This is an important victory for scholars and educators all over the United States. I want first to express my gratitude to General Counsel at the University of Minnesota, and in particular to Brent Benrud, for his outstanding work on this case. I applaud Judge Frank's decision, as it bears witness to the high esteem in which the judicial system in this country holds academic freedom. This outcome honors the principles of freedom of speech, and is a remarkable example of the law's protection of free inquiry into matters of public interest.
Bruno Chaouat, CHGS director
For more information on the law suit, please click here.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Court dismisses Turkish Coalition lawsuit filed against the University of Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/30/2011) --U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank today dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Turkish Coalition of America against the University of Minnesota. The lawsuit arose from materials posted on the university's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) website, including a list of websites CHGS considered "unreliable" for purposes of conducting scholarly research. The Turkish Coalition claimed the university violated its constitutional rights, and committed defamation, by including the Turkish Coalition website on the "unreliable" websites list.
The federal court found the materials on the CHGS website reflected the opinions of the university and its faculty regarding the reliability of the various websites, including the Turkish Coalition website. As such, the court held that the University website material was protected by the principle of academic freedom, which gives the university and its faculty a broad right to express their views and engage in scholarly commentary and critique. Because the materials were protected by academic freedom, the federal court dismissed the Turkish Coalition's claims.
University General Counsel Mark Rotenberg stated, "This case has been followed closely by scholars around the world because of its important implications for principles of academic freedom. If scholars faced legal liability each time they engaged in controversial academic critiques, the concept of academic freedom would be greatly diminished. The court's decision today confirms the right of scholars to engage in academic critiques without fear of legal retribution. The university applauds today's decision."
Read in original format
The federal court found the materials on the CHGS website reflected the opinions of the university and its faculty regarding the reliability of the various websites, including the Turkish Coalition website. As such, the court held that the University website material was protected by the principle of academic freedom, which gives the university and its faculty a broad right to express their views and engage in scholarly commentary and critique. Because the materials were protected by academic freedom, the federal court dismissed the Turkish Coalition's claims.
University General Counsel Mark Rotenberg stated, "This case has been followed closely by scholars around the world because of its important implications for principles of academic freedom. If scholars faced legal liability each time they engaged in controversial academic critiques, the concept of academic freedom would be greatly diminished. The court's decision today confirms the right of scholars to engage in academic critiques without fear of legal retribution. The university applauds today's decision."
Read in original format
Screening of No. 4 Street of Our Lady
Special screening of the award-winning documentary
No. 4 Street of Our Lady
Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival
Tuesday, April 5
7:00 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
4330 Cedar Lake Road South
St. Louis Park, MN
Introduction and Question and Answer with Jodi Elowitz, Outreach Coordinator Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
No. 4 Street of Our Lady
If your neighbors were being hunted down and came to your door begging for help, would you risk your life to save theirs?
No. 4 Street of Our Lady tells the remarkable, yet little-known, story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 16 of her Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust, while cleverly passing herself off as a Nazi sympathizer.
View the trailer
Ticket Information or contact the box office at 952-381-3499.
No. 4 Street of Our Lady
Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival
Tuesday, April 5
7:00 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
4330 Cedar Lake Road South
St. Louis Park, MN
Introduction and Question and Answer with Jodi Elowitz, Outreach Coordinator Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
No. 4 Street of Our Lady
If your neighbors were being hunted down and came to your door begging for help, would you risk your life to save theirs?
No. 4 Street of Our Lady tells the remarkable, yet little-known, story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 16 of her Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust, while cleverly passing herself off as a Nazi sympathizer.
View the trailer
Ticket Information or contact the box office at 952-381-3499.
Alternative Narratives or Denial?
Godard's Wars
Philip Watts, Associate Professor of French, Department Chair, Columbia University
Thoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive
Jeffrey Mehlman, Professor of French, Department of Romance Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University
Wednesday, April 13
4:00 p.m.
Humphrey Forum, Humphrey Center
Godard's Wars
There has been much controversy about French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's relation to the Jews and the Holocaust. Godard was recently accused of anti-Semitism. Philip Watts will return to this recent affair by focusing on Godard's filmic representation of WWII, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust.
