GRATZ COLLEGE Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights
“Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it.
We must protect it by changing the world.” – ELIE WIESEL THE CENTER FOR
Holocaust Studies and Human Rights
President’s Messag
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The Center for Holocaust and Human Rights represents Gratz College's most profound contribution to Jewish wisdom. The goals of the Center match the multiple ways according to Pew Research Center, that Jews in the United States and elsewhere make meaning of their faith and community: remembering the Holocaust; leading ethical lives, working for justice; and making meaning of their intellectual curiosities. The Center’s myriad programs accomplish this and creatively broaden these core goals beyond the Jewish context and the Jewish community. The Center is home to the world's most robust graduate program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Its reach, as a fully online program, is peerless. Its MA and PhD students are field leaders, situated in museums, Jewish schools, government agencies and public schools in states with mandatory Holocaust education. These students are part of a vision that includes the biannual Arnold and Esther Tuzman Memorial Teach-In and other public events that anchor research in shared learning and experiences. All this complements the Center’s Human Rights and Interfaith programs. The Center will also be the cornerstone for new initiatives to educate on the complexities of American Antisemitism.”The Center’s offerings are taught by leading figures who place Jewish history and Jewish wisdom in conversation with the lessons of other sensitive and sometimes severe touchpoints of human history. Gratz’s Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights, then, is one of our community’s greatest investments of applied Jewish wisdom for the twenty-first century. And its reach and impact goes even further than that. — DR. ZEV ELEFF, President
Message from the Director
In the world today, the need is especially great for teachers, leaders, and scholars who are prepared with the knowledge and skill to confront the universal human problems of hatred, bigotry, religious intol- erance, inequality, and violence. The Center address- es these problems through its graduate programs
and community programs. The Center brings together faculty and students across Gratz’s doctoral, master’s, and graduate certificate programs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Interfaith Leadership, and Human Rights. Through its interdisciplinary courses and public programs, the Center promotes learning and critical discourse from a variety of perspectives across three Gratz courses of study. — DR. RUTH SANDBERG, Director
The Center brings together faculty and students across Gratz’s doctoral, master’s, and graduate certificate programs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Interfaith Leadership, and Human Rights.
HOLOCAUST + GENOCIDE STUDIES
INTERFAITH LEADERSHIP
HUMAN RIGHTS
Distinguished Faculty
Gratz College has an outstanding faculty with expertise in the history of the Holocaust and Holocaust education, as well as a group of instructors specifically chosen for their research on the other modern genocides. Our professors hail from many parts of the world and have published extensively in their fields.
“…To compare is not to equate. Rather, the goal is to analogize, draw parallels, build bridges, and practice empathy.” – DR. JEFF BENVENUTO Dr. Benvenuto teaches courses on Unveiling the Underpinnings of Genocide, The Native American Genocides, Genocide in the Modern World, and Genocide Prevention.
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Antisemitism and Human Rights
Gratz engages learners across the continuum— from graduate students, continuing adult education students, and our Gratz Academy program teens — in challenging content led by outstanding scholars.
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LEARNING WITH COMMUNITY Gratz President Zev Eleff began his teaching at Gratz College with an eight- part community education series on the history of Antisemitism. Students hailing from Toronto, Florida, Philadelphia, and Texas traveled in time with him to Blois, Barcelona, Kishinev, Berlin, and Paducah to investigate the nuances and changes in anti-Jewish violence over the ages.
LEARNING WITH TEENS Gratz Academy provides a variety of courses for teens, including one taught by Gratz alumna, Dr. Samantha Vinokur-Meinrath: “Antisemitism and the Modern Jewish Experience.” This course combines history, contemporary issues, and self-discovery, using antisemitism as a lens for exploring Jewish choices, questions of self esteem, and personal practices.
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In an NPR interview, Gratz President Zev Eleff discusses the need for more study on American Antisemitism and the role Gratz can play in producing a digital repository to advance scholarship and teaching on indig- inous Antisemitism, and how that work can deepen our understanding on all types of hate and violence. LISTEN NOW
LEARNING WITH GRADUATE STUDENTS As Gratz’s inaugural Isaacman Distinguished Visiting Professor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Honourable Irwin Cotler brings his experience combatting genocides around the world to Gratz’s students through seminars and lectures. Cotler is Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism.
