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UPCOMING PROGRAMS
EXCLUSIVE FILM PROGRAM:
THE DAY I MET HITLER
"The Day I Met Hitler" features newly discovered stories and images of the most infamous man in history. Racing against time the filmmaker weaves together the personal narratives of the last remaining people who had direct contact with Hitler. The film and lecture are presented by a son of a Jewish boy who met Hitler in Berlin in 1934.
OCTOBER 22
1:00pm PST
4:00pm EST
RSVP to receive a link to watch the film.
The link to the film and the Zoom instructions will be sent via e-mail approximately one week before the discussion.
RELEVANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY:
THE FUTURE OF HOLOCAUST MUSEUMS
Join world experts for a FREE online discussion about the future of Holocaust museums!
SEPTEMBER 30
9:00am - 10:30am PST
12:00pm - 1:30pm EST
7:00pm - 8:30pm IST
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Michael Berenbaum
Conceptual Development of Museums and Historical Films
Scholar and Writer
Michael Berenbaum is a writer, lecturer, and teacher consulting in the conceptual development of museums and the development of historical films. He is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at the American Jewish University, where he is also a Professor of Jewish Studies. Berenbaum was the Executive Editor of the Second Edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was Deputy Director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, where he authored its Report to the President. Berenbaum was the conceptual developer on the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center that opened in Skokie, and played a similar function as conceptual developer and chief curator of the Belzec Memorial at the site of the Death Camp. He was the conceptual developer on the Memoria y Tolerancia in Mexico City and a historian to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Berenbaum recently developed three museums: the Memorial Museum to Macedonia Jewry in Skopje, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, and the Nancy and David Wolfe Holocaust and Humanity Museum. Berenbaum is also the author and editor of 22 books, scores of scholarly articles, and hundreds of journalistic pieces. His work in film has earned multiple awards.
MODERATOR
Paul Salmons
Curator, Pedagogue and Education Consultant
Director of Paul Salmons Associates
Paul Salmons is an independent curator and education consultant specializing in “difficult histories”. His work includes “Auschwitz Not long ago Not far away”, a major travelling exhibition produced by Spanish company Musealia, which presents some 700 original artefacts to new audiences in Europe and North America. He is also Chief Curator of the exhibition, “Seeing Auschwitz” produced by Musealia for UNESCO and the United Nations. This powerful exhibit re-examines iconic photographs of the largest killing centre in human history, challenging us to think again about what each one really reveals about that place and time. Paul worked for ten years at the Imperial War Museum in London, helping to create the United Kingdom’s national exhibition on the Holocaust and developing its distinctive educational approach. He was a founding Director of the Centre for Holocaust Education at University College London; served on the United Kingdom delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance for some 20 years; and has consulted on numerous international projects including – currently – for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as their first Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Foundation Fellow.
PANELISTS
Dr. Piotr Cywinski
Museum Director, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Piotr Cywinski is the Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum; co-founder and chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and the board of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute; chief expert of the Center for Research on Economics of Memorial Sites (at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities); co-founder and chairman of the Society for Management of the Memorial Sites; chairman of the Program Board of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw; and member of the International Auschwitz Council. Cywinski is an active participant and frequent initiator in the Polish-Jewish and Christian-Jewish dialogue, doctor of humanities, medieval historian, and author of numerous historical publications. . He is also a member of a number of bodies and councils dedicated to remembrance, including the Board of Trustees of the II World War Museum, Board of the Foundation for the Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk founded by the German Episcopate Conference, Maison d'Izieu Memorial in France, and 'Memorial' Society in Moscow.
Dr. Edna Frieberg
Senior Program Curator,
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Dr. Edna Friedberg is Senior Program Curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the host of the Museum's popular Facebook Live programs. A graduate of the University of Illinois, she received her Ph.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Friedberg (or Edna) joined the staff of the Holocaust Museum in 1999 and has served as the historian for the Museum’s highly-visited online Holocaust Encyclopedia and as Director of its Wexner Learning Center. She also curated a special exhibit on the legacy of the Nuremberg trials and postwar justice.
