April 2, 2008

Holocaust Remembrance Conference to take place April 6-10

Sponsored by the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Committee, this year's conference is titled "Lives Interrupted."

Prior to the official start of the conference on Sunday (April 6), a photographic exhibit titled "The Good, The Bad, and The Unthinkable" by Donna Schurman will be on display at the Morton Community Center, 222 N. Chauncey Ave. The exhibit will open at 4:30 and be available for viewing through April 10.

Registration for the conference will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday (April 6) in Purdue's Stewart Center, Room 214.

Proclamations by Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski and West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis will open the event at 2 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 214, followed by ceremonial proceedings by Rabbi Audrey Pollack of Temple Israel and music by Brad Bodine and the St. Thomas Aquinas Singers. Purdue President France A. Córdova will provide the opening remarks at 2:20 p.m.

At 2:40 p.m., Christopher Browning, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will talk about "Remembering survival: Postwar testimonies from the Starachowice factory slave labor camps in Stewart Center, Room 214. Browning is serving as the 2nd Annual Rabbi Gadalyah Engel Lecturer, which is named in honor of the conference founder. Robert Melson will introduce Browning.

A schedule of other conference events, which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted, is as follows:

* April 6. 3:40 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 214. The Holocaust and contemporary Jewish identity. Debra Kaufman, professor of sociology at Northeastern University in Boston. Introduction by Rachel Einwohner.

* April 6. 4:40 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 214. On Kindertransports. Joseph Haberer, a survivor and professor emeritus of political science at Purdue.

* April 6. 7:30 p.m. Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The Children of Wilesden Lane, an oral interpretation and piano performance by Mona Golabek, an author, pianist and storyteller. Introduction by Sarah Powley. A reception and book signing will follow.

* April 7. 9 a.m. Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette. University Religious Leaders Breakfast, a conversation with Browning and Kaufman.

* April 7. 9:30 a.m. Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The Children of Wilesden Lane, a program for elementary and middle school students by Golabek. Co-sponsored by the Ackerman Center in Purdue's College of Education.

* April 7. 7:30 p.m. Purdue's Krannert Auditorium. Seeds for a United World: A Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue on the Muslim open letter, "A Common Word Between Us and You." David A. Shaheed, Imam of Indianapolis and Marion Superior Court judge, will be the presenter, Thomas Ryba, Notre Dame theologian-in-residence at Purdue, will be the moderator/respondent, and Pollack will serve as the respondent.

* April 8. 4:30 p.m. St. Thomas Aquinas, Room 3, 535 W. State St., West Lafayette. Teaching the music of The Children of Wilesden Lane: A seminar for middle school and high school teachers. Featuring chair Sarah Powley, an educator and English Department chair of McCutcheon High School, Sarah Fronczek, fine arts consultant with the Indiana Department of Education, and Haberer.

* April 8. 7:30 p.m. Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette. Movie "Into the Arms of Strangers." Engel will lead a discussion following the film.

* April 9. 7:30 p.m. Purdue's Krannert Auditorium. The Holocaust Debate Inside Iran. Janet Afary, professor of history at Purdue. Introduction by Valentine M. Moghadam.

* April 10. 7:30 p.m. St. Thomas Aquinas, Room 3, 535 W. State St., West Lafayette. Freedom and Conscience in the Face of Evil: The Interrupted Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter. Michael Hovel, director for the Office of Catholic Social Teaching and adviser for ecumenical and interfaith affairs, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.

The conference is sponsored at Purdue by the Office of the Provost, Office of Human Relations, College of Education, College of Liberal Arts, James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship, Department of History and the Jewish Studies Program.

Additional sponsors are the Diocese of Lafayette and St. Thomas Aquinas Center, Hillel Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Lafayette, Tippecanoe County Religious Leaders, University Religious Leaders Association and the West Lafayette Human Relations Commission.

Holocaust Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as Yom HaShoah, will be observed this year on May 2. Translated from Hebrew, the phrase means day of catastrophe.

Writer: Christy Jones, (765) 494-1089, christyjones@purdue.edu

Source: Susan Prohofsky, (765) 463-1980, sue@glhrc.org

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

Note to Journalists: Journalists can attend all conference events. To make arrangements, contact conference co-chair Susan Prohofsky at (765) 463-1980, sue@glrc.org

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