Dara Horn’s conversation with President Eleff about her new book, People Love Dead Jews, drew over 1,000 for an event co-sponsored with Drexel University as part of Gratz’s One Book/One Jewish Community program. LEARN MORE
In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed, President Eleff calls for a deeper understanding of American anti-Semitism in the wake of the January 15 terrorist attack in Colleyville, TX. READ NOW
Read more about Gratz’s graduate- level courses on Antisemitism.
The Barbara and Fred Kort Holocaust Geniza Pro
> The Gratz Holocaust Oral History Archive is of Holocaust testimony in the United State Levin, the Archive documents a wide range Jewish life in pre-Nazi Europe. Holdings inc rescuers, liberators, and other eyewitnesse > The Eric Mandell Collection of Jewish Music Tuttleman Library since the early 1970s, is o materials on a global scale. A German cant Mandell was the last cantor of the Jewish c caust. After surviving the Sachsenhausen c transfer his collection to Holland. He event music at Gratz College. Gratz holds Mande treasured set of cultural artifacts of prewar > The Dr. Lena Allen Shore Collection offers a from a multi-disciplinary dimension. Dr. Sho ed from France to North America, where sh pher, composer, and Holocaust educator. Th and thousands of pages of her literary and will provide a powerful means by which to studies that motivated Dr. Shore to establis Advancement of Human Potential, in partn
THE HOLOCAUST GENIZA PROJECT is an archive digitization, research-based initiative of the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights. It aims to preserve primary source materials and other Holocaust-related resources and artifacts—making them accessible to its students, the larger academic communi- ty, and the general public. These assets will be integrated into the curriculum across courses of study; will support graduate-level research; provide critical resources for elementary and secondary level teacher professional development; and support a range of other Center educational initiatives. The Geniza is currently comprised of three major archival assets: the Gratz Holocaust Oral History Archive, the Eric Mandell Collection of Jewish Music, and the Lena Allen Shore Collection.
oject
Student Coursework includes:
• The History of Antisemitism • Comparative Genocide • Post-Holocaust Theology • Hitler’s Other Victims • Teaching the Holocaust • Rescuers and Righteous Gentiles • Genocide in the Modern World • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights • Patriarchy and Women’s Rights • Ethical Perspectives on Human Rights • Antisemitism and Racism • The Theologies of the Abrahamic Faiths • Comparative Scriptures • Interfaith Social Justice • Successful Interfaith Dialogue
s one of the earliest and largest collections es. Established in 1979 by the late Nora e of experiences during the Nazi era and clude interviews with over 900 survivors, es. c, a special collection of the College’s one of the three major repositories of such tor and significant music collector, Eric community of Bochum before the Holo- concentration camp, Mandell was able to tually settled in Philadelphia and taught ell’s vast music collection, one of the most r European Jewish life. a unique window into Holocaust Studies ore survived the Holocaust and emigrat- he emerged as a writer, a poet, philoso- he collection boasts 350 unique letters d academic work. The Shore Collection o promote the vision for interdisciplinary sh the Dr. Lena Allen-Shore Center for the nership with Gratz College.
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Our Students Make an Impact
Heidi Omlor
Omlor played a advancing Holocaust Her class of high scho with state leaders to sp requiring Holocaust e signed bill, Omlor st Holocaust and genocide results, requiring all M these topics. M I are very More about o Education Works
Currently, 66% of Gratz Holocaust and Genocide Studies students are educators.
