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To register for the conference, click here.

“They Spoke Out: American Voices for Rescue from the Holocaust” will be the theme of this year’s Wyman Institute national conference, which will be held at the Fordham University School of Law, 140 West 62 St. (near Ninth Ave.), New York City, on Sunday, September 21, 2008, from 10 am to 4 pm. Click here to register.

The opening session of the conference will launch Rafael Medoff’s powerful new book, Blowing the Whistle on Genocide: Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. and the Struggle for a U.S. Response to the Holocaust, which will be published by Purdue University Press just days before the conference.

This is the first book about an unsung American hero of the Holocaust. DuBois (pronounced Du-BOYS), a young attorney in the Treasury Department, risked his career by blowing the whistle on the State Department’s sabotage of opportunities to rescue Jews from the Nazis. DuBois’s actions helped force a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Jewish refugees, and he played a key role in the rescue of some 200,000 Jews during the last months of the war. Blowing the Whistle on Genocide is based on previously unpublished interviews with DuBois and his colleagues, as well as rare archival documents. The book’s cover was illustrated by internationally renowned political caricaturist Gerry Gersten.

In addition to Dr. Medoff, the featured speakers at this opening session of the conference will be Prof. David S. Wyman, who is the Josiah E. DuBois Professor of History (emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Dr. Rebecca Kook, daughter of Holocaust rescue activist Peter Bergson, who will discuss Bergson’s collaboration with DuBois; and Richard Goodwin, who was a friend of DuBois and has sponsored numerous projects to publicize DuBois’s heroism. Mr. Goodwin will chair the session.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at the conference. During the lunch break, Dr. Medoff and Mr. Gersten will sign copies of the book in the lobby.

The second conference session, from 12:30 to 2:15, is “Students Against the Holocaust.” This session will shed light on another group of little-known Holocaust-era activists: the rabbinical students at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) whose protests helped rouse Christian interest in the plight of European Jewry and galvanized some Jewish leaders to take a more active stance.

This session will be chaired by the renowned historian and JTS professor, David Roskies. Featured speakers will include the sons of the 1940s student activists, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies president Rabbi Dr. David Golinkin and JTS Faculty Rabbi Jonathan Lipnick; Cantor Abraham Golinkin, reciting an original prayer composed by the 1940s students; and Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein, who will reveal a previously-unknown episode concerning the involvement of his father, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, in the protests that the students initiated. Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College, will offer his comments on intra-Jewish cooperation in the 1940s protests.

The final conference session, from 2:15 pm to 4:00 pm, will focus on the Bergson Group’s controversial play, “A Flag is Born,” about Holocaust survivors and the fight to create Israel. It was one of the first postwar public events to talk about the Allies’ abandonment of the Jews. Our session will feature original cast member Steven Hill (famous for his roles in Law & Order and Mission Impossible), who will deliver his first-ever public remarks about his part in “A Flag is Born,” in which he appeared alongside Marlon Brando, Paul Muni, and Celia Adler, and collaborated with Stella Adler. Stella’s daughter, Ellen, and Celia’s son, Prof. Selwyn Freed, will take part in a panel discussion with Mr. Hill. This session will be chaired by Prof. Thane Rosenbaum.

The conference chair is Sigmund Rolat, the esteemed philanthropist, member of the Wyman Institute Board of Directors, and rebuilder of Jewish cultural life in Poland (including the forthcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jewry, in Warsaw). The Master of Ceremonies, as in previous years, will be Fordham U. law professor Thane Rosenbaum, the distinguished human rights scholar, award-winning novelist, and leading member of the Wyman Institute’s Arts & Letters Council.

Registration is $25 ($15 for students), which includes a kosher box lunch. Click here to register or call 202-434-8994 for more information.