armenian history and culture in the ministrative and teaching responsibilities, public eye. Payaslian appeared in local as well as her own research activities, media outlets such as the Worcester Tele- Tenenbaum finds time to share her knowl- gram & Gazette and on WICN radio in edge with the wider academic community. Worcester, and on WCCA TV Channel 13 She presented, with Lynn Davidman, in Worcester. He was also interviewed by “It’s in My Genes: Biological Discourse Horizon, an Armenian weekly newspaper and Essentialist Views of Identity Among in Montreal, and by Voice of Armenia, an Contemporary American Jews” at the Asso- Armenian/Russian newspaper based in ciation for Jewish Studies in December Erevan, Armenia, for forthcoming articles. 2005 and was a panelist for the discussion Payaslian also serves on the Advisory “The Place of Holocaust in Contemporary Board of the Genocide Education Project Sociological Narrative” at the Eastern (see page 18). Sociological Society in February 2006.

As director of the undergraduate Holocaust In addition, Tenenbaum was invited to and Genocide Studies Concentration and a update two encyclopedia articles that are member of the Center’s Steering Committee, to be reprinted in Jewish Women: A Shelly Tenenbaum plays an integral role Comprehensive Encyclopedia. Her article in the Center’s community and programs. “Who Rules America?” coauthored with An associate professor of sociology, Tenen- Clark sociology professor Robert Ross, baum exemplifies the interdisciplinary is forthcoming in the journal Teaching Shelly Tenenbaum strengths of the Center’s undergraduate Sociology. Ever generous to her profession, and graduate teaching and research. She Tenenbaum also serves as an Editorial not only teaches and advises students in Board member for the journal AJS Perspec- sociology and Holocaust and Genocide tives, and is a referee for the Journal for Studies, but also contributes to the Jewish the Social Scientific Study of Religion and Studies Concentration, the Race and Polity Press. ■ Judith Jaeger

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 28 GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

Graduate student news

Graduate students are the pulse of the (USHMM), where she will research the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust history of nurses at Auschwitz, and the and Genocide Studies. Ten young scholars Auschwitz postwar trials. Her plan: to add endowed the Center community with these chapters to her dissertation, The passion and intellect during the past year. Women of Birkenau, as she transforms her With their scholarship and energy, they thesis into her first book. are already beginning to make their mark in the fields of Holocaust and genocide After a year of research at archives in studies. New York, Warsaw, Lodz, and Washington, D.C., Claims Conference Fellow Rachel Three words describe the final program Iskov returned to Worcester in summer year for Sarah Cushman and Rachel 2005 to write her dissertation. Closer Iskov: writing, writing, writing. Both reading of her extensive collection of doc- anticipate the pride of accomplishment uments prompted Iskov to focus on the that will come with completing their Lodz ghetto, and shaped her dissertation doctoral theses. into the current Jewish Family Life in the Lodz Ghetto. This ambitious project covers In addition to writing her dissertation, the beginning of the war, family life and Center graduate students: which she expects to finish this fall, the public sphere, hunger and disease, (back row, from left) Spielberg Fellow Sarah Cushman had family life and the private sphere, the Lotta Stone, Jeff Koerber; two papers accepted for conferences in deportations, family life after the deporta- (middle row, from left) Naama Haviv, Robin Barry, September 2005. She traveled to Israel for tions, and the liquidation of the ghetto. Tiberiu Galis; (fron row, a conference on Women and the Holocaust: Like Cushman, she spent the past year from left) JulieAnne Gender Issues and the Holocaust, sponsored in the thick of writing. Mercier-Foint, Ilana Offenberger by Beit Berl College, Beit Terezin, and the Ghetto Fighters Museum. Her paper, Iskov gave several guest lectures in spring “Sexuality and Sexual Violence in 2006. In March, she spoke at the Valley Auschwitz-Birkenau,” was well-received. View School, a special-education private While there, she met with scholars Beate school for boys, in North Brookfield, Meyer, a warm friend of the Center; Anita Mass. She discussed Nazi propaganda Tarsi, a coordinator of the conference from and the Holocaust, as part of their Sunday Beit Terezin; and Batya Brutin of Beit Berl lecture program. Later in the month, Iskov College. From Israel, Cushman traveled lectured on “Jewish Life in Occupied to Aberdeen, Scotland to the Feminist Europe” in Professor Debórah Dwork’s and Women’s Studies Conference (UK and gateway course, “The Holocaust: Agency Ireland) Gender and Violence. She pre- in Action.” She also presented a paper on sented a paper on “Annihilatory Violence: “Notions of Family in the Lodz Ghetto,” Women’s Responses to the Dehumanizing at the Beyond Numbers, Beyond Names: Environment of Auschwitz.” The Experience of Holocaust Victims con- ference, organized by Youngstown State Cushman’s cutting-edge work was rewarded University, in Youngstown, Ohio. with a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship. She received the Charles H. Revson Foun- Iskov returned to the lectern at the end dation Fellowship for Archival Research of April, delivering two talks about family to support six months of research at the life in the Lodz ghetto for Yom ha-Shoah, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Remembrance Day. On 24 April,

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS 29

she spoke at Temple Sinai, a reform syna- Nama Genocide” in Great Events of the gogue in Worcester, which hosted this 20th Century, 1900-1940, by Salem Press. year’s commemorative event for the Jewish communities of Central Massachusetts. Claims Conference Fellow Ilana The next day, Iskov spoke at the University Offenberger’s research for her disser- of Massachusetts Medical School, as part tation, The Nazification of Vienna and of the Inclusion Program organized by the the Response of the Viennese Jews, took Diversity and Equal Opportunity Office. her to the Survivors of the Shoah Visual She was pleased to share her work with History Foundation in Los Angeles and these diverse audiences, and was gratified to the Archives of the Republic in by the positive responses she received. Vienna, Austria.

