BOONE—The 15th Annual Martin and Doris Rosen Summer Symposium on Remembering the Holocaust will be held July 23-28 in Appalachian State University’s Plemmons Student Union. This year’s symposium puts a particular emphasis on the roles and struggles of women in the Holocaust and explores the significance of gender in this genocide.

The week-long event is organized by Appalachian’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies and named for symposium benefactors, the late Doris and Martin Rosen. The symposium is free and open to the public.

The symposium features internationally and nationally acclaimed scholars, authors and educators. The event’s faculty and speakers include Professor Pamela Nadell (American University), Auschwitz survivor Dr. Susan Cernyak-Spatz, Rabbi Judy Schindler (Temple Beth El), Holocaust children’s book author Kathy Kacer (Toronto), Dr. Racelle Weiman (independent Holocaust educator) and Professor Michael Berenbaum (American Jewish University). For the first time, Appalachian’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies is collaborating with Yad Vashem, the World Center for Holocaust Research, Documentation, Education and Commemoration, in Jerusalem. Sheryl Ochayon, JD, from Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies, will attend and give presentations.

The symposium provides information and insights about the victims, perpetrators and consequences of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. In addition, the program widens the focus to explore Jewish religious and cultural life before the Shoah. The symposium explores how Jewish women have shaped Jewish religion and culture, struggled for survival in the face of Nazi onslaughts, and participated in the resistance against fascist forces. The symposium also shares knowledge on how the Nazis targeted Jewish women and how Gentile German women participated in this targeting on a larger scale than previous scholarship has established.

Contributing to the international reach and composition of the event, secondary-school teachers from Latvia, Hungary and Romania will be among the participants and discuss the teaching of the Holocaust in their countries.

As in years past, North Carolina teachers can receive continuing education units for attending the lectures, workshops, discussions and demonstrations.

This year’s events will also include “Faces of Resistance: Women in the Holocaust,” a powerful exhibit that explains how Jewish women across the continent resisted the Nazis and their many collaborators. The traveling exhibit, researched and compiled by Moreshet, the Mordechai Anielevich Memorial, in Israel, will be on display in Plemmons Student Union for the duration of the symposium.

The symposium is sponsored by The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany; the Martin and Doris Rosen Endowment; the Community Advisory Board and Friends of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies; Appalachian’s College of Arts and Sciences, Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies program and University Bookstore; the Boone Jewish Community/Temple of the High Country; Havurah of the High Country; the Margolis Family; the Ruth and Stan Etkin Symposium Scholars’ Fund; the Leon Levine Foundation; the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust; Echoes and Reflections of Yad Vashem (in collaboration with the USC Shoah Foundation and the Anti-Defamation League); and the AJS Distinguished Lectureship Program at the Association for Jewish Studies.

For a schedule of events and complete list of speakers, visit http://holocaust.appstate.edu/2016_Schedule. To register for CEUs, visit http://holocaust.appstate.edu/events/summer-symposium/symposium-form.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.