REMEMBERING OUR HUMANITY:

Holocaust Memorial, Hate Crimes,
and the Courage to Say 'No' to Hate

On May 5, 2004, sixty students, faculty and other community members participated in a forum exploring the broader historical, legal and moral significance of the vandalism of the Holocaust memorial flag display at UMass Amherst and the courageous refusal of student "bystanders" to stand by.

The vandalism had occurred on April 24, 2004. Two freshman students were arrested and subsequently plead guilty to various charges in connection with the crime.

Featured speakers:

James E. Young, Professor of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; an authority on Holocaust and other memorials; author of At Memory's Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture and The Texture of Memory; member of the jury for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition. In 1997, Professor Young was appointed by the Berlin Senate to the five-member Findungskommission for Germany's national "Memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews," now under construction in Berlin. (Prof Young's remarks were prerecorded [on Monday 5/3/04], as he was out of town the day of the forum.)

Ervin Staub, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Program in Peace Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; an authority on youth and mob violence, genocide, and the role of bystanders; author of The Psychology of Good and Evil and The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence; past president of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence (Peace Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association 1999-2000).

Allan A. Ryan, Jr., Chair of the Anti-Defamation League Civil Rights Committee (New England Region) and a former federal prosecutor and director of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations.

University administrators, clergy, and students also offered statements of solidarity, in the spirit that an affront to one is an affront to all...

Mike Gargano, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life

Charlena Seymour, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Esther Terry, Associate Chancellor for Equal Opportunity and Diversity; chair, W.E.B. DuBois Dept of Afro-American Studies

Susan Moser, Assistant Director, Hillel

Lucien Miller, professor of comparative literature; Deacon, Newman Center

Carla Moy, president-elect of the Jewish Student Union

Ahmed Nasef, Interfaith Student Council and Muslim Students Association

Jillian Marcus, Interfaith Student Council

Larry Goldbaum, Director, Office of Jewish Affairs


The forum was sponsored by the Office of Jewish Affairs
and the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life.


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