Iskov moved back to Toronto in May 2006. Presented with a list of some 1,200 She plans to interview local Lodz ghetto Viennese survivors who documented their survivors and finish writing her disserta- stories with the Shoah Foundation, tion over the summer months. She is aided Offenberger was committed to viewing as in her research by her personal library, many testimonies as possible. She consid- recently augmented thanks to a Gildin ered testimonies of Jews who fled from Yiddish Book Scholarship from the Nation- Nazi-occupied Vienna between 1938 and al Yiddish Book Center. 1941, and those who remained trapped in Vienna and were eventually deported to Robin Krause, Ilana Offenberger, and various concentration camps in the east. Lotta Stone traveled the world during their Due to the technologically advanced system G-4 year, conducting dissertation research. of the Shoah Foundation, Offenberger viewed more than 75 testimonies in a short MKS Fellow Robin Krause dove into her period of time and gained a wealth of dissertation research, beginning her inves- knowledge about her subject. tigations with a research trip to Washington, D.C., to view the Stenographische Berichte In Vienna, Offenberger continued to of the Reichstag, housed at the Library of research files from the former NS- Congress. She pored over documents from: Vermoegensverkehrstelle (NS-Assets Trans- The National Archive of Namibia, regard- fer Agency) held in the Archives of the ing soldiers and newsprint; and the Archive Austrian Republic. These files—financial of ELCRN, regarding missionaries. Krause records of wealthy Viennese Jews—pro- also conducted research at the Bundesar- vide insights into the plight of the Jews chiv Militaerarchiv in Freiburg, Germany, after the Anschluss. A central question of and at the Rheinish Missionar Archiv her dissertation is whether wealth enabled in Wuppertal, Germany. She is currently escape from German-occupied Vienna. continuing her study of missionaries by combing the Rheinish Missionary archive. While in Vienna, Offenberger investigated the financial files of some 30 families of As a result of her efforts, Krause was able Holocaust survivors. Some of the families to reach an important milestone this year. escaped together from Vienna; others Her goal was to begin writing her disserta- remained trapped there and were deported; tion, The German Legacy of Opposition to still others split up and managed to reunite Genocide, in June 2006—and she did. after the war.

In addition to pursuing an ambitious In April 2006, Offenberger began a nine- research agenda, Krause published a month fellowship at the USHMM in Wash- review of The Hand of Compassion for Fides ington D.C., in the Center for Advanced et Historia, and an essay, “The Herero/ Holocaust Studies, where she is now con-

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 30 GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

tinuing her research on this series of fami- project Voices and Views, preparing Holo- lies. She is thrilled to have special access caust education material for the secondary to a new collection of documents from the school curriculum. Developed by Dwork, Jewish Community of Vienna and the Voices and Views remains the cornerstone Central Archives for the History of the of the JFR’s educational programs. Jewish People in Jerusalem. This new set of primary documents, which will not be In their third year of studies, Tiberiu available to the public until next year, is Galis and Naama Haviv completed their the most extensive collection of material comprehensive field exams, conducted pertaining to Jewish life in Vienna during preliminary research for their dissertation the war. Offenberger expects this to be the prospectuses, and successfully defended most useful collection to date. their dissertation proposals.

For Claims Conference Fellow Lotta Sidney and Rosalie Rose Fellow Tiberiu Stone, this has been a year of adventure, Galis, who also was honored to receive an as she explored archives and libraries in Open Society Institute Soros Foundation South Africa, conducting research for Global Supplementary Grant, continued her dissertation Asylum: German Jewish his research on issues related to transi- Refugees in South Africa, 1933-1945. Her tional justice and democratization. He work centered in Jewish archives in Cape presented the preliminary results of his Town and Johannesburg. research at the March 2006 International Studies Association Annual Conference in In Cape Town, Stone worked closely with San Diego. Continuing a productive part- South African Jewish historian and profes- nership with Naama Haviv, he researched sor Milton Shain at the Kaplan Center for international responses to contemporary Jewish Studies, University of Cape Town. cases of genocide, with special focus on She was privileged to receive the Kaplan Sudan. In addition, he worked with Clark Center Research Fellowship to support psychology graduate student Caitlin her endeavors at the Kaplan Library and Mahoney to research issues related to the Archives. In addition, the Cape Town applicability of dialogical self theory to the Holocaust Museum extended a special conceptualization of sudden contact. Their opportunity to Stone to examine and cata- work paid off handsomely, with an article logue primary documents donated by accepted for publication in Culture and refugee survivors. Psychology, a leading journal of social psychology. In Johannesburg, Stone conducted research at the Rochlin Archives of the South Galis was surprised—and thrilled—to find African Jewish Board of Deputies. She that he relished co-teaching the “Cultural interviewed former refugees and served as and Social Psychology of Genocide” grad- a docent at the Board of Deputies and uate level course with Clark psychology Goethe Institute exhibit “Seeking Refuge: professor Jaan Valsiner during the fall German Jewish Immigration to Johannes- 2005 semester. He discovered the pleasure burg in the 1930s.” Stone was pleased to of teaching and working with colleagues earn her first international publication to develop new theories to explain the with her article “The Youngest Refugees” unfolding of genocidal events, as experi- in Jewish Affairs, the periodical of the enced by individuals, from a political- South African Jewish Board of Deputies. science and psychological perspective.

