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"Post-Holocaust Generations and the Call to Memory"
Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024 | 7 p.m.
UNH 1000, Ahmanson Auditorium
Loyola Marymount University
We find ourselves now, in the early decades of the 21st century, at a critical turning point in post-Holocaust history, an era that will witness the end of lived, eyewitness testimony. Thus, the obligation to remember, to continue the ever-receding narrative of the past and extend the memory of the Holocaust to future generations, has become even more imperative. Thus, new generations have taken up the obligatory call to memory to extend and memorialize the legacy of those whose voiced testimonies recede into history. Second and third-generation accounts of the Nazi genocide mark an important shift in the intergenerational transmission and expression of Holocaust memory, trauma, and representation. Subsequent generations of those whose lives have been impacted by the events of the Holocaust return to the memory of the traumatic past as an expression of mourning and commemoration in new forms of expression that speak to the visual culture in which we live.
This event is free and open to the public, but please be sure to RSVP.
About the speaker:
Victoria Aarons holds the position of O.R. and Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature in the English Department at Trinity University in San Antonio, where she teaches courses on American Jewish and Holocaust literatures. In addition to over 100 articles and book chapters, she is the author or editor of 13 books, including A Measure of Memory: Storytelling and Identity in American Jewish Fiction and What Happened to Abraham: Reinventing the Covenant in American Jewish Fiction, both recipients of the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title; The New Diaspora: The Changing Landscape of American Jewish Fiction; The Cambridge Companion to Saul Bellow; Third-Generation Holocaust Representation: Trauma,
History, and Memory; Third-Generation Holocaust Narratives: Memory in Memoir and Fiction; The New Jewish American Literary Studies; Holocaust Graphic Narratives: Generation, Trauma, and Memory; The Palgrave Handbook of Holocaust Literature and Culture, and, most recently, Memory Spaces: Visualizing Identity in Jewish Women’s Graphic Narratives; and the forthcoming volume The Story Is Not Over: Embodied Selfhood in Jewish Women’s Graphic Narratives. Aarons serves as judge for the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, a literary prize given each year to a rising American Jewish writer of fiction. She is on the editorial board of Philip Roth Studies, Studies in American Jewish Literature, Partial Answers, and Women in Judaism, and she is series editor for Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature. She serves on the San Antonio Holocaust Memorial Museum Commission and the Holocaust Education Committee of the Jewish Federation of San Antonio
General Information
Hosted by the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and the Jewish Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University, the annual Kristallnacht Commemoration honors the victims of Kristallnacht, or "The Night of Broken Glass," which took place in 1938. In one night, Nazi-orchestrated violence killed 92 Jews, arrested more than 25,000 others and destroyed 200 synagogues and thousands of Jewish homes and businesses.
“Kristallnacht is recognized as the start of the Holocaust. It is remembered as a way to honor the dead and teach younger generations about the injustice that occurred." - Holli Levitsky, director of Jewish Studies.
Past Events
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2023: Henry Morgenthau and Franklin Roosevelt: friendship, politics, bureaucracy, and the creation of the War Refugee Board
Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Featuring:
Bob Morgenthau is a trustee of the Museum of Jewish Heritage - a Living Memorial to the Holocaust. He has become a student of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, focusing on the roles his grandfather and great-grandfather played in each.
Bob holds a BA in English from Amherst College. On his way to a career in publishing, he got lost and found himself on Wall Street in 1982. He has been a partner of Lazard Freres & Co, founder of NorthRoad Capital Management, and is currently a principal of Spears Abacus Advisors, a wealth management firm. He is also a director of the Police Athletic League in New York City.
View photo gallery here.
Event Recording:
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From Hitler’s Munich to American Exile: German Jews and the Realities of Forced Migration, 1933–1945
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022
Flight and Expulsion are phenomena that have inscribed themselves with evocative power into the history of the last 100 years. Seeking to advance our understanding of the often traumatic, life-altering experiences of forced migration, this lecture focusses on the individual experience of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. Moreover, using personal accounts of German Jews that illustrate both the personal difficulties associated with the decision to emigrate and the struggles of each individual upon arrival abroad, the importance of (auto-)biographical sources for scholarly analysis of the complexities of Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany in particular and forced migration movements in general is highlighted.
Featuring:
- A candle lighting ceremony in remembrance of the Night of Broken Glass.
- Andrea A. Sinn, Elon University
Sponsors:
- Academy for Jewish Religion California
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2021: Transhumanism & The Nazi Quest for the Master Rac
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis, stem cell research, and other new medical techniques promise to help us avoid disease and other disabilities and extend life. How, if at all, is this different from the Nazi effort to create the master race?
Featuring:
- A candle lighting ceremony in remembrance of the Night of Broken Glass.
- Rabbi Elliott Dorff, Rector and Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy at American Jewish University.
