HO NOR I NG
HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE AWA R E N E S S W E E K
PIVOTING
Annually, since 1977, the committee of Northeastern faculty, students, and staff who constitute the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee have deliberated thoughtfully on how best to honor the commitment to commemorate the losses of the Holocaust and importantly, how to fulfill the mandate to learn from the history of genocides, ever wrestling with the question of what it might take to avoid repeating history’s most devastating tragedies. These conversations begin with an assessment of where we are now in the world, as my colleagues ask one another, “What are our most urgent concerns? What do we need to be thinking and educating about this year?” In recent years, we trained our eyes on historical turns to fascism and aggressive nationalism. In the fall of 2019, still innocent of the pandemic that was about to disrupt our routines — an experience of disruption that will in all likelihood inform our programs in future years — we talked about examples of heroism, optimism, activism, and the changing nature of hate, as exemplified JESSIE SIGLER, THE 2019 RUDERMAN by anti-Semitism. SCHOLAR, AND YAEL SHEINFELD, THE As always, we were 2019-20 GIDEON KLEIN SCHOLAR AND CLASS OF 2021 HUNTINGTON planning an interrelated 100 INDUCTEE. set of programs, from invited speakers, including survivor testimony, to performances and films, and showcases for the original research and creative expressions of students and faculty.
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Two students worked energetically on their projects. Jessie Sigler worked with Northeastern’s library to create searchable transcriptions of all the committee-sponsored survivor talks since 1993, which dramatically
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
improved the accessibility and user experience of the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee Archives. Yael Sheinfeld, recipient of the Gideon Klein Scholarship that supports student work at the intersection of music and the Holocaust, produced an animated film based on the book The Children’s Tree of Terezin which tells the story of how children incarcerated in a concentration camp were encouraged by their teacher to plant a tree. The tree survives until today, with saplings planted the world over, a story about wresting hope from despair. On September 24, 2020, Jessie and Yael presented their projects virtually to the larger community. In March 2020, the university hosted a photographic and informational exhibit entitled “Beyond Duty, Diplomatic Heroism during the Holocaust,” sponsored by the General Consulate of Israel to New England. This exhibit featured a series of floor-to-ceiling panels, each highlighting the story and heroism of a wartime diplomat who took great personal risks to save Jewish lives. Each biography is moving, and the exhibit, which was mounted along the walls of Northeastern’s International Village — in the well-trafficked corridor of a building that includes classrooms, dorm rooms, and a cafeteria — beckoned passersby, students, in particular, to be inspired by the bravery of people who resisted; people who used their power to break rules and save lives. Then the pandemic struck, and we retreated to our private spaces, learning on a small scale how danger can take us by surprise and force us to adjust.
PHOTOGRAPHIC AND INFORMATIONAL EXHIBIT “BEYOND DUTY, DIPLOMATIC HEROISM DURING THE HOLOCAUST”