Upon returning to the United States Stone With the successful defense of his disser- served as a consultant to the Jewish Foun- tation proposal, Transitional Justice and dation for the Righteous (JFR) educational Transition to a New Regime: Making Sense

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS 31

of Uncertain Times, Galis embarked upon develop a set of curricula designed to an ambitious research program that will sensitively teach elementary, middle, and take him into his fourth year of the doctoral high school students about how the current program. Galis maintains his intellectual situation in Darfur fits into the broader, and professional ties with Europe during historical context of genocide and what his doctoral research. Currently, he is kind of response this should prompt from engaged in archival research in Romania the world. Coupled with the development and Hungary, and plans to investigate fur- of this curriculum will be an initiative to ther transitional justice policies in Serbia introduce legislation which would mandate and Germany. genocide education legislation in 49 states (following the mandate that the Illinois Tapper Fellow Naama Haviv, who was state legislature voted on in 2005). Haviv also supported by a Stern Family Foun- is proud to share her knowledge with these dation Doctoral Research Fellowship, dedicated students. finished a busy third year at the Center. In addition to teaming up with Galis on In their second year of study at the research into international responses to Center, Jeffrey Koerber and JulieAnne current genocides, Haviv continued to Mercier-Foint continued to hone their refine the topic of her doctoral thesis. skills as researchers and teachers. Under the supervision of Proventus Dis- tinguished Visiting Scholar Barbara Harff, Claims Conference Fellow Jeffrey she successfully presented her prospectus, Koerber spent the summer between his Preconditions of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ through first and second years of study by con- ‘Population Transfer’: The Case of Israel/ ducting preliminary research in Belarus Palestine. She also passed her comprehen- and beginning Yiddish language studies sive exams in May. at the Uriel Weinreich Program of the YIVO Institute in New York City. Koerber’s In the spring semester, Haviv enjoyed the second year of graduate course work aug- opportunity to co-teach the undergraduate mented his first year studies and prepared Tiberui Galis (left), course “Sociology of Genocide” with Pro- him for research on his dissertation. In the Clark sociology professor Eric Gordy, and Naama fessor Shelly Tenenbaum, director of Clark’s fall semester, he enjoyed courses taught by Haviv at Galis’s successful undergraduate Holocaust and Genocide Proventus Distinguished Visiting Professor prospectus defense Studies Concentration. Also behind the Barbara Harff and the Center’s professors lectern, she was pleased to accept the invi- Debórah Dwork, Marion Pritchard, and tation to serve as the keynote speaker for Thomas Kühne. Hillel MIT’s Genocide Awareness Month. He ventured further afield in the spring Haviv was honored to be selected as an semester, both intellectually and geograph- intern to Dr. Helen Fein, executive director ically, with a course on the history of the of the Institute for the Study of Genocide Soviet Union at the College of the Holy (ISG). As part of the internship, she trav- Cross in Worcester with Princeton Univer- eled to Galway, Ireland to represent the sity-trained historian Cynthia Hooper, ISG newsletter at the conference The and a directed reading course on Eastern Milosevic Trial: The Verdict. European Jewish historical writings with Samuel Kassow at Trinity College in Strengthening Clark’s connection with the Hartford, Conn. Koerber also studied the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net) development of organized crime and state while working to educate others about corruption with Clark sociology professor genocide, Haviv was asked to assist stu- Eric Gordy. dents in GI-Net’s Students Taking Action Now Darfur chapters with their efforts to

