Programs

"Encounters: Aftermaths" (2022-2023)

UMass Amherst Institute for Holocaust Genocide and Memory Studies

The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem present their “Encounters” annual series: “Aftermaths”


Jeffrey Veidlinger In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Programs of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust Book Cover

Thursday, September 22, 2022, 1:00PM (ET) | 20:00 (Jerusalem)

The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem present their “Encounters” annual series: “Aftermaths”

A conversation with Jeffrey Veidlinger on his book
In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Programs of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust (New York, 2021)

In In the Midst of Civilized Europe, Jeffrey Veidlinger explores the largely-forgotten anti-Jewish pogroms that followed the Russian Revolution. This is the first full depiction of the pogroms drawing upon long-neglected archival material. More than a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine in hundreds of separate incidents. Veidlinger argues that the pogroms were a defining moment of the twentieth century and laid the groundwork for the Holocaust. In conversation with Veidlinger will be Alon Confino and Amos Goldberg.

Jeffrey Veidlinger is Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

This event will be held via ZOOM Webinar. Registration is required, register in advance here.


Roni Mikel-Arieli Remembering the Holocaust in a Racial State: Holocaust Memory in South Africa from Apartheid to Democracy, 1948-1994 Book Cover

Wednesday, November 2, 2022, 1:00PM (ET) | 20:00 (Jerusalem)

The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem present their “Encounters” annual series: “Aftermaths”

A conversation with Roni Mikel-Arieli on her book
Remembering the Holocaust in a Racial State: Holocaust Memory in South Africa from Apartheid to Democracy, 1948-1994 (Berlin, 2022)

Roni Mikel-Arieli’s book, Remembering the Holocaust in a Racial State,explores how the racially managed society of Apartheid South Africa commemorated the racial destruction of European Jewry by the Nazis. Through the prism of Holocaust memory, this book views South African society as an arena of conflict between the interests and identities of varied groups: from South African Jewry to other sections of South Africa’s political and social spectrum.  The book focuses on white perceptions of the Holocaust, as well as investigates the role of Holocaust memory in the anti-Apartheid struggle. In conversation with Mikel-Arieli will be Alon Confino and Amos Goldberg.

Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli, the Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

This event will be held via ZOOM Webinar. Registration is required, register in advance here.


Yechiel Weizman Unsettled Heritage: Living Next to Poland’s Material Jewish Traces after the Holocaust

Wednesday, November 30, 2022, 1:00PM (ET) | 20:00 (Jerusalem)

The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem present their “Encounters” annual series: “Aftermaths”

A conversation with Yechiel Weizman on his book
Unsettled Heritage: Living Next to Poland’s Material Jewish Traces after the Holocaust (Ithaca, 2022)

In Unsettled Heritage, Yechiel Weizman explores what happened to the thousands of abandoned Jewish cemeteries and places of worship that remained in Poland after the Holocaust. He asks how postwar Polish society in small, provincial towns perceived, experienced, and interacted with the physical traces of former Jewish neighbors. Combining archival research into hitherto unexamined sources and anthropological field work, the book uncovers the concrete and symbolic fate of Poland’s material Jewish remnants and shows how their presence became the main vehicle through which Polish society was confronted with the memory of the Jews and their annihilation. Leading the conversation with Weizman will be Monika Rice, and joining them will be Alon Confino and Amos Goldberg.

Yechiel Weizman is a lecturer at the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Monika Rice is the Robert Weiner and Ilan Peleg Scholar in Jewish Studies, and Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Russian and East European Studies at Lafayette College.

This event will be held via ZOOM Webinar. Registration is required, register in advance here.