Events

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

The historical record is marked by voids: elided events; disappeared people; erased accounts; marginalized communities.  

The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity (GC—CUNY), in association with the School of General Studies and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Stockton University) and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies (New York University), offers a year-long  virtual series, The Marginalized and the Erased, to tackle a number of those blank spots. 

Please join us on September 29, 2022 at 12:00 noon (EDT) for the first of the series:

“Forgotten, Ignored, and Distorted Histories of Romani People: Past and Present”

Groundbreaking scholars Ethel Brooks, Ioanida Costache, and László Csősz move between past and present as they plumb the history of anti-Roma racist violence, and the erasure of that history even as the violence persists. Drawing upon testimonies and documents, their presentations reveal individual, communal, and institutional obstacles to remembrance and education. Chair of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University, award-winning scholar Prof. Ethel Brooks serves (among many positions) as Chair of the Board of the European Roma Rights Center.  Dr Ioanida Costache, recipient of a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, focuses on Romani historical trauma and artistic practice.  Prof. László Csősz, historian and senior archivist at the National Archives of Hungary is also a Claims Conference University Partnership in Holocaust Studies Senior Lecturer at the ELTE University in Budapest. His current project explores the wartime history of the Hungarian Roma.  

Chair: Debórah Dwork

https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vVXGC9gxRoq1jYLe3FFKpA

This event is hosted also in association with:

The Center for Jewish Studies at The Graduate Center—City University of New York

and

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, Education Outreach Section, Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications, United Nations

AUGUST 31, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

“BESIEGED VOICES FROM UKRAINE” PART III

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has brought death and injury to thousands, the forced flight of millions, and the physical destruction of cities and towns. Please join journalist Maria Avdeeva, public historian Sasha Nazar, and author Serhiy Zhadan who will address the complexities of lives disrupted and the experience of unfolding war from the perspectives of their three professions. An international security expert, Maria Avdeeva has reported tirelessly from cities under siege since the Russian invasion.   Public historian and grassroots activist Sasha Nazar has led successful initiatives to protect Jewish heritage sites.  And Serhiy Zhadan, poet, novelist, and essayist, has won more than a dozen literary awards including, most recently, the 2022 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade “for documenting the struggles of his compatriots caught up in a brutal war.”

Co-Chairs: Elissa Bemporad and Natalya Lazar.

JUNE 23, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:10 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

“BESIEGED VOICES FROM UKRAINE” PART II

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has caused the death and injury of thousands, the forced flight of millions, and the physical destruction of cities and towns. Please join poet Iya Kiva, art historian Eugeny Kotlyar, and journalist Olga Tokariuk, who will address the complexities of lives disrupted and the experience of unfolding war from the perspectives of their three professions. Award-winning poet Iya Kiva’s work has been translated into more than 20 languages. Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts professor Eugeny Kotlyar is a renowned expert on Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine. And independent journalist Olga Tokariuk’s reports have been featured in (inter alia) Time and The Washington Post, and on NPR. Co-Chairs: Elissa Bemporad and Natalya Lazar.

PANELISTS:

Iya Kiva: Poet

Eugene Kotylar: Historian

Olga Tokariuk: Journalist

CO-CHAIRS:

Natalya Lazar, Initiative on Ukrainian-Jewish Shared History and the Holocaust in Ukraine, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

This event is hosted in association with:

The Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center—CUNY

The School of General Studies and Graduate Education and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University 

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, USHMM

MAY 12, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:10 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

“BESIEGED VOICES FROM UKRAINE”

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has caused the death and injury of thousands, the forced flight of millions, and the physical destruction of cities and towns. Please join historian Yuri Radchenko, poet Ostap Slyvynsky, and photojournalist Anton Skyba, who will address the complexities of lives disrupted and the experience of unfolding war from the perspectives of their three professions. Yuri Radchenko is the co-founder of the Center for Interethnic Relations Research in Eastern Europe in Kharkiv. Ostap Slyvynsky has published several collections of poetry and is the recipient of prestigious Ukrainian and international literary awards. Anton Skyba has been covering the occupation of his native Donetsk and Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2014; he himself was captured, tortured, and released in July of that year.  Co-Chairs: Natalya Lazar and Elissa Bemporad.