Students in our Holocaust and Genocide Studies program include middle school and high school teachers, librarians, military and college instructors, and museum educators. We also have students who wish to deepen their knowledge to speak in the community, such as descendants of survivors, clergy mem- bers, and others from a variety of professions. Students and alumni represent 37 states and the District of Columbia as well as 7 countries outside of the U.S.
r, Ph.D. ‘21
a crucial role in education in Maine. ool students worked ponsor new legislation education. About the tates, “This will add e history to the learning Maine teachers to cover My students and excited!” our Holocaust n Teacher shops
37 states / 7 countries
“I FEEL THAT I HAVE BEEN EMPOWERED TO ASSIST IN BRIDGING THE GAP IN OUR DIVIDED WORLD, AND ADVOCATING FOR EQUALITY, AWARENESS, AND DIVERSITY WITHIN JUDAISM. WHEN WE ADDRESS THESE THINGS HONESTLY, THIS WILL BRING US CLOSER TO TIKKUN OLAM (REPAIR THE WORLD).“
Student Profile: Elijah M. LaPrince, Sr.
Master of Arts Jewish Professional Studies 2020
Elijah graduated in 2020 with an M.A. in Jewish Professional Studies with an emphasis on Interfaith Relations. He is currently enrolled in the Gratz Graduate Certificate in Chaplaincy, a program designed in partnership between Gratz College and Hartford International University.
Faculty Profile: Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty Human Rights, Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Dr. Irvin-Erickson teaches on The Cambodian Genocide and Genocide and the United States at Gratz. He also serves as Assistant Professor at the Jimmy and
Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, and director of the Raphaël Lemkin Genocide Prevention Program. He is the author of books, chapters, and articles on genocide, religion and violence, human security, international criminal law, and political theory. Irvin-Erickson is a Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a Board Member of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, and a member of the editorial board of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal. He has worked in DR Congo, Burundi, Cambodia, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Argentina among other places, and has consulted for several governments. He holds a Ph.D. in Global Affairs and an M.A. in English Literature from Rutgers University, in Newark, NJ, USA.
THE CENTER BY THE NUMBERS: 2021 Gratz College Student and Alumni Impact Survey
2/3 Two-thirds of students in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program require tuition assistance and receive partial scholarship awards. To attract and retain exemplary students, Gratz must significantly grow its scholarship fund.
90% of students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they had an increased ability to apply Holocaust lessons to other genocides and human problems 71.4 21% 7.5%
9/10
21%
71%
9 out of 10 students surveyed reported an increased ability to contribute to the scholarly advancement of Holocaust and Genocide research. Read about Madeline Vadkerty.
92% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they had an increased ability to discuss and teach about the Holocaust and other genocides
Student Profile: Madeline Vadkerty Madeline Vadkerty is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gratz College thanks to a generous scholarship from the Samuel P. Mandell Foundation. Originally from Washington, DC, Vadkerty currently resides in Bratislava, Slovakia where she conducts research about the Holocaust at the Slovak National Archive and regularly makes presentations about the Holocaust to students and the public.
Vadkerty’s most recent book, Your Honor Mr. President: Letters to Joseph Tiso focuses on letters about the “Jewish question.” She has most recently published articles in PRISM (Yeshiva University), OPREE (Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, George Fox University) and Judaica (Comenius University, Slovakia). Vadkerty’s professional experience includes work with Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the U.S. Department of State.
THE ARNOLD AND ESTHER TUZMAN Memorial Holocaust Teach-In
The biennial program engages teachers and students in a variety of fields and professional spaces in dialogue about the Holocaust. About three- quarters of attendees in the most recent program with illustrator and author Art Spiegelman confirmed that they have already modified their teaching or plan to change it based on the lessons learned at the 2021 Teach-In. The program is planned in full partnership with a multi-generational committee of Arnold and Esther Tuzman’s family. Beginning in 2010, these collaborative efforts have provoked continued thought and learning about the Holocaust and its attendant messages for humanity. Participants leave the Teach-In with powerful educational tools and inspiration to make meaning in their lives and the lives of their students.
Attendees by Field
n School/University n Online Teaching n Museum
n Non-Profit n Graduate Student n Self-Interest
Data from the 2021 Teach-In
“We all carry the responsibility for the transmission of these stories — of those who survived and those who did not. Remembrance must be our commitment to recognize and to root out the destructive seeds of ignorance, bigotry, racism, and genocide whenever and wherever they may be sown. I’m so grateful to Gratz for the work they do in this program.” – MARTY TUZMAN
On the Frontlines of Holocaust Education
of Gratz students are public school teachers who fulfill these mandates in their classrooms. 40%
Twenty three states have passed legislation that requires or strongly encourages Holocaust and genocide education in public schools.