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Koerber continued his studies of Yiddish and “Genocide Since 1945” with Harff. with language and directed-reading courses with Ellen Kellman at Brandeis and passed In March, Mercier-Foint participated in the Yiddish reading competency examina- the symposium What Can You Do To Stop tion during the spring semester. Koerber Genocide? Cosponsored by Clark Hillel served as teaching assistant for Kühne’s and the Strassler Center, the symposium course “Central Europe in the Long Nine- addressed the genocide in Darfur, and teenth Century” and Dwork’s “The Holo- explored ways in which Clark students caust: Agency and Action.” During the could help stop the genocide. Mercier- summer, he begins study of the Russian Foint presented a paper, “The Rape of language at Indiana University and will Women and Girls in Darfur: Gender- once again travel to Belarus for dissertation Selective Warfare.” research. In the spring 2006 semester, Mercier-Foint Koerber’s developing dissertation topic had the pleasure of working with Helen focuses on the experience of Jews in the Fein, executive director for the Institute Vilna District—now part of western Belarus for the Study of Genocide. She researched but formerly the eastern edge of the inter- and wrote two articles: “Challenge on How war Polish Republic and the heart of the the Armenian Genocide is Taught in Mass- “Pale of Settlement”—from the mid-1930s achusetts Public Schools,” published in through the end of the Holocaust. He the Institute’s spring 2006 newsletter, and seeks to examine the Jewish communities “Living with the ‘After-Life’ of Genocidal of the shtetlach of this largely rural locale Rape in Rwanda,” which will be published as they faced interethnic conflict from in the Institute’s fall 2006 newsletter. the neighboring Belorussians, Poles, and Lithuanians and repression and genocide In addition, Mercier-Foint finalized her from external hegemonic powers. Within oral comprehensive examination committee a little more than a decade, Jews of this this past semester. The committee consists area experienced economic crisis under of professors Thomas Kühne, Eric Polish rule, repression during Soviet occu- Markusen, and Robert Melson. Kühne is pation and annexation, the Holocaust in her advisor for her individual field, which the immediate wake of the German inva- concerns gender, rape, war, and genocide. sion of the Soviet Union, struggles for Markusen is her advisor for the genocide survival during the German occupation, studies field, which deals with an overview/ and renewed suppression after liberation theory of genocide, international law and by the Red Army. Koeber is pleased to post-genocide transition, genocide preven- be working with Dwork, his academic tion, and case studies. Melson is Mercier- advisor, on this project. Foint’s advisor for her history field, which concerns the history of four cases: Armenia In her second year at the Center, Fromson (Ottoman Empire), Rwanda (Great Lakes Fellow and Stern Family Foundation Region), Bosnia-Herzegovina (former Doctoral Research Fellow JulieAnne D. Yugoslavia/the Balkans), and the Holocaust Mercier-Foint expanded her intellectual (central and east Europe). Mercier-Foint horizon with courses on “Gender, Politics, also prepared her reading lists for each and Development in Africa” with Clark field of her oral examinations. government professor Beverly Grier, “The Western Powers and the Armenian This summer, Mercier-Foint plans to take Genocide” with Payaslian, “Holocaust the proficiency exam in German, begin Perpetrators” and “Racial Thought/Body reading for her comprehensive exams, and Politics” with Kühne, “Cultural and Social devote herself to dissertation research. Psychology of Genocides” with Valsiner,

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS 33

Ralph and Shirley Rose Fellow Stefanie Center from Romania, where he is a Fischer completed a successful first year research assistant at the Elie Wiesel of graduate studies at the Center. National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust. He earned a bachelor’s degree Laying the foundation for her research in law from the University of Bucharest, endeavors, Fischer took courses with Romania, and a master’s degree in history, Dwork, Harff, Kühne, Payaslian and Hebrew and Jewish studies at Central Valsiner. She focused her studies on com- European University of Budapest, parative genocide, Jewish life in Germany, Hungary. At the Elie Wiesel National and gender studies. During the winter Institute, Ionescu’s research covers Jewish break, Fischer dove into research for her history, Holocaust and genocide studies, dissertation on Jews in Middle Franconia. cultural studies with a focus on history and She studied materials at the National memoir, and survivors’ autobiographical Archives in Nuremburg, Germany, the narratives. Most recently, he participated

YIVO Archives, and the Archive of the in several international conferences and Stefanie Fischer (left) with Leo Baeck Institute in New York City. authored a series of articles on Jewish his- Dr. Tatyana Macaulay tory and Holocaust studies. These include: Fischer also began contributing to the “The Exemplary Camp as a Propaganda broader academic community, presenting a Model for the Totalitarian State: Soviet paper on the American response to the St. Solovki and Nazi Theresienstadt” in Louis at a conference on genocide studies Pontes. Revue des Etudes Sud Est Euro- at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. peennes; “The Preservation of Memory After a summer of Yiddish language study During the Holocaust and the Emergence and additional archival research, Fischer of Survivors’ Voices in its Aftermath: looks forward to her second year at the 1941-1947” also in Pontes; and “Memory Center. and Trauma: The Iassy Pogrom Reflected in Survivors’ Memoirs,” forthcoming in New Graduate Students The June 28-30, 1941 Iassy Pogrom: The This fall, the Center is pleased to welcome Prologue of the Holocaust in Romania. two new students to the doctoral program, ■ Judith Jaeger Adara Goldberg and Stefan Cristian Ionescu. continued from page 5 Adara Goldberg completed her Honours Center in the Mail 2006–2007 Bachelor of Social Work at the York Uni- “I am deeply impressed by the Center’s versity in Ontario, Canada. With a diverse activities, its growth and development under history of volunteering in various Holo- your energetic direction.” caust-related institutions in and around Frank Bajohr, Research Centre for Contemporary Toronto and in Europe, she brings to the History, Hamburg, Germany, to Center Director Center a liberal-humanist postmodern Debórah Dwork perspective which she hopes to apply “Just a quick note—fan mail really—about in her graduate research. Goldberg is pas- the introduction of Mulisch’s De Zaak 40/61 sionate about Holocaust education and in its American manifestation. I thought the plans to pursue a career in that field after preface was excellent and should add that my completing her studies at the Center. She Dutch copy hangs by its threads...” seeks to investigate the female experience G. Jan Colijn, Dean of General Studies, The of the Holocaust through an examination Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, to of the exploitation of women as both sexual Dwork regarding the publication of the English translation of Harry Mulisch’s Criminal Case beings and Jews. 40/61, for which she wrote the foreword

