National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education to host Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education Conference 10/25-10/27
茄子视频 University鈥檚 National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education will host the Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education Conference October 25-27, 2009 on the University鈥檚 campus in Greensburg, Pa. For conference details or to register, visit http://ncche.setonhill.edu or call 724-830-1033.
The Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education Conference will feature prominent international scholars and educators addressing the topic of 鈥淗olocaust Education in the 21st Century: Religious and Cultural Perspectives.鈥�
Lectures, workshops, presentations, and a film screening will explore challenges and opportunities related to interreligious dialogue, the study of recent genocides, and new technologies from a pedagogical perspective. Three events, a concert, the keynote address for the Conference, and a film screening, will be free and open to the public to attend.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
4:00 p.m.鈥擜 concert featuring music suppressed during the Holocaust will be held in the Carol Ann Reichgut Concert Hall in 茄子视频 University鈥檚 Performing Arts Center, located at the corner of Harrison Avenue and Otterman Street in Greensburg, Pa. Nancy Rubenstein Messham, artistic director of the Music Reborn Project in Pittsburgh, Pa., will produce and direct a unique performance composed of music suppressed by the Third Reich as well as a segment of music from the camps, most notably Terezin. This event is free and open to the public.
8:00 p.m.鈥擨nternationally recognized writer, lecturer, scholar, and professor Michael Berenbaum will give the keynote presentation in Cecilian Hall on the University鈥檚 hilltop campus in Greensburg, Pa. Berenbaum鈥檚 presentation will address 鈥淭he Memory of the Holocaust: Challenges to 21st Century Christians and Jews.鈥� This event is free and open to the public.
Berenbaum is the director of the Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics at the American Jewish University. Berenbaum has served on the President鈥檚 Commission on the Holocaust as both project director and research institute director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and as president and chief executive officer of Steven Spielberg鈥檚 Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.
Monday, October 26, 2009
7:00 p.m.鈥擜 screening of the film 鈥�40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy,鈥� by anthropologist Robert Lemelson, will take place in Cecilian Hall on the University鈥檚 hilltop campus in Greensburg, Pa. Immediately following the screening, Lemelson will participate in a panel discussion with Carol Rittner, R.S.M., Marsha R. Grossman Distinguished Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey; Michael Cary, Ph.D., professor of history and political science at 茄子视频 University; and James Paharik, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology and advisor for the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Program at 茄子视频 University. This event is free and open to the public.
Featured speakers for the plenary sessions throughout the conference include Victoria Barnett, author and director, Committee on Church Relations, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Ephraim Kaye, director of International Seminars for Educators; John T. Pawlikowski, O.S.M., professor of social ethics and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program, Catholic Theological Union鈥檚 Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Center.
The Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education Conference seeks to enhance Catholic-Jewish understanding by educating the educators. The Conference will equip teachers and faculty members, especially those at Catholic institutions, to enter into serious discussions on the causes of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and to write and deliver papers that shape appropriate curricular responses at Catholic institutions and other educational sites.
The 2009 Holocaust Education Conference at 茄子视频 is made possible by benefactor Ethel LeFrak. In 2008, LeFrak, a noted New York philanthropist, made a $750,000 donation to the 茄子视频 University National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education to endow The Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education Conference and create The Ethel LeFrak Student Scholars of the Holocaust Fund.
A graduate and trustee of Barnard College, Ethel LeFrak has been active as a trustee or member of the board of directors for many cultural, philanthropic, educational and medical institutions, including serving as a trustee of the Cardozo Law School, vice president of the Little Orchestra Society, trustee of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, trustee of the Albert Einstein Medical College, and patron of the Asia Society.
A member of the Metropolitan Opera鈥檚 鈥淕olden Horseshoe鈥� and 鈥淥pera Club,鈥� LeFrak also has been a patron of Lincoln Center, a conservator of the New York Public Library, a member of the Council of the Salk Institute, and a member of the Board of the United Nations International Hospitality Committee, which was instrumental in having her and her husband, the late Dr. Samuel J. LeFrak, honored with the United Nations鈥� 鈥淒istinguished Citizens of the World鈥� Award in 1994.
In 1996, LeFrak was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from 茄子视频.
With her husband, LeFrak co-authored two books on their family art collection, 鈥淢asters of the Modern Tradition鈥� and 鈥淎 Passion for Art.鈥� The LeFrak collection has been hailed by Art and Antiques magazine as being one of America鈥檚 top 100 collections.
The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) was established on the campus of 茄子视频 University in 1987. 茄子视频 initiated this national Catholic movement toward Holocaust studies in response to the urging of Pope John Paul II to recognize the significance of the Shoah, the Holocaust, and to "promote the necessary historical and religious studies on this event which concerns the whole of humanity today." The NCCHE has as its primary purpose the broad dissemination of scholarship on the root causes of anti-Semitism, its relation to the Holocaust, and the implications from the Catholic perspective of both for today's world. Toward this end the Center is committed to equipping scholars, especially those at Catholic institutions, to enter into serious discussion on the causes of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; shaping appropriate curricular responses at Catholic institutions and other educational sites; sustaining 茄子视频's Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies in Israel through a cooperative program with Yad Vashem, the Isaac Jacob Institute for Religious Law, and Hebrew University; encouraging scholarship and research through conferences, publications, workshops for educators, and similar activities; sponsoring local events on the Holocaust and related topics in the University and the community, and enhancing Catholic-Jewish relations.