In 2021, the Center piloted Holocaust education workshops for secondary school teachers in Maine, the most recent state to mandate Holocaust education. The workshop addresses best practices in instruction and curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for students across grades 6-12. Gratz aims to expand these workshops to include teachers in all 21 states and Canada with a Holocaust education mandate. Teaching the Teachers 80%
Four out of five students and alumni feel that Gratz has empowered them to lead and teach about issues related to human problems.
Center Director, Dr. Ruth Sandberg, convened a workshop on best practices for Maine teachers. Click above to watch Gratz instructor Dr. Jennifer Marlow discuss her course, “Hitler’s Other Victims.”
Become a FOUNDING STAKEHOLDER in the Center for
To realize this transform
CENTER SUSTAINABILITY
Holocaust Studies and Human Rights
Ensure the Center’s capacity to provide
sustained administrative support and operations.
The Center aims to be a world leader in preparing leaders, teachers, and scholars to transmit the lessons of history across generations for the purpose of a more peaceful and just future. The Founding Stakeholders campaign seeks to engage a broad coalition of supporters who can help us achieve this vision.
ARCHIVE DIGITIZATION
Preserve, digitize, and expand access to Holocaust and antisemitism related collections for use by teachers, students, and researchers.
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mational vision, the campaign is organized around SIX objectives
FACULTY EXCELLENCE
STUDENT SUCCESS
Establish two new endowed professorships to fortify the Center’s academic leadership in key areas.
Increase scholarship funds to attract and retain exemplary students in graduate programs.
EXPAND HOLOCAUST EDUCATION Provide teacher professional development in states and regions with a mandate for Holocaust education.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Enhance opportunities for communal learning that provoke reflection on the lessons of the Holocaust and its attendant messages for humanity.
Gratz College is committed to the proposition that education is the best means of advancing substantive conversation and combating hate. Our students are on the “front lines” of these discussions: they’re educators in classrooms, policymakers in board rooms, and faith leaders in sacred spaces. Gratz prepares these women and men with the deep learning in Holocaust Studies and other critical subjects to share a history and wisdom to change the world. Our Founding Stakeholders Campaign is an opportunity for you to partner in this important work and share in Gratz’s impact. This campaign seeks to engage you and a broad coalition of stakeholders to build an endowment at Gratz College that will grow and sustain our Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights. As a Founding Stakeholder, your contribution will help the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights at Gratz College realize its transformational vision to be a world leader in preparing leaders, teachers, and scholars to transmit the lessons of history across generations for the purpose of a more peaceful and just future. Become a Founding Stakeholder
Simply remembering and commemorating will not be enough. What will you do to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again?
Founding Stakeholders can make the greatest impact by giving at
the following levels: Leader: $2.5 million (for Center Naming Rights) Sustainer: $250,000+
Patron: $25,000+ Friend: $2,500+
Gifts of any size are welcome. All donors will be recognized on the Center’s website and in campaign materials.
You can make an impact with a contribution to this campaign.
Ready to Make a Difference? Y
Contact Naomi Housman at 215-635-7300 x126 to set up your customized plan for giving.
