TORONTO, March 12, 2003 -- The countless moral issues arising out of the Holocaust for both perpetrators and survivors continue to haunt their descendants and civilized society everywhere. With Morality and the Holocaust as the theme of this year’s Leonard Wolinsky Lectures on Jewish Life and Education, the Centre for Jewish Studies at York University hosts two distinguished scholars on the subject on Sunday, March 23.
Prof. David Engel from New York University will speak on The Changing Face of the Collaborator, and Prof. Michael Steinlauf from Gratz College will speak on the topic: Is Memory Moral? Poland After the Jedwabne Controversy. Following his talk, Prof. Steinlauf will present a video on contemporary Jewish life in Poland. Prof. Keith Weiser, the York University Silber Family Professor of Holocaust and Eastern European Jewish Studies, will serve as moderator for the event.
David Engel is the Maurice and Corinne Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies at New York University and is a member of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has published numerous books on the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations in English, Hebrew, and Polish.
Michael Steinlauf is an associate professor of history at Gratz College in Philadelphia, the oldest non-denominational college of Jewish studies in the Western Hemisphere. He has visited Poland as a Fulbright Fellow and project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. His book, Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust, examines how the experience of witnessing the Holocaust has marked Polish history and consciousness over the past half century.
The lectures will be begin at 2 p.m. in the Founders Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, Keele campus, York University. The Wolinsky Lectures are sponsored by the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education of York University in cooperation with the Toronto Board of Jewish Education.
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For further information, please contact:
| The Centre for Jewish Studies | Susan Bigelow |
| York University | Media Relations |
| 416-736-5823 | York University |
| 416-736-2100, ext. 22091 | |
| sbigelow@yorku.ca |
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