Stefan Cristian Ionescu comes to the continued on page 37

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 34 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

Undergraduate Student News

Clark’s undergraduate concentration in included proofreading the permanent “The personal, emotional, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (HGS) exhibition and texts at the museum and and academic knowledge combines innovative courses across many assisting with a variety of post-graduate that I gained and disciplines with extraordinary internship conferences, lectures, and seminars. experienced in that small town of Oswiecim has and study-abroad opportunities. HGS stu- During the internship Manning conducted been the most profound dents are encouraged to take their learning archival research and wrote two papers, of my study.” into their own hands, to begin using their “Nazi Racial Hygiene and the Auschwitz skills and knowledge to contribute to our Waffen-SS Hygiene Institute” and “The —Jody Manning ’07, understanding of the Holocaust and geno- History and Structure of the Auschwitz- the first U.S. intern at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State cide, and to begin making a difference in Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim.” Museum in Oswiecim the world through research and public service. The following HGS students made After a talk by Mark Hanis, a cofounder their mark this year. of the Genocide Intervention Network (GI- Net), Sarah Milardo ’08 and Georgiana Jody Manning ’07 spent summer 2005 Mora ’08 decided to take action against working as the first U.S. intern at the the genocide in Darfur, by starting a Clark Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State chapter of GI-Net’s Students Taking Action Museum in Poland. Manning was back at Now Darfur (STAND). They enlisted the the museum this summer, with the support help of Amanda Graizel ’06 and, even with of the Gordon Charitable Foundation. He a late start in the year, the strong group aims to conduct a multi-generational study they rallied accomplished much before the of the townspeople of Auschwitz, assessing end of the academic year. the effects of postwar memory on their Jodi Manning ’07 lives. He was at the museum during a visit Among their activities this spring, Clark’s by Oprah Winfrey and Elie Wiesel in STAND chapter threw a letter writing spring 2006 and helped coordinate a visit party, writing to President George Bush by Pope Benedict XVI. and to congressmen urging them to take stronger action in Darfur; held a day of After attending college, Manning became a fasting and fundraising on 7 April 2006, in successful businessman and restauranteur. remembrance of the victims of the geno- During a trip to Europe, he visited the sites cide in Rwanda and in solidarity with the of six former Nazi concentration camps. victims in Darfur. Also in April, students After a talk by Mark Hanis, a cofounder of the Genocide The visit prompted him to approach sever- in STAND and Clark Hillel drove to Intervention Network al museums seeking a position. He was Washington, D.C. to participate in the (GI-Net), Sarah Milardo ’08 advised to return to school. Inquiries at 30 April rally on the National Mall and and Georgiana Mora ’08 the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum lobbying workshops. decided to take action led him to Clark’s Center for Holocaust against the genocide in and Genocide Studies. More activism is planned for the coming Darfur, Sudan, by starting a Clark chapter of GI-Net’s academic year, including: A Darfur Students Taking Action Now In 2004, Manning enrolled as a European awareness week, a fundraising concert, Darfur (STAND). history major. He participated in Clark’s candle-light vigil, photo exhibition, and Prague-Terezín program in 2005, and an educational night with Clark’s chapter remained in Poland: he was accepted for of Amnesty International featuring lost a prestigious and challenging summer boys from Sudan sharing their experiences. internship at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State ■ Judith Jaeger Museum in Oswiecim. His many tasks

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES ALUMNI NEWS 35

To Change the World, To Make a Difference Life After the Center

Graduates of the Center’s doctoral programs In addition to her work as a contributing in Holocaust history and comparative geno- writer to Encyclopedia Judaica, Cohen pub- cide take seriously their responsibility to lished “Helping Hands? The Resettlement contribute to their fields of study and to of Holocaust Survivors in America, 1946- educate others about the Holocaust and 1954” in a volume titled Beyond Camps genocide. They undertake this work joy- and Forced Labour: Current International fully, knowing that their contribution may Research Survivors of Nazi Persecution. help to prevent future atrocities. The The Center community is especially proud Center is proud to report on the activities of the forthcoming publication of Cohen’s Honored to receive a of its alumni this year. book Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in Fulbright fellowship to America, 1946-1954, which she developed follow the Hungarian The past year brimmed with teaching and from her doctoral dissertation. Ministry of Education research for Beth Cohen Ph.D. ’03. She Award, Christine van der taught the course “Religious Responses to Christine van der Zanden Ph.D. ’03 Zanden Ph.D. ’03 (former Sidney and Rosalie Rose the Holocaust” at North California State is a postdoctoral fellow at Corvinus Fellow) is engaged in University, Northridge during the fall 2005 University of Budapest’s Interdisciplinary expanding the scope of her semester, and was a lecturer at Chapman School of International Relations. Her dissertation as she trans- University in Orange, Calif., during the fellowship is sponsored by the Hungarian forms it into her first book. spring 2006 semester, teaching “Gender Ministry of Education. In Budapest, van and the Holocaust” and “Modern European der Zanden has continued writing and Women’s History.” In spring 2006, Cohen research for the United States Holocaust served as historical consultant to the Jewish Memorial Museum (USHMM), where she Foundation for the Righteous in New York. had worked on the forthcoming Encyclo- pedia of Camps, Ghettos, and Detention Cohen delivered several guest lectures Centers in Nazi-Dominated Europe. Since this year. She participated in a roundtable her fellowship in Budapest began in discussion about displaced persons at the October 2005, she has added more than