- Musical highlights by Professor William R. Washington, Director of the LMU Gospel Choir and AJR/CA Cantorial student, Kelly Cooper.
Sponsors:
- Academy for Jewish Religion California
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2020: Voices of Hope, Acts of Kindness: Mutual Assistance in the Holocaust
Date: Monday, November 9, 2020
Featuring:
- A candle lighting ceremony in remembrance of the Night of Broken Glass.
- Voices from our community including David Silberklang, senior historian in the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem, LMU students' reflections, and an invocation by Michael Engh, S.J., chancellor, LMU.
- A community slideshow with family photographs of loved ones affected by the Holocaust.
- A performance of 'Or Chadash,' composed by Amy Robinson Katz and sung by members of the AJR and LMU communities.
Sponsors:
- Academy for Jewish Religion California
- Yad Vashem
View the 2020 Kristallnacht Program Here
Event Recording:
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2019: Human Rights and Refugee Policies: The Voyage of the SS St. Louis
Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Location: Ahmanson Auditorium, University HallFeaturing:
- A candle lighting ceremony in remembrance of the Night of Broken Glass.
- Screening of the documentary film, "Complicit," along with its corresponding poster exhibit.
- Discussion and Q & A with Robert M. Krakow, creator and producer of "Complicit," and Thomas Jacobson, surviving passenger of the SS St. Louis.
- A student-curated exhibition, in collaboration with the David Labkovski Project, showcasing Holocaust art and information.
- Father Alexei Smith, director of ecumenical and interreligious affairs for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was honored with the LMU President’s Award.
Sponsors:
- Loyola Law School
- CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice
- LMU History Department
- LMU Theological Studies Department
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2018: Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor: A Conversation with Yossi Klein Halevi
Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Location: Roski Dining Room, University HallFeaturing:
- Candle Lighting by Rabbi Laura Owens of the Academy for Jewish Religion California and Renee Florsheim, associate dean of LMU's College of Business Administration
- Musical Performance by Cantor Stephanie Kupfer of the Academy for Jewish Religion California
- Lecture by renowned American-born Israeli author and journalist, Yossi Klein Halevi
Sponsors:
- The Martin Gang Institute for Intergroup Relations
- The Academic Engagement Network
- The Academy for Jewish Religion California
- The Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination
- University Synagogue
- Jewish Life at LMU
- The Peace and Justice Studies Program at LMU
- The Journalism Program at LMU
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2017: Transforming the Shards
Date: Monday, November 6, 2017
Location: Roski Dining Room, University HallFeaturing:
- Candle Lighting by Harry Lester, Honored Holocaust Survivor
- Lecture by Rabbi Zachary Shapiro
- Photo Exhibit of "A Celebration of Life," by Clifford Lester, capturing the strength and soul of Holocaust survivors through portraiture
Sponsors:
- The 1939 Society
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2016: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust
Date: Monday, November 7, 2016
Location: Roski Dining Room, University Hall, Loyola Marymount UniversityFeaturing:
- Candle Lighting by Michael Zelon, Honored Holocaust Survivor
- Film Screening of "Jan Karski & the Lords of Humanity," directed by Slawomir Grunberg
- Special guest Mariusz M. Brymora, Consul General of Poland in Los Angeles
- Panel Response by Slawomir Grunberg, Director of "Jan Karski & the Lords of Humanity"; and Edward Gaffney, Professor of Law, Valparaiso University
Sponsors:
- The 1939 Society
- The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles
- The LMU School of Film and Television
- The LMU History Department
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2015: Bearing Witness through Music: Songs of Heartbreak, Yearning and Celebration
Date: Monday, November 9, 2016
Location: Roski Dining Room, University HallFeaturing:
- "El Male Rachamim," by Robyn Littleworth, LMU Theatre Arts Major '12; and Challen Wellington, LMU Dance Major '16
- Candle Lighting by Fela Gipsman, Honored Holocaust Survivor
- Musical Concert with Vanya Green Assuied and Yuval Ron
Sponsors:
- The annual LMU Interfaith Forum
- The Martin Gang Institute
- The Lily Faculty Seminar
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2014: "Against All Odds, Change is Possible"
Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Location: Roski Dining Room, University Hall, Loyola Marymount UniversityFeaturing:
- Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger, author of “A German Life: Against All Odds, Change is Possible,” whose book describes his struggle growing up in the shadow of his Nazi officer father. He eventually converted to Judaism, emigrated to Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces as a medical officer.
Sponsors:
- The 1939 Society
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2013: "Oy Vifil Yorn...? How long has it been...?" Song, Commentary, and Prose in Yiddish and English
Date: Tuesday, November. 12, 2013
Featuring:
- Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel and Pianist Tova Morcos
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2012: WHY THE JEWS? ETHICAL, SPIRITUAL, HISTORICAL LESSONS
Date: Thursday, November 8, 2012
Featuring:
- Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, renowned author and speaker.