This event is hosted in association with:

The Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center—CUNY

The School of General Studies and Graduate Education and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University 

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, USHMM

PANELISTS:

Yuri Radchenko: Historian

Ostap Slyvynsky: Poet

Anton Sykba: Photojournalist

CO-CHAIRS:

Natalya Lazar, Initiative on Ukrainian-Jewish Shared History and the Holocaust in Ukraine, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

APRIL 28, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:15 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

“FLEEING A HOME, SEEKING A HOME: JEWISH REFUGEES IN MODERN TIMES”

This panel grapples with refugee Jews displaced by war in three different geopolitical contexts: Ukraine, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Profs Jeff Veidlinger, Eliyana Adler, and Shay Hazkani recapture lost voices of displacement and rethink the meaning of “refugee” as they explore the experiences of Ukrainian Jews who left their homes in the wake of anti-Jewish violence unleashed during the Russian Civil War; Polish Jews who, in  the midst of the Holocaust, fled the Germans and were deported by the Soviets to Central Asia; and of Moroccan Jews, who immigrated to Israel shortly after the establishment of the Jewish state. Chair: Prof. Elissa Bemporad.

This event is hosted in association with The Holocaust and The United Nations Outreach Programme, Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications, United Nations.

ELIYANA ADLER

Associate Professor, History and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University

Panelist

SHAY HAZKANI

Panelist

Assistant Professor, History and Jewish Studies, University of Maryland, College Park

JEFF VEIDLINGER

Panelist

Jospeh Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan

Elissa Bemporad

Chair

Professor of History; Jerry and William Ungar Professor in Eastern European Jewish History and Holocaust, Queens College; Graduate Center- CUNY

PANELISTS:

Yuliya Abibok, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv

Ihor Dvorkin, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”

Artem Kharchenko, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”

Anatoly Podolsky, Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, Kyiv 

CHAIR:

Natalya Lazar, Initiative on Ukrainian-Jewish Shared History and the Holocaust in Ukraine, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

CO-CHAIR:
Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY


MARCH 23, 2021 / 7 P.M.- 8:15 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT: FINDING A HOME IN ROCHESTER, NY

PANELISTS:

MIR ENAYATULLAH MOSWAI

OBAIDA OMAR

DAVID SILVER

ELLEN SMITH

NABILA QADIRI

CHAIR

DEBÓRAH DWORK

FEBRUARY 17, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)


WHERE DO I BELONG? HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS RETURN TO VIENNA

ELIZABETH ANTHONY, PH.D.

Director, Visiting Scholar Programs, Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

Author

The Compromise of Return: Viennese Jews After the Holocaust

ALBERT LICHTBLAU

(Formerly) Chair of the Center for Jewish Cultural History, and of the History Department at the University of Salzburg

Interviewer

Inter alia: Die Wahrheit der Erinnerung, with Eleanor Lappin

SPRING 2022 VIRTUAL SERIES: REFUGEES & DISPLACED PERSONS

Our Spring Term virtual programs interrogate the meaning of “home” for survivors of genocide and forcibly displaced persons. Why did Holocaust survivors return home to Vienna? How do Afghan refugees create a home in Rochester, NY? And what of people who are forced to flee and find a temporary home where they land?

PLEASE SAVE THESE DATES AND JOIN US:

17 February 2022               12:00-1:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)

“Where Do I Belong? Holocaust Survivors Return to Vienna”*

23 March 2022                     7:00-8:15 PM (Daylight Saving Time, East Coast)

“Refugee Resettlement: Finding a Home in Rochester, NY”

28 April 2022                       12:00-1:15 PM (Daylight Saving Time, East Coast)

“Fleeing a Home, Seeking a Home: Jewish Refugees in Modern Times”*

The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, The Graduate Center—City University of New York

Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

*In association with The Holocaust and The United Nations Outreach Programme, Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications, United Nations

17 February 2022               12:00-1:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)“Where Do I Belong? Holocaust Survivors Return to Vienna”*

Register: https://gc-cuny.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_S_Vi7qBDQ_6ssQIacXxBWg

23 March 2022                    7:00-8:15 PM (Daylight Saving Time, East Coast)

“Refugee Resettlement: Finding a Home in Rochester, NY”