Association of Jewish Studies Annual Con- 50 entries about subcamps administered The past year brimmed ference in December 2005. And she pre- by Buchenwald. During her fellowship in with teaching and research sented the paper, “Youth in the Aftermath Budapest, van der Zanden also assisted for Beth Cohen Ph.D. ’03. of the Holocaust,” at the Beyond Camps with editing the English-language script and Forced Labour: Current International of the first permanent national exhibition Research of Survivors of Nazi Persecution in Hungary on the Holocaust, which Conference in London in January 2006. was launched at the Budapest Holocaust March found her at the Western Jewish Memorial Center in spring 2006. Studies Association, where she presented a paper on “Current Research on Holo- In addition to these writing projects, Van caust Survivors in America, 1946-1954.” der Zanden’s review of Harnessing the In addition, Cohen presented “German Holocaust, by Joan Wolf, was published Jewry on the Eve of the Holocaust” for in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. the Kristallnacht Commemoration, in con- 19/2. A review of several works on Ravens- junction with the opening of the “Lawyers bruck, Auschwitz, and other camps is without Rights” exhibition at the Museum forthcoming on H-German. of Tolerance on 9 November 2006. This event was cosponsored with the Beverly Hills Bar Association.

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 36 ALUMNI NEWS

Ever expanding the scope of her work as a Holocaust scholar, van der Zanden continued from page 33 completed a museum studies certificate Center in the Mail 2006–2007 at George Washington University in May “Thank you very much for coming to Austin 2006. Honored to receive a Fulbright and giving the very successful lecture and the Fellowship to follow the Hungarian Min- seminar! Your charisma and interest in the istry of Education Award, she has also subject excited our youth very much. The next continued work on her dissertation topic— day at the church many parents approached The Plateau of Hospitality, about the us and thanked us for organizing this event, lives of Jews who found protection during they told us that this was one of the few the war in or near the French town of Le Armenian events where their kids were grate- ful and happy for the participation. Because Chambon-sur-Lignon—broadening it to of Dr. Payaslian they learned a very impor- include an examination of community and tant part of the Armenian history...” individual rescue efforts under collabora- Khachik Papanyan of the Armenian Cultural tion in Hungary. Van der Zanden was Association, University of Texas-Austin, to thrilled to learn that she also received a Simon Payaslian regarding Payaslian’s lecture competitive grant from the Gábor Várszegi and seminar at the University of Texas, Austin Endowment/J. and O. Winter Fund, admin- “Your workshop opened up new ideas and istered through the City University of possibilities and has been warmly received.” New York Graduate School and University Tom White, Executive Director, Cohen Center Center to support this research. for Holocaust Studies, Keene State College, to Thomas Kühne regarding a workshop Kühne Beth Lilach (ABD) takes seriously her taught there responsibility to teach others about the “Thank you for the exceptional keynote Holocaust and has been actively involved address you presented at our Annual teaching students at all levels since leaving Colloquium. It seemed as if every one of the Center. Over the past year, she has also the over 2,000 middle and high school provided professional development and students present was fully engaged in your training to teachers in Boca Raton, Fla. presentation. They hung on every word of She will continue this work in the fall, your story. [Marion Pritchard’s] spirit and teaching a workshop on the history of the message was there. You truly paid tribute Holocaust to teachers in Florida’s St. Lucie to her, serving as her ‘memory.’” Beth Lilach (ABD) takes School District. Dale Daniels, executive director of the Center seriously her responsibility for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Community to teach others about the College, regarding Dwork’s presentation (see Holocaust. Lilach also carries out the Center’s public page 24) service mission, lecturing the general pub- lic, teachers, and scholars on a wide range “Excellent workshop! The presentation was of topics. Among her speaking engagements fascinating, the readings were relevant to today as well as to 60-plus years ago, and this year, Lilach was pleased to be invited I was happy to be here.” to present a paper on “Idiots, Imbeciles, Keen State College workshop participant, to and the Loathsome Diseased: The Hidden Thomas Kühne History of ‘Hard Core’ Displaced Person” at the 2006 Imperial War Museum confer- “Your lecture to teachers at our conference, ence on Beyond Camps and Forced Labour: ‘Life in the Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust,’ guided listeners through in Current International Research on Survivors a way that makes our learning engaging of Nazi Persecution. She is thrilled to have and inevitable. I also appreciated that you been invited to teach at the Weinbaum discussed some of the harder, painful aspects that many would avoid.” Yeshiva High School in Boca Raton, Fla. for the 2006-07 academic year. She will Elizabeth Edelstein, director of education, teach courses in Modern European history, Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial world history, and U.S. history. ■ to the Holocaust, to Dwork