How has the Holocaust figured in Godard's films since his earliest days as a filmmaker of the New Wave? What role has the memory of the Holocaust played in Godard's radical politics? What is the relation between the representation of the Holocaust in his films and his anti-Zionism? Do Godard's films somehow distort the memory of the Holocaust? Watts will tackle these questions by revisiting three Godard's films: "A Married Woman" (1964), "Ici et ailleurs" (1975) and "In Praise of Love "(2001) to examine Godard's problematic construction of the memory of the Second World War and of the Holocaust in particular.
Philip Watts, Associate Professor of French, Department Chair, Columbia University, received his BA at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1982 and his PhD from Columbia University in 1991. His research and teaching focuses on 20th-century French literature and film and the relation between politics and aesthetics.
Thoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive
Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has argued in several books that the concentration camp has become the paradigm of our life in modern, liberal democracies. His work has a vast influence on many different fields and disciplines: legal scholarship, social sciences (especially political science), and literary studies in the US, Europe and beyond.
Jeffrey Mehlman will examine the perils engaged and not always avoided when Italy's pre-eminent philosopher, perched between Heidegger and Benjamin, Foucault and Arendt, hurls the pre-eminent discourses of European modernity at the pre-eminent catastrophe of the twentieth century in what never quite coheres as the pre-eminent epistemological encounter of modern times.
Jeffrey Mehlman, Professor of French, Department of Romance Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University is a literary critic and a historian of ideas. Over a number of years, he has been writing an implicit history of speculative interpretation in France in the form of a series of readings of canonical literary works.
Thoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive(Scribd.com)
Co-sponsored by: Department of History, Human Rights Program, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature, and the Department of French and Italian.
Philip Watts, Associate Professor of French, Department Chair, Columbia University
Thoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive
Jeffrey Mehlman, Professor of French, Department of Romance Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University
Wednesday, April 13
4:00 p.m.
Humphrey Forum, Humphrey Center
Godard's Wars
There has been much controversy about French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's relation to the Jews and the Holocaust. Godard was recently accused of anti-Semitism. Philip Watts will return to this recent affair by focusing on Godard's filmic representation of WWII, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust.How has the Holocaust figured in Godard's films since his earliest days as a filmmaker of the New Wave? What role has the memory of the Holocaust played in Godard's radical politics? What is the relation between the representation of the Holocaust in his films and his anti-Zionism? Do Godard's films somehow distort the memory of the Holocaust? Watts will tackle these questions by revisiting three Godard's films: "A Married Woman" (1964), "Ici et ailleurs" (1975) and "In Praise of Love "(2001) to examine Godard's problematic construction of the memory of the Second World War and of the Holocaust in particular.
Philip Watts, Associate Professor of French, Department Chair, Columbia University, received his BA at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1982 and his PhD from Columbia University in 1991. His research and teaching focuses on 20th-century French literature and film and the relation between politics and aesthetics.
Thoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive
Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has argued in several books that the concentration camp has become the paradigm of our life in modern, liberal democracies. His work has a vast influence on many different fields and disciplines: legal scholarship, social sciences (especially political science), and literary studies in the US, Europe and beyond.
Jeffrey Mehlman will examine the perils engaged and not always avoided when Italy's pre-eminent philosopher, perched between Heidegger and Benjamin, Foucault and Arendt, hurls the pre-eminent discourses of European modernity at the pre-eminent catastrophe of the twentieth century in what never quite coheres as the pre-eminent epistemological encounter of modern times.
Jeffrey Mehlman, Professor of French, Department of Romance Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University is a literary critic and a historian of ideas. Over a number of years, he has been writing an implicit history of speculative interpretation in France in the form of a series of readings of canonical literary works.
Thoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive(Scribd.com)
Co-sponsored by: Department of History, Human Rights Program, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature, and the Department of French and Italian.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
"Hate in the Past Tense: Understanding the Origins of Armenian Genocide Denial as a Problem of Contemporary Reconciliation"
Keith David Watenpaugh
Thursday, April 14
4:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Science Building
Dr. Watenpaugh will explore how aspects of Armenian Genocide denial first emerged around a discrete historical moment, in particular international humanitarian relief efforts on behalf of Armenian Genocide survivors in the early interwar period. Thinking about denial in this fashion creates a space in which to reflect critically about how history as both a discipline and practice operates in the spheres of power and public opinion, especially across political and cultural divides.
Understanding genocide denial in the early interwar period is more than just a step in correcting or confronting a mistake in the historical record, but rather constitutes a form of social history where the very crisis that caused denial brings into relief, to borrow a phrase from Michel Foucault, competing "regimes of truth" that are both a product of and central referent of ideological and religious doxa.
