Holocaust Education Week Explores: The Future of Memory

November 2 - Opening Night features scholar Gavriel Rosenfeld, author of Hi Hitler! How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture (2015)

TORONTO, Oct. 31, 2016 /CNW/ - Thousands of people across the Greater Toronto Area will participate in diverse educational, cultural and community programs during the 36th annual Holocaust Education Week (HEW) taking place from November 2-9.

This week of programming launches on Wednesday, November 2, with Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, Professor of history at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Following the talk, Professor Ron Levi, HEW 2016 Scholar-in-Residence will moderate a compelling and timely discussion about the inflated place of Hitler, Nazism and fascism in present-day western political discourse. (Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue, 100 Elder Street at 7:30 PM)

Through the theme of the Future of Memory, HEW 2016 explores how future generations will perpetuate and innovate in the field of Holocaust education and remembrance. The programs explore how memory of the Holocaust will continue to adapt to a changing technological landscape, global context, and the impact of losing personal survivor accounts.

HEW 2016 offers over 100 programs including survivor talks at libraries and schools across the GTA, and an impressive range of exhibits, panel discussions, cultural performances, musical programs, lectures, film screenings and survivor testimonies. The 2016 program guide can be downloaded here.  Additional information can be found online at www.holocaustcentre.com

Other HEW Highlights

Legacy Symposium for Young Professionals: The seventh annual symposium features engaging workshops that invite participants in their 20s and 30s to explore the future of Holocaust memory from different perspectives. Sessions will address this theme through survivor engagement, interactive technologies, and thought-provoking discussions. Sold Out
Sunday, 6 November | 11:00 am | Ryerson University | Oakham House| 55 Gold street

The Power of Memoir and Storytelling: How do we Teach Others about the Pain of the Past?
Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger joins former chief of the Sagkeeng Ojibway First Nation and Residential School survivor Theodore Fontaine to talk about how they came to write and publish their memoirs. Explore two distinct narratives that examine loss, trauma and the use of memoir in the journey toward healing.
Thursday, 3 November | 7pm | University of Toronto, New College, William Doo Auditorium | 45 Willcocks Street

My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past
At age 38, Jennifer Teege picked up a book at a library in Hamburg, Germany and discovered that her grandfather was Amon Goeth, the brutal Nazi commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp. In her book, Teege explores the revelatory journey of discovering her grandfather's crimes, seeking greater understanding of her biological family and searching for a sense of closure for the victims.
Saturday, 5 November | 8pm | Kehillat Shaarei Torah | 2640 Bayview Avenue

Music of Another World: Szymon Laks, 1901–1983 The ARC Ensemble (Artists of The Royal Conservatory) will present a concert with a focus on Laks' delightful music and feature a pre-concert talk about the life and music of this gifted composer from HEW 2016 Artist-in-Residence Simon Wynberg, ARC Ensemble Artistic Director.
Sunday, 6 November | 7:30 PM Beit Rayim Synagogue and School at The Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts 10268 Yonge Street | Richmond Hill | 905–771–5526

HEW Closing Night: Bringing the Rimonim Home: A Personal Restitution Journey.
Austrian National Fund director Hannah Lessing shares the compelling account of an unexpected and personal act of restitution. More than 75 years after Kristallnacht, Lessing discovered that a pair of silver Torah finials (rimonim) originally owned by her family and looted by the Nazis were included in an Israeli auction house catalogue.
Wednesday, 9 November | 8pm | Temple Sinai | 210 Wilson Avenue

HEW RESIDENCIES are available for interviews
Scholar-in-Residence: Ron Levi holds the George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, where he serves as Deputy Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs.
Educator-in-Residence: Dr. Michael Gray is Head of Government and Politics and teacher of History at Harrow School in London.
Artist-in-Residence: Simon Wynberg is the artistic director of the ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory). He lectures and writes on music under National Socialism.

About Holocaust Education Week: Now in its 36^th year, HEW is the most comprehensive Holocaust educational forum of its kind. Holocaust Education Week is presented by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and features diverse educational, cultural and community programs. It culminates in an annual commemoration of the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, the Night of Broken Glass, when on November 9-10, 1938, a massive coordinated state sponsored attack was carried out against Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses through Germany and Austria.

SOURCE UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

For media information contact: Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre ([email protected]), Dara Solomon, [email protected] or 416.635.5391 x.5187