A Word from the Director: Running the Center Amidst a Pandemic

Center Director Prof. Pegelow Kaplan during a ZOOM program. Prof. Pegelow Kaplan can be reached at thomaspegelowkaplan@appstate.edu

Nobody at the Center anticipated the spring lockdowns as needed attempts to reduce the spread of a virus that, by now, has killed more than 300,000 Americans. Yet, while we were postponing core Center events such as an international March conference with the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung at Berlin’s Technical University and even the annual Martin and Doris Rosen Summer Symposium on Remembering the Holocaust along with the arrival of the inaugural Senior Center Fellow, the various committees swiftly began to adjust the Center’s work. Everyone quickly saw new opportunities, formats and audiences that would directly advance the Center’s mission and commitment to provide high-quality programs and support for educators, researchers, and the general public in the fields of Jewish, Holocaust, and Peace Studies. In fact, beginning with our first program with Holocaust educator and survivor Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, the response has often been overwhelming and immediately extended beyond traditional audiences. The online programming connected us to other Jewish communities in NC, attracted researchers from across the US and beyond, provided opportunities to touch base with summer symposium graduates in Europe, and allowed Center supporters who had left the NC mountains to log in from wherever they were. The once-smaller campus-based research colloquia turned into veritable international events with participants from numerous countries from Israel and Australia to Poland and Canada. The Center committees have reached out to numerous partners on campus, in NC, the US and abroad to launch new collaborative projects, including a much-sought-after opportunity for Appalachian State students to take an online class at a college in Israel. Finally, Center-supported research and publication projects with German and Israeli colleagues are, aided by online work meetings, increasingly coming to fruition.

​We hope that the readers of this newsletter will take advantage of our upcoming online programming. A huge thank-you to all of our generous supporters who keep us going even amidst a pandemic!