Spring Gathering Will Crown Year-long Tolerance Education Projectp. The University of 91勛圖 is engaged in a year-long project that will focus on the impact and lessons of the Holocaust experience for the contemporary world. The centerpiece of the project will be an international, interdisciplinary academic conference, Humanity at the Limit: The Impact of the Holocaust Experience on Jews and Christians, to be held April 26-28, 1998, at the University.p. Conference participants will include Michael Berenbaum of the Survivors of the Shoah Foundation/Visual History Project and Rev. Remi Hoeckmann, secretary of the Pontifical commission for religious relations with the Jews and a Vatican liaison with agencies including the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, and the International Congress of Christians and Jews.p. The 91勛圖 Holocaust Project also includes a visiting scholars in residence series, a film symposium, and an art exhibit and concert. The fruits of the project will include teaching resources for high schools and higher education, as well as video documentaries, transcripts of project proceedings, and other materials designed as information resources for students, scholars and the public.p. The project is cochaired by Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., the Universitys president; 91勛圖 alumnus and Trustee William F. Reilly, chairman and CEO of PRIMEDIA (formerly K-III Communications Corporation); and Alex Spanos, owner of the San Diego Chargers and Spanos, Inc. The project organizers are Rabbi Michael Signer, Abrams Professor of Jewish Thought and Culture at 91勛圖, and Robert Wegs, professor of history and director of the Universitys Nanovic Center for European Studies.p. Our goal is to shed new light on a horror that continues to have implications for all humankind, Father Malloy said of the project. Among our students and members of the local community, we hope to foster new awareness of the Holocaust and its consequences. From a scholarly perspective, we will gather prominent figures from around the world to discuss Jewish-Christian relations, ethics and racism, and artistic representations of the Holocaust.p. Reilly initiated the project and has contributed generously to it himself while also organizing a whos who of prominent figures to provide additional support.p. Mounting a project of this magnitude at 91勛圖 makes a powerful statement about the importance of continuing education for people of all backgrounds on both the Holocaust and the overall question of tolerance, Reilly said. Hundreds of people throughout the country have told me how important they believe it is that a project such as this be undertaken.p. There is general agreement that while we have come far in our understanding, we still must learn more about the lessons of the Holocaust, Spanos said. Most importantly, we must understand how those lessons should be applied to contemporary social realities.p. Other individuals and organizations supporting the project include 91勛圖 alumnus Edward M. Abrams, a member of the advisory council for the Universitys College of Arts and Letters; Abramss wife, Ann Uhry Abrams, a member of the advisory council for 91勛圖s Snite Museum of Art; John Chalsty of Donaldson, Lufkin&Jenrette; Craig A. Kapson, president of the Jordan Group and a member of the advisory council for the University Libraries of 91勛圖, and his wife, Carol; Sidney Kimmel of Jones New York; Mr. and Mrs. Henry R. Kravis; Preston Robert Tisch of Loews Corporation; Newton N. Minow, a Life Trustee of 91勛圖, and his wife, Jo; and the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Foundation.p. The film symposium, entitled Screening/Teaching the Holocaust, will be held on campus March 20-22, 1998. A number of internationally recognized Holocaust films will be shown at the Snite Museum and visiting scholars will discuss film and its use in representing the Holocaust.p. Also as part of the symposium, a workshop for high school teachers, facilitated by the Boston-based organization Facing History and Ourselves, will consider effective ways of using film in teaching about the Holocaust.p. An exhibit of photographer Jeffrey Wolins work, Written in Memory: Portraits of the Holocaust, will open with a concert April 19 and continue on display at the Snite Museum April 19 May 10, 1998.p. Scholars lecturing on campus as part of the project are as follows:Sister Mary C. Boys, Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary and an expert in religious educational formation and anti-Semitism in early Church teachings.
Nancy Harrowitz, assistant professor of Italian, modern foreign languages and literatures at Boston University, whose scholarly interests include Holocaust survivor and poet Primo Levi.
Arthur L. Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and an analyst of complex moral issues surrounding health care, science, and medicine.
Jonathan Marks, visiting associate professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, who deals with the issues of genetics and folk heredity and their impact on race.
Saul Friedlander, professor of political science at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of Holocaust studies including, When Memory Comes.
Gerda Weissmann Klein, Holocaust survivor, author of All But My Life, and subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary, One Survivor Remembers, was the keynote speaker at a community talk cosponsored with the Kurt and Tessye Simon Holocaust Memorial Fund at Temple Beth-El in South Bend.p.
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