Register: https://gc-cuny.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_92hIcYSWTBy1XefW5qoyzQ

28 April 2022                       12:00-1:15 PM (Daylight Saving Time, East Coast)

“Fleeing a Home, Seeking a Home: Jewish Refugees in Modern Times”*

https://gc-cuny.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x68dd0OMSCCmf3U2S6Yt4Q

NOVEMBER 18, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:15 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

MIGRANTS, REFUGEES, & CAGES: UNDERSTANDING THE AMERICAN DETENTION REGIME

DAVID HERNANDEZ

Associate Professor, Department of Latina/o Studies, Mount Holyoke College

Panelist

“Whiplashed: Refugees, Detention, and the ‘Trump Era.'” 

MARLENE RAMOS

Doctoral Candidate, Department of Geography, CUNY

Panelist

“The Making Immigration Imprisonment in New Jersey County Jails and Lessons for the Fight Against Detention”

MARION KAPLAN

Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History, NYU 

Chair

OCTOBER 27, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:15 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

THE NEGEV BEDOUIN: EMPTIED LANDS AND DISPLACED PEOPLE

THABET ABU BAS

Co-Executive Director, The Abraham Initiatives; Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University 

Panelist

NETTA AMIR-SHIFF

Doctoral candidate, Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben Gurion University 

Panelist

MORAD ELSANA

Research Scholar and Lecturer, Department of Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies, American University

Panelist

Indigenous Land Rights in Israel: A Comparative Study of the Bedouin

YEELA RAANAN

Department of Public Administration, Sapir Academic College, 

Public Relations Officer, Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev, Israel. 

Panelist


ELI KARETNY

Deputy Director, Ralph Bunche Institute. 
 

Panel Chair & Moderator

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:15 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

DISPOSSESSING NATIVE AMERICA: INDIGENEITY, LAND, AND RECLAMATION”

MARGARET D. JACOBS

Charles Mach Professor of History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Director, Center for Great Plains Studies

Panelist

After 100 Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America’s Stolen Lands

CLAUDIO SAUNT

Russell Professor of American History, University of Georgia

Panelist

Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, Bancroft Prize and Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, finalist National Book Award

JUSTIN DE LEON

Visiting Assistant Professor of Critical Theory and Social Justice, Occidental College

Panelist

Resurgent Visual Sovereignty (forthcoming)

MIKAL BROTNOV ECKSTROM

Research Assistant Professor, Center for Great Plains Studies, UNL

Panel Chair and Moderator

Why You Can’t Teach U.S. History Without American Indians

APRIL 22, 2021 / 12 P.M.- 1:15 P.M. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

“In Honor of Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski: New Scholarship on the History and Memory of the Holocaust in Poland”

JOANNA SLIWA, Ph.D.

Historian, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany

Program Chair and Moderator

Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust, awarded the 2020 Fraenkel Prize

MIRANDA BRETHOUR

Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, The Graduate Center-CUNY

Panelist

“Life and Death in the Shadow of Sobibór: Economic Dimensions of Jewish-Gentile Relations in the Town of Włodawa, 1939-1944”


This paper traces the lines of communication between the Sobibór extermination camp and the Eastern Polish town of Włodawa to explore how knowledge of the mechanisms of extermination shaped Jewish-Gentile interactions during the Holocaust. Drawing on court documents and postwar testimonies, the paper illuminates how widespread local awareness of the murder of Jews at Sobibór drove the plunder and take-over of ‘post-Jewish’ goods and property in and around the town.

ALICJA PODBIELSKA

Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, Clark University

Panelist

“The Righteous or Szmalcowniks?! Narrative of Rescue v. Holocaust Scholarship”

How is the commemoration of assistance to Jews used to distort history and suppress research on the Holocaust in Poland? 

JONATHAN ZISOOK

Doctoral Candidate, PhD Program in Sociology, The Graduate Center-CUNY

Panelist

“‘Polityka Historyczna’ and the Instrumentalization of the Holocaust in Contemporary Poland”

This paper will explore the diverse political strategies employed by the Polish government to distort and instrumentalize the Holocaust as a constitutive feature of its “policy on history” (polityka historyczna). 

With comments from Profs. Engelking and Grabowski to follow.

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