Speaker Oskar Knoblauch and Educator Kim Klett
Father Desbois was scheduled to be the keynote speaker for the 2020 conference, and then the pandemic hit, and the event was canceled. Fortunately, John was able to reschedule him for April 2022. John says that they will also be bringing back the exhibit, “In Broad Daylight: Holocaust by Bullets,” to ASU. The exhibit was at the Arizona Capitol Museum for a brief time at the beginning of 2020. Even though it’s bittersweet to not have the conference in person for its last year at SCC, the online accessibility will allow a larger audience to access the high caliber of speakers that have been assembled. This year’s keynote speaker will be Kerry Kennedy. Kerry will speak at 5 pm on April 12. She is a human rights activist, writer and the seventh child of Robert F. Kennedy. She is currently the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit human rights advocacy organization. “What she’s speaking on is something that we have never had anyone speak on yet,” says John. “She’s going to speak on the Rohingya Crisis, where the Buddhists are killing the Muslims in Burma.”
66 MARCH/APRIL 2021 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE
Other topics being covered include The Assyrian Genocide, Building Trust in Rwanda, Genocidal Warnings along the U.S.-Mexico Border, Genocide and Human Rights, The Armenian Genocide and Jewish Refugees in the Caribbean. A majority of the conference addresses the Holocaust, and there will be speakers from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in addition to local survivor Oskar Knoblauch. Special Law Enforcement and Society Workshops, that are not open to the general public, will be held on Friday, April 16. These law enforcement presentations are restricted to sworn law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys only, and registrants will have to provide proper identification before registering. For educators, Kim Klett will present an ADL Educators Workshop on Echoes & Reflections. This program introduces students to the complex themes of the Holocaust to understand its lasting effect on the world. Kim teaches English at Dobson High School in Mesa, where she has developed a year-long course, Holocaust Literature. She also teaches a Holocaust course at SCC and is the board secretary for the Phoenix Holocaust Association. Throughout the week, the schedule will include a couple of presentations in the morning and then a larger one in the evening. Registration is free for all the programs, and there is no limit to the number of people that can attend a presentation. “The platform that we’re using at SCC to run this virtual program can accomodate 10,000 people, so there’s no issue with the technology,” says John. “I’m excited. I think we’re going to have a good virtual conference.” To see the complete schedule or to register for Genocide Awareness Week, visit scottsdalecc.edu/genocide-awareness-week-2021.
