Awards and Congratulations To

AWARDS

Professor Simon Rabinovitch, Associate Professor of History and Core Faculty in Jewish Studies, was selected for a three-year term as the holder of the Bernard A. Stotsky Professorship in Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies. The Professorship was established at Northeastern University in 1991 thanks to a generous gift from Bernard A. Stotsky. It is designed to support research on and teaching about the broad ethical, cultural, and social issues stemming from the Holocaust and to further new approaches to problems of social justice and modern Judaism. Open to members of the full-time tenured faculty across the University, the holder of the Stotsky Professorship is selected by an interdisciplinary faculty committee. It is held for a three-year term, with the possibility of one renewal. The holder of the Professorship receives an annual research stipend and discretionary fund, and one course release over the course of the fellowship. The Stotsky Professor presents the results of his research to a formal convocation of the University community. Dean Uta Poiger noted, “In his role as Chair of the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee as well as his classroom teaching, Professor Rabinovitch is committed to providing a full picture of Jewish history, including highlighting histories of antiSemitism and anti-Judaism, the battles Jews have had to fight as well as the multi-faceted impact of Jews in history and culture.” Professor Rabinovitch thanked the College and the Stotsky family for the appointment, saying “This appointment is a very special honor for me, and I appreciate everything the Stotsky family does for the university and for Jewish studies.”

The Gideon Klein Award, a $5000 scholarship awarded to a student for a project on the Holocaust and music, musicians or the arts, was established by Professor Bill Giessen in 1997 and supported by the Giessen family for 25 years. In that time, a treasure trove of original research and musical performances resulted from the award. Beginning in 2022-2023, the Holocaust Legacy Foundation, founded by Todd Ruderman and Jody Kipnis, has graciously agreed to continue this legacy by awarding $5000 to a student at Northeastern doing research on the Holocaust and the arts or artists. The first Holocaust Legacy Foundation Gideon Klein Award was awarded to Ethan Rogers, who is planning to study the Secret Synagogue of Terezin, and will re-create a scale and digital model which he will present at Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week 2023. “We are very grateful to the Holocaust Legacy Foundation for enabling us to sustain this important tradition at Northeastern,” said Lori Lefkovitz, Ruderman Professor of Jewish Studies. She added, “Ethan Rogers joins a remarkable cohort of Gideon Klein Scholars, students who have produced and presented extraordinarily moving and professional research projects over the years. As the first Holocaust Legacy Foundation Gideon Klein Scholar, Rogers promises to make a singular contribution to our knowledge about the Holocaust. He will showcase the bravery of Jews incarcerated in Terezin and who secretly designed, built, and even decorated a hidden space for prayer in a concentration camp.”

[RECORDINGS OF PREVIOUS GIDEON KLEIN PROJECTS CAN BE FOUND ON THE HOLOCAUST AWARENESS ARCHIVES OF NORTHEASTERN.]

SECRET SYNAGOGUE OF TEREZIN

[MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AWARD CAN BE FOUND ON OUR WEBSITE. ]

MORGAN KNIGHT ETHAN ROGERS

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Morgan Knight, on her graduation from Northeastern. The 2021 Ruderman Scholar in Jewish Studies, Knight majored in Political Science and minored in Jewish Studies, Law and Public Policy, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Working with Prof. Lefkovitz, Knight wrote her capstone project on Operation Paperclip, the post-war relocation of Nazi scientists (see page 13). Ethan Rogers, on being named the Holocaust Legacy Foundation Gideon Klein Scholar for 2022-2023. Rogers is a third-year student majoring in Architecture and minoring in Urban Landscape Studies. For his project, Rogers will be studying the Secret Synagogue of the Terezin ghetto, and creating a scale and digital model. He will present his work during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week 2023. Professor Jim Ross, Associate Professor of Journalism, on his retirement from Northeastern University. Professor Ross served as chair of the Jewish Studies Program from 1995-1998, and 20042010, and also served a term as Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies. Northeastern Professor Emerita Debra Kaufman, who will receive the Marshall Sklare award given by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry at the Association of Jewish Studies convention in December 2022 in Boston.

JIM ROSS DEBRA KAUFMAN

STUDENT CAPSTONE PROJECT (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13)

had American-born children, expanded their careers outside of military relations, and were able to live out their lives free from consequence.

How do we reckon with the ugly truth? The story unearthed by the facts of Operation Paperclip greatly differ from the heroic, all-American tales perpetuated in our history books. Although there is research on Operation Paperclip, the story has yet to permeate the United States’ public knowledge; the stories that we think we know are fabricated under layers of shame. The events of the Holocaust and Operation Paperclip demonstrate that the United States’ weaponized complicity was not limited to ignoring the Shoah while it occurred. Instead, the U.S. government went above and beyond inaction to pardon and protect war criminals. As an American Jew and third-generation Holocaust survivor, I am deeply disappointed and hurt that the information outlined here required digging. My family members and millions of others were ignored by the nation that I call home; their murderers were protected in the name of scientific advancement, and I had to find out about it through a television show. Until this information is not only widely available but is promoted through substantive Holocaust education, the United States will continue to erase its evils and benefit as the hero of a people that they did not truly save. As time moves further and further from the events of the Holocaust, we must acknowledge this dark aspect of United States’ history to ensure that “Never Again” is an action statement.

Morgan Knight recently graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Political Science and minors in Jewish Studies, Law and Public Policy, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She was the 2021 Ruderman Scholar in Jewish Studies and is currently working for the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as a paralegal specializing in Civil Rights and Civil Frauds.