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March 19, 2004

'Mengele twin' keynote speaker at Holocaust Conference

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Eva Mozes Kor, who with her twin sister survived medical experiments conducted by Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, will participate in several events taking place Thursday through Saturday (3/25-27) as part of the 23rd annual Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference.

Eva Mozes Kor

Kor will deliver the conference keynote address, "Forgiving For Survival," at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in Matthews Hall, Room 210. She also will speak to about 200 Tippecanoe County school children at Happy Hollow Elementary School at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday in an age-appropriate talk sponsored by Purdue University's James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship.

"Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference themes have included remembrance of terrorism as well as the Holocaust," says Rabbi Gedalyah Engel, coordinator of the event. "The purpose of the conference is to encourage people to learn from the past and apply that learning to current civil rights issues and global terrorism to possibly avoid such calamities."

Holocaust Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom Ha Shoah, will be observed around the world this year on April 18. The literal translation is Day of the Catastrophe.

Saturday's conference, which will focus on anti-Semitism and terrorism, begins with registration at 1 p.m. in Matthews Hall, Room 210. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., university President Martin C. Jischke will deliver an address titled "Anti-Semitism in a Time of Terror," also in Room 210.

The remainder of the conference will be in Matthews Hall, Room 210, unless otherwise noted. The schedule is as follows:

Zvi Gitelman

• 2 p.m. Zvi Gitelman, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, will discuss "Amnesia and Anti-Semitism: Political Manipulation of History."

• 3 p.m. Hart Hasten, an author and Jewish day school founder who fled Poland with his family to escape the Nazi invasion, will give a talk titled "I Will Not Die."

Hart Hasten

• 3:45-5 p.m. James McCann, Purdue associate professor of political science, will speak on "Balancing Security Concerns and Democratic Ideals in a Post 9-11 World." Immediately following McCann's presentation, he will moderate a panel discussion on maintaining democracy 60 years after the Holocaust. Panelists include Gitelman, Hasten and Kor.

•5 p.m. Concurrent workshops:

– Teaching the Holocaust: Reni Winter, the daughter of a Czechoslovakian survivor.

– Three Voices from the Holocaust.

– Hate Groups in Central Indiana: John Cox, captain of special services, Purdue Police Department.

• 8 p.m. Memorial Tribute with the Flame of Remembrance, officiated by Rabbi Audrey Pollack; proclamation by Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski and West Lafayette Mayor Jan Mills.

• 8:30 p.m. Keynote address by Kor titled "Forgiving For Survival."

Related events that precede the Saturday conference include:

Thursday, March 25

• 9:30 a.m. Happy Hollow Elementary School auditorium, Kor speaks to elementary students.

Friday, March 26

• 6 p.m. Sons of Abraham, 661 N. Seventh St., Lafayette. Shabbat services and dinner followed at 8 p.m. by an informal discussion with Hasten.

• 6:30 p.m. Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette. Shabbat services and deli dinner followed at 8:45 p.m. by informal conversation with Gitelman. Cost for dinner is $5 for public and $3 for students.

• 7:30 p.m. Temple Israel, 620 Cumberland Ave., West Lafayette. Reni Winter, daughter of a Czechoslovakian Holocaust survivor, speaks on "The Holocaust: A Second Generation Survivor."

The Holocaust Remembrance Conference is being held in cooperation with the Diocese of Lafayette St. Thomas Aquinas Center, Hillel Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Lafayette, Purdue University Office of Human Relations, Purdue Jewish Studies Program, Tippecanoe County Religious Leaders and University Religious Leaders.

The conference is made possible by the Sam and Edith Chosnek Memorial Fund; Irving and Shirley Kaplan Fund; Eli Lilly and Co., Tippecanoe Laboratories; Gannett Foundation - Journal and Courier; and Lafayette Community Bank.

For additional information about the conference and associated events, contact Engel at (765) 743-1716.

Writer: Amy Raley, (765) 494-9573, araley@purdue.edu

Source: Rabbi Gedalyah Engel, (765) 743-1716, mkengel@juno.com

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Media wishing to arrange advance interviews with conference participants should contact Reni Winter at (765) 496-3133, rwinter@purdue.edu.

Related Web sites:
Sons of Abraham Synagogue

Related Release:
Holocaust survivor to tell her story to area elementary students


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