David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies: Welcome

August 01, 2010

Prof. David S. Wyman
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Wyman Institute Update: March 31, 2004

The Wyman Institute is collaborating with the American Century Theater in Arlington, Virginia, on its re-creation of Ben Hecht's "A Flag is Born," the classic 1947 play about Holocaust survivors and the fight for Jewish statehood. The original play, sponsored by the American League for a Free Palestine (the Bergson group) starred Paul Muni, Celia Adler, and young Marlon Brando.

The play premiered at the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington on March 27. Historical material prepared by the Wyman Institute was given to each attendee, and Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff led a post-performance discussion with the audience and cast members. The play continues until April 24. For tickets, go to: www.americancentury.org

Famed graphic artist Joe Kubert, a member of the Wyman Institute Arts & Letters Council, will appear on the NBC television "Weekend Today" show (Channel 4 in New York City) on Sunday morning, April 18, 2004, to discuss his critically-acclaimed graphic novel about the Holocaust, 'Yossel: April 19, 1943.'

"The Holocaust Shrug," an essay by Wyman Institute Advisory Committee member Prof. David Gelernter (Yale University) appeared in the April 5, 2004 issue of The Weekly Standard.

Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Laurel Leff (Northeastern University) will speak on the New York Times' coverage of the Holocaust at the Youngstown State University conference on "FDR & the Holocaust, Revisited," on Thursday, April 15. Her book 'Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper' will be published by Cambridge University Press later this year.

Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff will speak at the conference on "A Race Against Death: How Jewish Activists Forced Roosevelt to Respond to the Holocaust." He will also speak at the Jewish Theological Seminary, in New York City, on Thursday morning, April 22, and at the nearby Yeshivat Chovevei Torah rabbinical seminary that same afternoon.

If you have not yet registered for the Wyman Institute's upcoming conference, please do so now. "Teaching and Learning About America's Response to the Holocaust," a one-day conference, will be held on Sunday, May 16, 2004, at the Ramaz Lower School building, 125 East 85 Street, New York City, from 10 am to 5 pm. The sessions will include remarks by Prof. David S. Wyman; a panel on U.S. media coverage of the Nazi genocide, featuring veteran correspondent Bernard Kalb; a panel featuring sons and daughters of Americans of all faiths who spoke out for rescue of Jews from the Holocaust; a special workshop for teachers on these topics; and a screening of "They Looked Away," the new film about the Allies' refusal to bomb Auschwitz. Nina Solarz, who is chair of the Wyman Institute's Task Force on Education, will chair the conference. New teacher credit is available. To register, call 202-434-8994 or go to www.WymanInstitute.org

If you cannot attend, please alert your friends and colleagues in the New York area about the conference.

Wyman Institute Academic Council member Dr. Harold Brackman (Simon Wiesenthal Center) authored "'Christ Killer'--The long Shadow of a Blood Libel," in the February-March issue of Midstream.

Wyman Institute Academic Council member Dr. Rochelle L. Millen (Wittenberg University), together with a faculty member from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, participated in a three part program called "A Jewish-Christian Forum: The Passion of the Christ." The series was sponsored by the Columbus Jewish Federation, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, Leo Yassenoff Jewish Community Center, the Cetnral Ohio Holocaust Education Council and took place on March 1, 8, and 15.

The Wyman Institute is co-sponsoring a public screening of "They Looked Away," the powerful new film about the Allies' refusal to bomb Auschwitz, at the University of Delaware Hillel, on April 19.

Wyman Institute Academic Council member James F. Moore (Valparaiso University) edited 'Post-Shoah Dialogues,' published by The Studies in the Shoah Series of the University Press of America, a volume of essays from the Midrash Group of the Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust (which includes fellow-Academic Council members Prof. Zev Garber, Prof. Henry Knight, and Prof. Steven Jacobs) recognizing their decade-long dialogue together on reading sacred texts after the Shoah. Prof. Moore has also authored 'Toward a Dialogical Community', also published as part of the same series from University Press of America, which brings together essays he has written over the last ten years concerning the task of re-thinking religious traditions after the Shoah. On April 2, this group of four scholars will participate in a celebratory event at Valparaiso University honoring the work of their dialogue and the publishing of the two books.

Wyman Institute Advisory Committee member Dr. Shimon Samuels (Simon Wiesenthal Center, Paris) addressed the Sixtieth Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on March 24, urging the U.N. to condemn Hamas for its human rights violations.

Academic Council member Prof. Steven Katz (director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University) will speak at the Philosophy, Poetry, and Religion Seminar of the Harvard Humanities Center on April 20 (on "Some Thoughts on Comparative Mysticism"); will lecture at the International Conference on Judaism in China, which will be held on May 18-20 at the Center for Judaic Study at Shandong University (on "Jewish Philosophy as Philosophical Criticism"); and will give a new summer course in Padova, Italy, on "The Church and the Jews," from May 30 through July 19.