The added benefit of understanding Armenian Genocide denial at its earlier moments of articulation, especially where it intersects with the emerging humanitarian régime of the interwar period as a novel, though not unprecedented, style of historicism, is recognizing it as a manifestation of an ideology and a manufactured and reactive defense. This is not to say that the narratives of denial and narratives of acknowledgement are, due to their shared metahistorical implications equal in truth (or lack thereof) rather, each becomes more readily explained as a complex and understandable response to identifiable counter narratives and their underlying ideology.
In the end, seeing denial as less a reflection of a kind of unyielding and unchanging essential societal psychosis than a concerted act that has a contextual and historically bound basis suggest as well a possible path to reconciliation.
Professor Watenpaugh will also present "Hate in the Past Tense" in an abbreviated format at 7:00 p.m. at the St. Sahag Armenian Church 203 North Howell Street, St. Paul.
Co-Sponsored by: European Studies Consortium, Department of History, Human Rights Program, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Cultural Studies & Comparitive Literature, and the Department of French and Italian.
Related Programs
CHGS Reading Discussion Group
"Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide"
by Richard G. Hovannisian
Facilitated by Keith David Watenpaugh
Thursday, April 14
12:00 p.m.
Room 201A, Wilson Library
Reservations are required and can be made via email at CHGS@umn.edu Please put RDG in the subject line and include your name, phone and email address in the body of the message, or phone at 612-624-0256.
Chapters available on line by visiting the CHGS Reading Discussion Group Blog.
"Finding the Lost: The League of Nations' Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Paradoxes of Modern Humanitarianism"
Keith David Watenpaugh
Friday, April 15
3:30p.m.
Room 1210 Heller Hall
Thursday, April 14
4:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Science Building
Dr. Watenpaugh will explore how aspects of Armenian Genocide denial first emerged around a discrete historical moment, in particular international humanitarian relief efforts on behalf of Armenian Genocide survivors in the early interwar period. Thinking about denial in this fashion creates a space in which to reflect critically about how history as both a discipline and practice operates in the spheres of power and public opinion, especially across political and cultural divides.Understanding genocide denial in the early interwar period is more than just a step in correcting or confronting a mistake in the historical record, but rather constitutes a form of social history where the very crisis that caused denial brings into relief, to borrow a phrase from Michel Foucault, competing "regimes of truth" that are both a product of and central referent of ideological and religious doxa.
The added benefit of understanding Armenian Genocide denial at its earlier moments of articulation, especially where it intersects with the emerging humanitarian régime of the interwar period as a novel, though not unprecedented, style of historicism, is recognizing it as a manifestation of an ideology and a manufactured and reactive defense. This is not to say that the narratives of denial and narratives of acknowledgement are, due to their shared metahistorical implications equal in truth (or lack thereof) rather, each becomes more readily explained as a complex and understandable response to identifiable counter narratives and their underlying ideology.
In the end, seeing denial as less a reflection of a kind of unyielding and unchanging essential societal psychosis than a concerted act that has a contextual and historically bound basis suggest as well a possible path to reconciliation.
Professor Watenpaugh will also present "Hate in the Past Tense" in an abbreviated format at 7:00 p.m. at the St. Sahag Armenian Church 203 North Howell Street, St. Paul.
Co-Sponsored by: European Studies Consortium, Department of History, Human Rights Program, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Cultural Studies & Comparitive Literature, and the Department of French and Italian.
Related Programs
CHGS Reading Discussion Group
"Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide"
by Richard G. Hovannisian
Facilitated by Keith David Watenpaugh
Thursday, April 14
12:00 p.m.
Room 201A, Wilson Library
Reservations are required and can be made via email at CHGS@umn.edu Please put RDG in the subject line and include your name, phone and email address in the body of the message, or phone at 612-624-0256.
Chapters available on line by visiting the CHGS Reading Discussion Group Blog.
"Finding the Lost: The League of Nations' Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Paradoxes of Modern Humanitarianism"
Keith David Watenpaugh
Friday, April 15
3:30p.m.
