In 2005, the United Nations unanimously passed a resolution against genocide that not only embraced the idea of remembering the Holocaust but pledged to support the development of teaching about the Holocaust, condemn ethnic and religious violence, and help prevent future acts of genocide. The idea is to take the Holocaust as an international lesson and use it to defuse global stresses and address on-going and future genocides. The mission, or common goal, is to work for a better future for humanity. This involves enlarging awareness. More conflicts are expected because of the constant pressure of economic crises, political upheaval, climate change, migration, the movements of refugees, and war.
Queensborough Community College, CUNY, is similarly dedicated to this important mission of using the Holocaust to educate. Many of our students, coming from all over the world, know very little about the Holocaust or its implications for the future. The Kupferberg Holocaust Center provides resources and tools that can help with outreach, using remembrance and memory as a foundation. The aim of this project is to invest in and build more resources that can be utilized at Queensborough. Along with survivors who can give personal testimony as they visit classes, make presentations and interact with students, we hope to provide scholarship and an interdisciplinary perspective to help students understand the past and make connections to the world that they know. The goal is to embrace remembrance and go beyond it by involving students in the project of unlearning intolerance and committing to the idea of common shared responsibility as a tool for prevention.
The 2013-14 KHC-NEH Colloquium, The Holocaust in a Global Context: Connections Across the Community College, consisted of a combination of events aimed at faculty, students and staff, utilizing Queensborough faculty and inviting outside scholars and artists to participate. These programs both enriched and enhanced humanities and liberal arts education at Queensborough, particularly in that they provided more high-impact learning opportunities for students. The colloquium included seminars, lectures, and several courses that focused around special topics/themes which could be taught going forward; professional development workshops so that more instructors and professors could implement teaching modules and teach the new Introduction to the Holocaust freshman writing course; a technology component for ongoing digital and narrative scholarly and creative work and a student conference; and an Open Mic creative event held in May 2014 that featured student writing, research, projects, and performances.
The seminars and events were open to the general public and publicized to draw in those who already attend events at the Kupferberg Holocaust Center: survivors, those who live in New York City and on Long Island, those who are interested in studying the Holocaust/genocide or the particular subject being presented, and those who want to support the Center. Both QCC and the KHC were fortunate to have secured the support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which co-sponsored an event focusing on the music of the Holocaust presented by Dr. Joseph Toltz.
Program 1. "The Soap Myth": Q&A with Playwright Jeff Cohen
Held on September 25, 2013
Jeff Cohen is an American theater director, playwright, and producer, and joins QCC for a Q&A on his play, "The Soap Myth."
Program 2. Musical Testimony from the Holocaust
Held on November 6, 2013
From the earliest forms of recorded testimony, literary works of recognized authors, and expert accounts of musicians in SS-commissioned orchestras, music has served as a commemorative function for the Jewish community, a pedagogical tool in performance, a feature of testimony, and a complement of historical narrative.
Program 3. Disabilities and the Holocaust
Held on November 20, 2013
A one-hour lecture on disability on the Holocaust, followed by a viewing of the documentary Liebe Perla, which introduces the history of brutality toward and murder of people with disabilities in Nazi Germany. After the screening, a Q&A was held with Dr. Linton and Mr. von Tippelskirch and which was moderated by Dr. Amy Traver, Professor of Sociology at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.
Program 4. The Body, Disability, and the Meaning of Japanese American Citizenship in World War II
Held on December 4, 2013
In this talk designed for students and faculty, Dr. Sarah Chinn, Professor of English at Hunter College, discussed the historical intersections of legal, medical, and racial discourses in the United States.
Program 5. Being 'Other' in America Today
Held on February 19, 2014
This event featured speakers who discussed topics that included: the prison population today and issues of legal justice in America; New York’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy; class, race and issues in higher public education; the challenges facing the LGBTQ community; and the experiences and needs of trans people, particularly the lives of gender-nonconforming students.
Program 6. Jewish Community Cookbooks
Held on March 5, 2014
Working with the important collection of Jewish Community Cookbooks at the Dorot Division of the New York Public Library, this project seeks to put these cookbooks into the context of postwar American culture and an emerging sense of global citizenship.
Program 7. Mentally Ill People as Unfit for Society
Held on April 2, 2014
This lecture by Dr. Christian Perring, an Assistant Professor at St. John's University, examined the concept of unfitness in 1930s Germany that led to the Nazi persecution of people with mental illness and its relations in eugenic movements in other parts of Europe and the United States.
Program 8. Developing Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness
Held on April 23, 2014
Ms. Lorraine Cupelli, Associate Professor of Nursing at Queensborough Community College, CUNY, discussed how nurses and those in the medical profession can develop cultural sensitivity and awareness by bridging cultural gaps to foster improved health outcomes.