The Children of Survivors of the Holocaust and Genocide: Remembrance and Reflection

Public Lecture & Teachers Workshop - September 30, 2024

"We do not live in the past, but the past lives in us" (Elie Wiesel): Post-Holocaust Generations and the Extension of Holocaust Memory.”

September 30, 2024
Dr. Victoria Aarons (Trinity University) and Dr. Alan Berger (Florida Atlantic University)

This event was made possible by the generous donations of the Jewish Community Alliance of Lancaster, Eleanor Isaacson and other private donors.

P. Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture - April 1, 2025

P. Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture:
The Commitments of the Son of a Survivor: How the Holocaust Has Shaped My Moral, Political and Spiritual Commitments by Yossi Klein Halevi

• April 1, 2025 - 7:00 PM
  Winter Visual Performing Arts Center - Biemesderfer Concert Hall 

About the speaker:

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is co-host, together with Donniel Hartman, of the Hartman Institute’s podcast, “For Heaven’s Sake” – the number one Jewish podcast in the English-speaking world.

Halevi’s 2013 book, "Like Dreamers," won the Jewish Book Council's Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” is a New York Times bestseller and has appeared in a dozen languages.

He has written for leading op-ed pages in North America and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic. He is frequently quoted on Israeli, Middle Eastern and Jewish affairs in leading media around the world and is one of the best-known lecturers on Israeli issues in the North American Jewish community and on North American campuses.

He co-directs the Hartman Institute's Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim leaders in North America about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel. Over 150 Muslim leaders have participated in the unique program.

Born in Brooklyn, he received his BA in Jewish studies from Brooklyn College, and his MS in journalism from Northwestern University.

He moved to Israel in 1982 and lives in Jerusalem with wife, Sarah, who helps direct a center for Jewish meditation. They have three children.

He is also the child of a Holocaust survivor, his father Zoltan. And that story will be shared in the following Conference event, the screening of the film KADDISH.

The P. Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture is made possible by the generous donations of Alan and Linda Loss and multiple private donors from the Lancaster community.

Screening of the Documentary Kaddish - April 22, 2025

On Screen/In Person screening of the documentary Kaddish

• April 22, 2025 The Ware Center
            Pre-screening panel - 6:15 PM
            Film screening - 7 PM
            Post-screening Q&A  - 8:35 - 9:00 PM
  The Ware Center

The evening will include a live pre-screening panel discussion with Dr. Jack Fischel, Dr. Victoria Khitterer, Dr. Jeff Mufson, Rabbi Jack Paskoff and Julia Fallows. There will also be a live post-screening Q&A with the film’s director, Steve Brand.

The film is about the psychological ramifications of history, the choice between viewing ourselves as perpetual victims or resilient survivors, and the search for a Post-Holocaust Judaism.

It is the story of the stormy yet loving relationship between recovering Jewish activist Yossi Klein and his father Zoltan, who had survived the Holocaust’s devastation of Hungarian Jewry by hiding in a hole in the ground for six months. Meanwhile his parents perished at Auschwitz.

After the war, Zoltan didn’t see the point of bringing a Jewish child into the world, but his bride-to-be Breindy wouldn’t hear of it. Once Yossi and his sister Karen were born, Zoltan was determined to raise them to be emotionally prepared for another holocaust. The story of his hiding in the forest and the murder of his parents became his children’s bedtime stories. Breindy tried to compensate by reading them Dr. Seuss books.

Supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kaddish originally premiered at New Directors/New Films in 1984, went on to win a Special Jury Award in Documentary at Sundance, and made David Edelstein’s 1985 10 Best Films list in the Village Voice. The film has received critical accolades ranging from New York Magazine (“a remarkable American documentary”) to the Los Angeles Times (“Superb ... nothing less than a spiritual odyssey”), the Washington Post (“remarkable for its sensitivity and immediacy”), St. Louis Globe-Democrat (“a riveting 90 minutes”), Boston Globe (“deeply felt ... disturbing”), Village Voice (“a stunning profile”), Variety (“an important film of lasting value”).  The film has recently received a loving restoration.

Committee Members:

Committee Co-Chairs – Dr. Victoria Khiterer (History Dept.) and Barry Kornhauser (Office of Visual and Performing Arts)

Miriam Baumgartner (Jewish Community Alliance of Lancaster) 

Dr. Sarah Brooks (Educational Foundations Dept.)

Dr. Kasia Jakubiak (English and World Languages Dept.)

Dr. Tanya Kevorkian (History Dept.)

Rabbi Jack Paskoff (Congregation Shaarai Shomayim)

General Contact, Questions and Information