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 37

Growth and Development

Debórah Dwork has built a world-renowned The investment of new financial resources program in the decade since she came to will help grow our Center and ensure its Clark as the Rose Professor of Holocaust future as the preeminent leader in the still History. Her success owes much to the maturing field of Holocaust and Genocide financial support of friends and donors who Studies. We aim to reach a full complement believed in the vision she laid out so pas- of 20 graduate students mentored by a roster sionately. Her original academic blueprint of five core faculty members. The growth for Holocaust Studies has been realized and of the program and its impact on academia yet, as director of a now flourishing Center, and the world beyond will be enhanced Dwork continues to expand what can be immeasurably with the addition of an accomplished by students, faculty, and friends endowed professorship in Comparative who share a commitment to understanding Genocide, and an endowed professorship in mass murder. Tragically, news from trouble Jewish Life and Culture in Eastern and spots around the globe reinforce this need. Central Europe. These faculty will expand the field exponentially, now and in the future. As we move forward, we look to you to help actualize plans for new areas of scholarly We extend thanks to all who contributed innovation. Indeed, the generosity of friends gifts in the past year, and invite everyone to and supporters can be truly transformative, participate in the next decade of growth. as we have been fortunate enough to witness ■ Mary Jane Rein, Executive Director repeatedly throughout the past 10 years.

The following list includes outright gifts, pledges, and pledge payments made between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006.

Platinum Benefactors Patrons ($100,000 or more) ($10,000 to $24,999) Hanne and Howard Kulin Marianne and Robert ’52 Kaloosdian David and Lorna Strassler Richard M. Lilly Robin and Charles B. Moss, Jr. Family Golden Benefactors Charitable Trust ($50,000 to $99,999) Marlene and David A. Persky Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Ralph and Shirley Rose Charitable Fund Germany Shirley M.A. ’70 and Robert Siff Crown Family Foundation Ann Stamas Howard Fromson Margaret and Asbed B. Zakarian Cathy Cohen Lasry ’83 and Marc Lasry ’81 Albert M. Tapper Sponsors ($5,000 to $9,999) Benefactors Barbara and Steven Grossman ($25,000 to $49,999) Edwin Jaffe Anonymous Barbara and Nathan Greenberg Diana Bartley The George and Anna Krikorian Family Fund at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation Leslie and Glenn G. ’71 Parish Robert Weil

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 38 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Friends Amy ’72 and Robert ’59 Messing Elizabeth Frem ($1,000 to $4,999) Howard Naslund Joan and Barry Gerhardt Dorothy and Herbert Carver Mary and Stephen B. ’68 Novak John E. Gilcrease Pamela Davis and Randy DiTata Jacob C. Nyman ’01 Emily D. Ginsburg ’95 Judy and Richard Feldstein Dean Paleologis Neil Gisherman Laura and Wayne B. Glazier Eudese and Elmer I. Paull Albert Glassman E. Robert Goodkind Heidi Pogharian ’87 Catherine A. and Barry J. Glick The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Sandra and David M. ’84 Roth Elaine R. Goldman Foundation Ernest Rubenstein Miriam Goldman William F. Hausrath ’53 Robert Sadoff Carolyn and Samuel ’37 Gordon Jane and Robert Katz Robin F. and David M. ’72 Schneiderman Nancy J. Graver ’72 Thomas L. Kelly Vivian and Morton H. ’51* Sigel Idelle and Harvey Greenberg John S. Kennard Susan and Daniel Siegel Marilyn and Howard Greenberg Nancy Kolligian Stanlee Stahl Sherman Greenberg Patricia and Murray Liebowitz Lois and Herman O. ’55 Stekler Vivian Grozen * Pamela Phillips ’74 Mary D. Tateosian Marcia and Gilbert Hammer Linda Savitsky ’70 Hannah Waldman Carol Harootian Abbie Strassler Susan Weingast S. and Ralph V. Hovanesian Elizabeth Tromovitch ’56 Donald Wolff Jane F. Huffman Betty and Alfred R. Jaffe Supporters Contributors Diana J. Johnson ($500 to $999) (up to $100) Lorraine and Robert B. Kahan Charlotte Calfaian ’70 Jaffe, Yaffe, and Feingold, P.C. Susan and Robert H. Kalish Elaine ’63 and David Feingold Judith and Anthony E. ’59 Aaronson Ruth Kaprelian Beatrice Fischer Mary and Van M. Aroian Miriam and Stanley Karlin Ovsanna ’58 and R. Mihran ’58 Ivan A. Backer Lisa and Robert E. Katz Mooradian Frieda and Cary H. Baer Marcia and Edward S. Kersch Judith Stern Peck Elizabeth and Joel H. Baker Jeanne Kissane Celia Schulhoff ’54 Herbert Bard Carl S. Klorman ’71 Erika Tobak Louis I. Bell Miriam and Herbert Korman Mark Tobak Annette Berkowitz Sylvia Kornblatt Suzanne Tobak Toby and Philip Berman David Korros Percy Black Rhona and Elliott Lehem Donors Diane and Theodore A. ’60 Bohigian, Jr. Nancy and Sidney Lejfer ($100 to $499) Myron Boluch Arthur Leon Joseph Bafaro Norman Bress Herman Lesser Ben H. Bagdikian ’41 Edwin Bronsky Joyce Eisenberg ’72 and Mark L. ’72 Bert Ballin Brookdale Community College, Levenson Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Borer Center for Holocaust Studies Murray J. Lewis Maryann and Michael D. Brockelman John Francis Burke Bernard Loev Fay and Julian Bussgang Matthew J. Carr Esther London Ethel and Harry Chaifetz Sara Caspi Harriet and Stephen Lowe Herbert S. Cremer ’61 Betty Charnam Sylvia Lubowitz Rose Dagirmanjian ’52 Elaine Cinelli Ada and Stuart Mandell Catherine and Joseph S. Dorison Mary Cinelli Karen Mann and Lee Perrin Wilbur Fried Nancy F. and Eliot M. Cohen Roberta and Ronald Margolis Nancy E. Sheftel-Gomes ’67 Bonnie and Alan Cooper Gail and Paul ’66 Martin Lois Green Cynthia Crowley Mildred Mayer Emily Mindel and William ’92 Gottlieb Ruth and H.A. David Melvin Merken Joanne Harper Barbara and Paul Davis Lillian K. Meyers Richard D. Hofstetter ’74 Deborah M. De Marco and Joel M. Gore Alan Miller Donna M. ’85 and George J. ’74 Isaac Nellie Diamond Barbara Paley and Arthur J. Miller Frances ’66 and M Howard Jacobson John Dirlam Alisa ’61 and Avrom Mintz Leslie and Brian Kaplowitz Marlene S. Dorison Katharine G. More Bruno J. Keith Elizabeth T. Edelglass Kathleen K. and Peter Naylor Grace and Gerald ’74 Kheboian Lois and Bernard Edinberg Francine and Steven Neiberg Robert George Kinosian ’68 Alice Eisenberg Laurence Orbach Arnold G. Konheim ’63 Marvin Engle Helene Z. ’74 and John J. Ostrow Phyllis ’50 and Harry Manko Roberta J. and William L. Firestone Susan and James Patrick Judith A. ’53 and Eugene Mann Ceril H. Fish Lois M. Price ’71

