2009-2010 Academic Year
Among our major events for the current school year:
Our third annual "Interfaith Clergy Seminar and Lecture," featuring Amy-Jill Levine, Friday, February 19, 2010, Temple Shalom, Naples
Public lecture by Dr. Levine, 7:00 pm, Temple Shalom, Thursday February 18
Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Her most recent publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; the edited collection, The Historical Jesus in Context; and the fourteen-volume series, Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings.
Our third annual "Visiting Scholar Lecture," with Harry Reicher: "No One Ever Died Illegally in Auschwitz: The Nazis' Obsession with Legalizing the Holocaust"
Sunday, February 7, 2010; 2:00 pm, FGCU campus, Student Union Ballroom
A leading expert on Holocaust-era restitution and other legal issues relating to genocide, Dr. Reicher has taught at Penn Law School since 1995, and has pioneered what is effectively a new academic discipline, combining Holocaust studies and law. In 2004, President Bush appointed him to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has published in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law and is the editor of Australian International Law: Cases and Materials, the first-ever indigenous Australian Casebook on international law. His book, "Holocaust Law: Materials and Commentary," is in press.
Thursday, February 11, 10:00 am, First Presbyterian Church of Bonita Springs:
Robert Edsel, author of renowned book on the "Monuments Men":
The "Monuments Men" were a group of 345 or so men and women from thirteen nations who comprised the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section during World War II. Many were museum directors, curators, art historians, and educators. Together they worked to protect monuments and other cultural treasures from the destruction of World War II. In the last year of the war they tracked, located, and ultimately returned more than 5 million artistic and cultural items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis.
Wednesday, April 8, 7:00 pm, FGCU campus (location to be annouced soon): Dr. John Cox, Director of the FGCU Holocaust-studies center and author of recent book on Jewish resistance, speaks on "Did They Fight Back? Jewish Resistance, Resilience, and Survival Strategies during the Holocaust."
Other upcoming events during the Spring semester, 2010 (times/dates/locations to be announced soon):
- Dr. Wendy Chase, Professor of the Humanities at Edison State College, will lecture on "Modernism, Fascism, and 'Degenerate Art'"
- Play: "In Memory's Kitchen," featuring Lori Shula
Caught in the nightmare we call the "Holocaust" Mina, at age 70, was forcibly transported to Terezin, Hitler's "Potemkin village" showplace. While imprisoned and assigned demeaning latrine duty for the next 3 years, Mina astutely developed her fabulous idea which—although implementing it was a dangerous breaking of the rules—succeeded in fanning the flames of hope within her fellow inmates. Based upon the book.
- Lev Raphael, author of "My Germany: A Jewish Writer Returns to the World His Parents Escaped": From review: "Raphael contributes again to the genre of second-generation Holocaust literature in which he is a pioneer. In this poignant memoir, he takes readers on his journey to reconcile with the past. Having grown up in New York with survivor parents who hated Germans and everything German, Raphael is nervous when given the opportunity to do a book tour in Germany for his book Secret Anniversaries of the Heart. With much trepidation, he visits the places that haunted his family and caused him to bear the burden of their pain. True to his other works, his book is powerful and captivating to the end, painting vivid pictures of his parents' suffering, his hatred of Germany, and eventually his healing and reconciliation."
- Teacher-training workshop for area high school teachers (organized with the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida, June 2010).
ALSO: We would like to encourage everyone to participate in Edison State's "Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial Week," March 22-26, 2010.
More information: John Cox, FGCU History Dept., jmcox@fgcu.edu