Room 1210 Heller Hall
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
"Turkish-Armenian Relations through the Sociological Lens"
Fatma Muge Gocek
Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan
The Ninth Annual Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Lecture
Friday, April 1, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Mississippi Room
Coffman Memorial Union
Fatma Muge Gocek is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies. Her research focuses on comparative analysis of gender issues in first and third worlds. She also studies the impact on women of processes such as economic development, nationalism and religious movements. Her published works includes East Encounters West: France and the Ottoman Empire in the 18th Century (Oxford University Press 1987), Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East: Tradition, Identity, Power (Columbia University Press, 1994 co-edited with Shiva Balaghi), Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change (Oxford University Press 1996), and Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East (SUNY Press, 2002).
The Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Lecture results from a generous gift by Arsham Ohanessian to the College of Liberal Arts. Arsham was a successful businessman, avid musician, and dedicated community leader. He was devoted to promoting peaceful reconciliation among peoples. His gift to the University of Minnesota supports a wide range of educational, research, and public programs concerning human rights, ethnic and national conflicts, and Armenian history and culture.
A reception will follow the lecture.
This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair in the College of Liberal Arts, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History Department, and Sociology Department.
For resources on Turkish-Armenian relations please visit the CHGS Armenian Genocide page.
Video of Fatma Müge Göçek's talk on nationalism and identity in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th Century: Facing History and Ourselves.
Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan
The Ninth Annual Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Lecture
Friday, April 1, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Mississippi Room
Coffman Memorial Union
Fatma Muge Gocek is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies. Her research focuses on comparative analysis of gender issues in first and third worlds. She also studies the impact on women of processes such as economic development, nationalism and religious movements. Her published works includes East Encounters West: France and the Ottoman Empire in the 18th Century (Oxford University Press 1987), Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East: Tradition, Identity, Power (Columbia University Press, 1994 co-edited with Shiva Balaghi), Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change (Oxford University Press 1996), and Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East (SUNY Press, 2002).
The Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Lecture results from a generous gift by Arsham Ohanessian to the College of Liberal Arts. Arsham was a successful businessman, avid musician, and dedicated community leader. He was devoted to promoting peaceful reconciliation among peoples. His gift to the University of Minnesota supports a wide range of educational, research, and public programs concerning human rights, ethnic and national conflicts, and Armenian history and culture.
A reception will follow the lecture.
This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair in the College of Liberal Arts, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History Department, and Sociology Department.
For resources on Turkish-Armenian relations please visit the CHGS Armenian Genocide page.
Video of Fatma Müge Göçek's talk on nationalism and identity in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th Century: Facing History and Ourselves.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
CHGS Reading Discussion Group Rescheduled
The third meeting of the Reading Discussion Group, initially scheduled for March 22nd, has been postponed until Thursday, April 14th. The discussion will be led by Dr. Keith David Watenpaugh, historian and Associate Professor of Modern Islam, Human Rights and Peace who teaches in the Religious Studies program at UC-Davis. Dr. Watenpaugh will also present a lecture, "Hate in the Past Tense: Understanding Armenian Genocide Denial's Origins as a Problem of Contemporary Reconciliation" on campus that evening.
We will be discussing chapters 10, 11 and 12 of Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian. The excerpts are available on-line on the CHGS Reading Discussion blog.
The group will meet on Thursday, April 14th at 12pm, Room 201A in Wilson Library. Space is limited, and reservations are required. If you are interested in attending, please send an email to chgs@umn.edu with your name, email address and phone number (please put RDG in the subject line), or call 612-624-0256.
We will be discussing chapters 10, 11 and 12 of Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian. The excerpts are available on-line on the CHGS Reading Discussion blog.
The group will meet on Thursday, April 14th at 12pm, Room 201A in Wilson Library. Space is limited, and reservations are required. If you are interested in attending, please send an email to chgs@umn.edu with your name, email address and phone number (please put RDG in the subject line), or call 612-624-0256.
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Art of Zhen Shan Ren International Exhibition
March 28, 29 and 30, 2011
11:00a.m.-8:00p.m.
Great Hall, University of Minnesota Coffman Memorial Union
The Art of Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truth, Compassion, Tolerance) International Exhibition is an extraordinarily moving, intimate and inspiring exhibition detailing both an inner spiritual life and an outer human rights tragedy. Realistic oil paintings and Chinese water-colors from mostly Chinese artists give a unique insight into the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, also called Falun
Dafa.
Falun Gong, a form of meditative exercise originating in China, is based on the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to showing how the practice of Falun Gong has changed people's lives, providing them with a return to traditional Chinese values.
