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October 2021
The Holocaust and the Law
From the Nuremberg Racial Laws to Nazi Death Camps, legislative acts undermined democracy. Legal professionals, including lawyers and judges, were implicated in expropriation of property and genocide. This program will introduce aspects of the consequences of erosion of rule of law and why it matters to legal professionals today.
The presentation will be by Charles DeStefano, Esq. with an introduction by Professor Esser, PhD, JD.
Charles DeStefano, Esq., received his Doctor of Law degree from Pace University School of Law (1986) and his BA from Fordham University (Pre-Law Studies). He interned at the United Nations during college. Over the past 33 years, Charles has represented over 6,000 clients through trials, arbitrations, mediations, or negotiations in all matters involving personal injury. He has been elected to serve as the President of the Staten Island Trial Lawyers Association and to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Richmond County Bar Association. He is the Founder of the Staten Island Trial Lawyers Summer Youth Internship Program. He will introduce the program with photos and letters related to the liberation of Buchenwald subcamp Ohrdruf taken by his uncle Frank LaBella, a combat soldier with the Fourth Armored Tank Division led by General George Patton.
If attendance exceeds the capacity of Union 201 this event will move to Spiro 2.
More than Gold: Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympic Games
Jesse Owens, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, was the Olympic champion who defeated Nazi ideology in Hitler’s stadium. He later served on the Board of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. His grandson, Stuart Owen Rankin, who will be in dialogue with Lori Weintrob, historian and Director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center. Representing the International Olympics Committee on the panel is Anita L. DeFrantz, a US Olympic medalist and Vice-President of the IOC.
Sponsored by the Sousa Mendes Foundation, this event will be moderated by Robert Jacobvitz.
Event will be held via Zoom. For more information or to register visit sousamendesfoundation.org/event/jesse-owens.
For questions, contact Prof. Lori Weintrob: holocaust.center@wagner.edu
November 2021
6th Annual Egon J. Salmon Kristallnacht Celebration
Please join us for the 6th Annual Egon J. Salmon and Family Commemoration of Kristallnacht and the S.S. St. Louis entitled BEYOND ANNE FRANK: Hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands
Featuring special guest speaker: Lore Baer Azaria, Holocaust survivor and art therapist, whose experiences are featured in the 1997 children's book: Hidden from the Nazis by David Adler (1997) and in the film Secret Lives: Hidden Children and their Rescuers during WWII (2003), directed by Avivia Slesin.
Members of the Wagner College community are welcome to attend the ceremony in-person in Manzulli Board Room. All others are encouraged to join the event via Zoom. To receive the Zoom link RSVP HERE.
Luncheon in honor of Rabbi Samuel Kastel, Dan Glassman, and Dr. Lori Weintrob
Join the Wagner College Holocaust Center at a luncheon honoring Rabbi Samuel Kastel, Dan Glassman, and our very own director, Dr. Lori Weintrob.
This event will be held at Congregation B'nai Jeshrun, 275 Martling Avenue, Staten Island, NY.
Tickets are available ($75/pp). For more information or to purchase tickets visit the CBJ website at https://gala.cbjsi.com/2021/.
Empowering Women: Lessons from a Survivor of Genocide
This event will feature speaker Consolee Nishimwe, global human rights activist and author of Tested to the Limit: A Genocide Survivor's Story of Pain, Resilience and Hope.
Zoom registration info to follow.
For information, contact Prof. Lori Weintrob: holocaust.center@wagner.edu
January 2022
Confronting Anti-Semitism At Home and Abroad
In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, join Dr. Robert Williams, Deputy Director for International Affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, for a discussion about how current conspiracy theories and tropes fuel antisemitism domestically and internationally, as well as how and why Holocaust education is one of many ways to combat it. Dr. Williams sits on the steering committee of the Global Task Force on Holocaust Distortion, and served for four years as chair of the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 6pm EST
To attend this virtual discussion register here.
This event is organized by the Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College and is co-sponsored by the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College; the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains; the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance & Education at Rockland Community College; the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County; the Wagner College Holocaust Center in Staten Island; the Gross Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey; and the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University.
February 2022
Ignorance, Abuse & Competition: The Politics of Holocaust Remembrance
In our era of globalization, Holocaust remembrance appears to be subject to profound changes. This talk attempts to outline the status, the present challenges, and the meaning of Holocaust remembrance in the increasingly diverse European societies, not the least during a moment of a perceived refugee crisis in Europe, as well as Racism and ever-growing Islamophobia, and at the same time, the global “competition” between the memory of the Holocaust and the crimes of European colonial powers. These are not new questions, but ones that are increasingly relevant and controversial.
Our speaker is Dr. Dirk Rupnow, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Innsbruck and a former fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Pre-register for this Zoom event at https://wagner.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAuf-uorDgsGtIiXW1BUUh12hWewlShKu7A.
Remembering Resistance: Sophie Scholl & the White Rose
The program will feature a conversation between Frank McDonough, author of Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman Who Defied Hitler, and Nathan Stoltzfus, the Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies at Florida State University, moderated by Dr. Lori Weintrob, Wagner College Holocaust Center.
A virtual screening of the Academy Award-nominated film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days will be made available one week before the program.
Register here for this virtual discussion, a program of the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
March 2022
The Politics of a New Hannah Szenes Memorial
This talk focuses on the commemoration of Jewish and Hungarian heroine Hannah (Anikó) Szenes (1921-1944) in Budapest, on the 100th anniversary of her birth.
At twenty-three years old, Szenes parachuted into Yugoslavia in March 1944 where she was caught, tortured and executed. While her life story has been canonized in Israel, in her native land of Hungary she has largely been condemned to oblivion.
Andrea Peto, Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Vienna Austria will lead the discussion during the event.
Empowering Women: Lessons from a Survivor of Genocide
Join Dr. Lori Weintrob and Dr. Vannessa Smith Washington as they welcome guest speaker Consolee Nishimwe, global human rights activist and author of Tested to the Limit: A Genocide Survivor’s Story of Pain, Perseverance, Resilience, and Hope.