APPENDIX
SELECT ADJUNCT FACULTY Ruth Almy (Ph.D., Indiana University) specializes in the history of migration and immigration law, as well as British imperialism and violence during settler colonialism. She has extensive experience teaching 20th century European history, as well as the history of the Holocaust. Ruth has published her work on racial and national bias in Canadian immigration law in the early 20th century in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. Her writing has also appeared in Contingent Mag- azine. In addition to her teaching, Ruth serves as the Program Director for the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center in Philadelphia, where she works to provide in-person Holocaust survivor testimony to schools in the Philadelphia area, and virtual programming of Holocaust testi- mony to schools in the country and around the world. Jeff Benvenuto (Ph.D., Rutgers University) is a contributing co-editor of Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America (Duke University Press, 2014) and Canada and Colonial Genocide (Routledge, 2017), has published in Journal of Genocide Research and Genocide Studies and Pre- vention and is preparing two books for publication, The Politics of Defining Genocide: International Relations, Denialism, and Prevention and Coopting Rights: Settler Colonial Globalism and the Management of Diversity. Douglas Irvin-Erickson (Ph.D., Rutgers University) the author of books, chapters, and articles on genocide, religion and violence, human security, international criminal law, and political theory. His recent books include Raphaël Lemkin and the Concept of Genocide and Building and Architec- ture for Peace in the United States. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a Board Member of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, and a member of the editorial board of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal. Josey Fisher is the Director of the Holocaust Oral History Archive at Gratz College. She received graduate degrees in both clinical social work and Jewish studies and has focused her interdisciplin- ary background on Holocaust research and education for over 30 years. Timothy Longman (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is the author of Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda and Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda, which won the prize for the best book in African politics from the African Politics Conference Group and received honorable mention for
the Herskovitz and Ogot prizes from the African Studies Association. His scholarship focuses on state-society relations in Africa, focusing in particular on religion and politics, human rights, and transitional justice. Jennifer Marlow (Ph.D., Michigan State University) specializes in modern Poland, specifically Polish-Jewish relations during the interwar period and the Holocaust. Her article, “Female Bonds and the Domestic Realm in Holocaust Rescue: The Role of Polish Nannies,” is included in Yad Vashem’s anthology, Hiding, Sheltering and Borrowing Identities as Avenues of Rescue. Her chapter on “Life in Hiding and Beyond” is included in Jewish Families in Europe, 1939-Present: History, Representation, and Memory. Rachel Perry (Ph.D., Harvard University) is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, among them: an EHRI Fellowship at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, a Sharon Abramson Research Grant from the Holocaust Educational Foundation, a Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellowship at CASVA (the Center for Advanced Studies in Visual Culture at the National Gallery in Washington DC). Last year, she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research for a new research project on early postwar exhibitions related to the Shoah. In 2018, she curated the exhibition “Arrivals, Departures: The Oscar Ghez Collection” at the Hecht Museum and authored the catalogue A Memorial to Jewish Artists, Victims of Nazism. Carson Phillips (Ph.D., York University) has received numerous scholarly awards and fellowships including the Fleischer Award, Gertner Award, and the Klasner Fellowship from York University; the Alfred Lerner Fellowship from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous; and the Hess Fac- ulty Seminar Fellowship from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dr. Phillips also served as a Canadian delegate to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) from 2009 – 2013, where he was an active member of the Education Working Group, the Committee on the Roma Genocide, and the Committee on Teaching About the Holocaust and other Genocides. Additionally, Dr. Phillips is the Managing Director of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto, Canada.
Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights Advisory Board
Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History and German Studies, Brown University Philip Cunningham, Professor of Theology; Director, Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations, St. Joseph’s University David Engel, Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies, New York University Josey Fisher, Director, Holocaust Oral History Archives, Gratz College Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies; Chair, Jewish Studies Program, Dartmouth University Laura Jockusch, Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University Steven Luckert, Senior Curator, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Robert Melson, Cathy Cohen-Lasry Distinguished Professor, Clark University Nikki Marczak, Atrocity Prevention Coordinator, Asia Pacific Centre for The Responsibility to Protect Antony Polonsky, Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University Simone Schweber, Goodman Professor of Education and Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin at Madison Malka Simkovich, Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies; Director of Catholic-Jewish Studies Program, Catholic Theological Union Stephen Smith, Andrew J. and Erna Finci Viterbi Endowed Executive Director Chair, USC Shoah Foundation
Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations
The Center for Holocaust and Human Rights actively works with partner institutions to create additional ways for students to gain expertise and knowledge. Hartford International University Gratz has an agreement for students from the Interfaith Leadership program to take courses through Hartford International University that lead to a Certificate in Chaplaincy at Gratz. Hartford students can take courses in Post-Holocaust Theology, The Church and the Holocaust, and Antisemitism and Racism, which can be applied to their MA degrees at Hartford. Carleton University Gratz has an agreement with Carleton University in Canada for Holocaust and Genocide Studies students to take courses in Curatorial Studies, with an emphasis on Holocaust museums, leading to a Certificate in Curatorial Studies.
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