On July 20th 1999 Falun Gong was banned in China, and since that date 11 years ago many thousands of practitioners have been tortured in an effort to "transform" them. Part of the exhibition deals with the terrifying ordeals people - including the artists themselves - have gone through.
Professor Zhang Kunlun, founder of the exhibition and former Director of the Institute of Sculpture at the Institute of Art in Shandong, himself a practitioner of Falun Gong, said: "Our art comes from a pure heart and our work reflects our personal experience. Art is able to greatly influence the way people think and it also directly connects with human morality. And the two interact."
Dr Zhang was detained for three months in a labor camp in China. In 2004, he started to work with other artists who practice Falun Gong to create this exhibition. United by their experiences, the artists use their art to tell their stories, speak out and call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Since 2004, the exhibition has toured over 200 cities in 40 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. In that time, the exhibition has received numerous proclamations and letters of support from various government offices and other organizations.
The artists featured are: Xiaoping Chen, Dr Xiqiang Dong, Tingyin Shi, Zhengping Chen, Kathleen Gillis, Yuan Li, Daci Shen, Ruizhen Gu and Dr Kunlun Zhang.
The exhibition was made possible by a grant from the Student Activities and Coca-Cola® Grant Initiative, and is hosted by the University of Minnesota Falun Dafa Twin Cities Club and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Full page print.pdf
11:00a.m.-8:00p.m.
Great Hall, University of Minnesota Coffman Memorial Union
The Art of Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truth, Compassion, Tolerance) International Exhibition is an extraordinarily moving, intimate and inspiring exhibition detailing both an inner spiritual life and an outer human rights tragedy. Realistic oil paintings and Chinese water-colors from mostly Chinese artists give a unique insight into the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, also called Falun
Dafa.
Falun Gong, a form of meditative exercise originating in China, is based on the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to showing how the practice of Falun Gong has changed people's lives, providing them with a return to traditional Chinese values.
On July 20th 1999 Falun Gong was banned in China, and since that date 11 years ago many thousands of practitioners have been tortured in an effort to "transform" them. Part of the exhibition deals with the terrifying ordeals people - including the artists themselves - have gone through.
Professor Zhang Kunlun, founder of the exhibition and former Director of the Institute of Sculpture at the Institute of Art in Shandong, himself a practitioner of Falun Gong, said: "Our art comes from a pure heart and our work reflects our personal experience. Art is able to greatly influence the way people think and it also directly connects with human morality. And the two interact."
Dr Zhang was detained for three months in a labor camp in China. In 2004, he started to work with other artists who practice Falun Gong to create this exhibition. United by their experiences, the artists use their art to tell their stories, speak out and call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Since 2004, the exhibition has toured over 200 cities in 40 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. In that time, the exhibition has received numerous proclamations and letters of support from various government offices and other organizations.
The artists featured are: Xiaoping Chen, Dr Xiqiang Dong, Tingyin Shi, Zhengping Chen, Kathleen Gillis, Yuan Li, Daci Shen, Ruizhen Gu and Dr Kunlun Zhang.
The exhibition was made possible by a grant from the Student Activities and Coca-Cola® Grant Initiative, and is hosted by the University of Minnesota Falun Dafa Twin Cities Club and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Full page print.pdf
Friday, March 4, 2011
Swimming in the Daylight: Inna Meiman Human Rights Award winners announced
A human rights success story of a friendship between Lisa Paul, a University of Minnesota graduate in Russian Studies, and Inna Meiman, a Russian Jew who was forbidden by her government to access medical treatment abroad. Their story is told in the form of Paul's memoir as a young American living in the Soviet Union who fearlessly advocated to realize the rights of her friend.
At the event on March 10, the Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies announced the winners of The Inna Meiman Human Rights Award recognizing students at the University of Minnesota who have made significant personal contributions in the promotion and protection of human rights. Nora Radtke and Morley Spencer became the first recipients of the award, which was presented to them by Lisa Paul.
For more on this story click here.
Swimming in the Daylight
"You, Zionist!" Uses and Misuses of the Z-Word in Current Political Discourse
Meïr Waintrater, Editor-in-Chief, L'ArcheTuesday, March 29, 2011
7:00 p.m.