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 39

The first 10 years of the Rose family legacy David J. Prosnitz ’70 This year marks a milestone for Clark and the Mark Raphael ’74 Strassler Center: the 10th anniversary of the estab- Susan D. Ralston lishment of the Rose Chair, filled with passion and Arthur K. Robbins intelligence by founding Director Debórah Dwork. Judith Duker and Kenneth F. Rosenberg Brothers Sidney and Ralph Rose and their wives Martha and Melvin M. ’53 Rosenblatt Rosalie and Shirley endowed the Rose Professor- Ian Rosenbluth ’01 Alfred H. Roswig ship in Holocaust History and Modern Jewish Mona and Sidney Roth History in memory of their family who perished in Rita Roth Poland during the Holocaust. Ruth R. and Allen Rubin The Roses’ visionary gift was shaped by critically Jane Rudnick important questions. Who will be tomorrow’s Marcia Sadick ’51 Holocaust scholars, teachers, professors, librarians, Marc Schloss curators, and museum directors? Who will give Regina J. Schultz Joshua L. Segal meaning to the memorials and monuments? How Adele and Murray Seletsky will we interpret new revelations about the Holo- Aaron Shapiro caust? How will we inform public policy discus- Suzanne J. Shapiro sions on genocide-related issues? And, when the Jerome Sheitelman last living witnesses are gone, who will build the Judith R. and Allan N. Shriber historical foundation of proof against those who Robert A. Sigel would trivialize the Holocaust or claim it never Deborah and Jonathan Sloane Selden Smith happened? Bernard Solomon The Roses recognized the need to foster Holo- Faith E. and Kurt H. ’53 Stern caust scholarship, and their decision to establish Shirley and Bertrand Stolzer a chair for Holocaust history was a landmark in Deborah L. ’91 and Paul Studer higher education. The Rose Professorship was the Maryann and Robert C. Sudmyer first of its kind and has served a crucial role in Susan A. Summit institutionalizing the field of Holocaust history in Steven Tankanow Lilly Tempelsman academia. Assuring Holocaust history a permanent Gerald Teran ’47 place in the Clark curriculum happily provided a Elissa and Aaron Tessler model for other institutions to follow. Hattie Ulan and Mark R. Milner The Roses also saw the need to train future Lynne B. and Stephen M. Walach scholars and to house the books upon which schol- Phyllis G. and Arthur L. Waldman ars ground their research. The Sidney and Rosalie Ludovica Weisberger Rose Doctoral Fellowship and the Rose Library Harold Weissman Edith Wertheimer soon followed. Carol Witkin The Rose family remains deeply engaged, won- Julius Wolk derful supporters of the Center, which has grown Glenda Wolpert and flourished as a direct result of their gifts. This Carolyn L. Woods year, the Center community was delighted to wel- Audrey and Herbert Wyman come the next generation of Roses to this important Judith Yoffie Kathy G. Zaltas endeavor. The children of Ralph and Shirley— George Zeller ’70 Diane Cartagenova, Linda Robbins, David Rose, Billy Rose, and Lisa Schreckinger—have chosen to maintain the family interest by providing a * denotes deceased fellowship in memory of their parents. Stefanie Fischer, the first Ralph and Shirley Rose Fellow, joins Tiberiu Galis, the second Sidney and Rosalie Rose Fellow. The Center is fortunate to have friends such as the Rose family, who recognize that the commit- ment to doctoral study ensures that Holocaust history remains a dynamic discipline, energized by new research. ■ Mary Jane Rein

STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES