Center Fall Programming Goes Global during the “Zoom Age”
Prof. Atina Grossmann lecturing from her home office in New York City
The deadly attack on the synagogue of the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh in 2018, which sent shockwaves through American-Jewish communities, has been far from the only act of violence directed against synagogues in the U.S. in recent years. Others like the shooting attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue on Passover in 2019 were also deadly, while still others such as the attempted bomb attack on the Temple Emanuel Synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado, failed, but not by far. These ongoing assaults are not limited to synagogues in the U.S. There have been a series of attacks on synagogues in Germany, for example. The most recent one in October severely injured a kippa-wearing Jewish student about to participate in Sukkot services in Hamburg’s Hohe Weide synagogue. In Ukraine this past July, an axe-wielding attacker tried to enter the synagogue at Mariupol on the eve of Tisha B’Av, but was stopped by security. And the list continues…
Faced with these crimes, the Center organized a commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the nationwide pogroms in Hitler Germany that began on November 9, 1938, and marked the prewar turning point in the Nazi regime’s persecution of the Jewish population. As part of the pogroms, mainly SS and SA units destroyed close to 300 synagogues throughout the Reich. The Center-hosted program was designed to raise awareness not just of one of the many mass and genocidal crimes of the Nazi regime, but also the ongoing discrimination and violence perpetrated against Jews in Europe, North America and far beyond.
Dr. Willie C. Fleming, Appalachian State’s chief diversity officer, welcomed the participants on behalf of the administration. Kurt Love, President of the Executive Committee of the local synagogue, thanked the audience for participating and shared memories of family members persecuted and murdered by the Germans. Center Director Thomas Pegelow Kaplan introduced the guest of honor, Dr. Atina Grossmann, Professor of History in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union in New York City, herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Sharing the Center’s firm belief in the importance of education to counter racism and antisemitism, Prof. Grossmann gave an illuminating presentation on “Remapping Survival: Jewish Refugees and Lost Memories of Displacement, Trauma, and Rescue in the Soviet Union, Iran, and India” that demonstrated the, literally, global scope of the Shoah. Increasingly desperate German, Polish and other European Jews tried to escape the Nazi-controlled continent, exploring ever more remote routes and temporary exiles, ranging from the relative safety of Iran to imprisonment -- as German or Austrian Jews -- in British India due to their enemy alien status. The connections to the current refugee crises, closed borders and mass detentions was not lost on the audience. The Center will continue this programming, also as part of its efforts to give our students tools to make the right ethical decisions in the face of today’s many forms of bigotry and injustice.
Faced with these crimes, the Center organized a commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the nationwide pogroms in Hitler Germany that began on November 9, 1938, and marked the prewar turning point in the Nazi regime’s persecution of the Jewish population. As part of the pogroms, mainly SS and SA units destroyed close to 300 synagogues throughout the Reich. The Center-hosted program was designed to raise awareness not just of one of the many mass and genocidal crimes of the Nazi regime, but also the ongoing discrimination and violence perpetrated against Jews in Europe, North America and far beyond.
Dr. Willie C. Fleming, Appalachian State’s chief diversity officer, welcomed the participants on behalf of the administration. Kurt Love, President of the Executive Committee of the local synagogue, thanked the audience for participating and shared memories of family members persecuted and murdered by the Germans. Center Director Thomas Pegelow Kaplan introduced the guest of honor, Dr. Atina Grossmann, Professor of History in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union in New York City, herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Sharing the Center’s firm belief in the importance of education to counter racism and antisemitism, Prof. Grossmann gave an illuminating presentation on “Remapping Survival: Jewish Refugees and Lost Memories of Displacement, Trauma, and Rescue in the Soviet Union, Iran, and India” that demonstrated the, literally, global scope of the Shoah. Increasingly desperate German, Polish and other European Jews tried to escape the Nazi-controlled continent, exploring ever more remote routes and temporary exiles, ranging from the relative safety of Iran to imprisonment -- as German or Austrian Jews -- in British India due to their enemy alien status. The connections to the current refugee crises, closed borders and mass detentions was not lost on the audience. The Center will continue this programming, also as part of its efforts to give our students tools to make the right ethical decisions in the face of today’s many forms of bigotry and injustice.
Kurt Love (Temple of the High Country) during the commemoration