St. Paul JCC
1375 St. Paul Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55116
For several years, within circles hostile to Israel, there has been a systematic use of the words "Zionism" and "Zionist" where the words "Israel" and "Israelis" would be expected. Meïr Waintrater, French journalist and editor-in-chief of the Jewish magazine L'Arche, will contrast the use of the word "Zionist" in France, Great Britain and the United States. Waintrater will suggest that while criticism of Israel should not be reduced to Jew-hatred, the "anti-Zionist" argument is often used to legitimize genuine anti-Semitism.
Meïr Waintrater was born in 1947 in Paris, and lived and worked as an economist and journalist at various institutions in Israel between 1973 and 1988. As editor-in-chief of L'Arche, he is a major commentator on questions of Jewish importance in Europe and France. France is home to one of the largest Jewish communities, while at the same time being home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Western Europe. Waintrater's perspective is crucial to understanding the tensions between the two communities, as well as the recent increase in French Jewish immigration to Israel which can be seen as a consequence of a new trend in anti-Semitism.
Co-sponsors: Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), St. Paul JCC,
University of Minnesota: Center for Jewish Studies, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Testimony: Genocide and Transmission
Régine Waintrater
Psychoanalyst, Family Therapist, Associate Professor at Université Paris 7-Diderot
Monday, March 28, 2010
5:00p.m.
Humphrey Forum, Humphrey Center
301 19th Ave. S.
The human catastrophes that marked the 20th century have made survivor testimony an unprecedented issue. For genocide survivors and their descendants, testimony is a means to inscribe a history within a genealogy that has been broken by the violent acts of genocide. As an oral or written account, testimony engages, provokes and challenges disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. How does the process of witnessing develop? What are the expectations that it provokes--and what are its risks? How can bearing witness restore the victims' identity, rather than re-traumatizing them?
Régine Waintrater's practice as a therapist is critical of the ideology of testimony as catharsis. Waintrater has been involved in the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University Library, and in the USC Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, two important projects of testimony collection. Her experience with these projects will be the point of departure for addressing issues surrounding testimony.
Régine Waintrater is the author of Sortir du genocide (Out of Genocide: Testifying to Learn to Live Again).
Co-sponsors: The Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School, History Department, Human Rights Program, CHAIM (Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
"Light From the Yellow Star: Art Faith Humanity"
8 p.m. Monday, March 14, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
"Remain Humane Even in Inhumane Circumstances." The University of St. Thomas Symphonic Wind Ensemble will present "Light From the Yellow Star: Art Faith Humanity," featuring the world premiere performance of a St. Thomas-commissioned work by Boris Pigovat. Also featured will be the St. Paul City Ballet. Dr. Robert Fisch will provide art and commentary.
General admission is $6; admission is free for St. Thomas students (with ID). This event is part of interfaith art pARTners, a Twin Cities festival.
For further information click here.
Also visit:
The Value of One Life
Minnesota History Center
On view Jan. 15 - April 10, 2011
Tragedy, for some, can be a roadblock; but for others, it's a part of the journey. Dr. Robert O. Fisch is a Minnesotan pediatrician, visual artist and Holocaust survivor. He is a living example of overcoming catastrophic life circumstances to reach joy and success.
This is the theme of the new exhibit "The Value of One Life," conceived by Dr. Fisch and developed by the Minnesota History Center.
For more on Dr. Fisch please visit his CHGS page.
To view Light from the Yellow Star click here.
"Remain Humane Even in Inhumane Circumstances." The University of St. Thomas Symphonic Wind Ensemble will present "Light From the Yellow Star: Art Faith Humanity," featuring the world premiere performance of a St. Thomas-commissioned work by Boris Pigovat. Also featured will be the St. Paul City Ballet. Dr. Robert Fisch will provide art and commentary.
General admission is $6; admission is free for St. Thomas students (with ID). This event is part of interfaith art pARTners, a Twin Cities festival.
For further information click here.
Also visit:
The Value of One Life
Minnesota History Center
On view Jan. 15 - April 10, 2011
Tragedy, for some, can be a roadblock; but for others, it's a part of the journey. Dr. Robert O. Fisch is a Minnesotan pediatrician, visual artist and Holocaust survivor. He is a living example of overcoming catastrophic life circumstances to reach joy and success.
This is the theme of the new exhibit "The Value of One Life," conceived by Dr. Fisch and developed by the Minnesota History Center.
For more on Dr. Fisch please visit his CHGS page.
To view Light from the Yellow Star click here.
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