Dr. Friedberg (or Edna) regularly speaks to audiences across the country and her essays connecting Holocaust history with social, cultural, and political issues today have appeared in publications including The Atlantic, Slate, Newsday, and The Forward.
Alice Herscovitch
Consultant, Donor and Government Relations,
Montreal Holocaust Museum
Alice Herscovitch is currently a Consultant on Donor and Government Relations at the Montreal Holocaust Museum. She retired as the Museum’s Executive Director in 2019, after 11 years in which the organisation grew considerably in terms of audience, programming and funding. Among achievements by the MHM team during her leadership, the Museum tripled its collection, more than doubled its visitorship, developed over 20 pedagogical tools, created local, national and international partnerships, led a national teacher training program, digitised and catalogued its oral history collection, and led an initiative which successfully digitised and catalogued almost all Canadian collections of recorded survivor testimony. Faced with increasing interest and growth in its publics, Ms. Herscovitch currently works with the Museum to assure a major expansion and its relocation to the downtown core. Ms. Herscovitch is the former Director of Social Development at the Conférence régionale des élus, a para-public organization devoted to the social, economic and cultural development of the Montreal region. She was previously the Executive Director of Project Genesis, a community advocacy organisation working on issues of social rights of marginalized populations, from 1987 to 2003. She taught for many years at the McGill School of Social Work in social policy and was a member of the Executive Committee of Centraide of Greater Montreal, as well as the NDG Community Council and a Board member of the Fondation du Grand Montréal. She has worked for over 30 years with people and organizations to promote progressive change on issues of social justice and to sustain non-profit organisations.
Dr. Eyal Kaminka
Director, International School for Holocaust Studies,
Yad Vashem
Dr. Eyal Kaminka is the Director of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem and the Lily Safra Chair of Holocaust Education. Dr. Kaminka is a published author, lecturer, educator, manager and entrepreneur. He holds a PhD in education from Bar Ilan University, and received his MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Former CEO of The Center for Breakthrough Thinking (Israel), Dr. Kaminka has extensive experience in the Israeli education system and served as a professional mentor to school principals throughout Israel. Former Director of the Authority for the Promotion of Employment, Higher Education and Community, Dr. Kaminka also served as a management consultant and initiated and managed an innovative program that introduced outcome-oriented thinking in the Israeli school system.
Previously the chairperson of an educational NGO and advisor to an Israeli start-up focusing on education technologies, Dr. Kaminka currently leads Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies in developing educational approaches to teaching and learning about the Holocaust, educational training and outreach in over 60 countries, participating in global forums and working with international organizations (such as IHRA and the UN) and governments bodies worldwide.
Zev Lanton
Director of International Relations,
Museum of Eternal Faith & Resilience
Zev Lanton is a second generation descendant and the Director of International Relations for the Museum of Eternal Faith and Resilience in Tel Aviv, Israel, which tells the lesser-known narrative of spiritual resistance during the Holocaust. Lanton holds postgraduate degrees in Education and Rabbinic Ordination, and is passionate about carrying forward the indomitable Faith and legacy of his parents. Previously, Lanton served as Director General of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, and was a philanthropic advisor to Israeli non-profits in health and education. Before moving to Israel in 2011, Lanton was the Head of School for twenty years at the Hebrew Foundation School in Montreal. He was intimately involved in Montreal’s Jewish community, serving for many years on the education committees of the BJEC,Canada Israel Experience Committee, Birthright, and March of the Living. Lanton is a sought-after educational leader and speaker, having served as President of the Association of Educational Leaders in Montreal, and a mentor to educational leaders throughout North America (in association with the Barilan University Lookstein Center).
Tali Nates
Founder & Director,
Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre
Tali Nates is the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation. She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust education, genocide prevention, reconciliation and human rights. Tali has presented at many conferences including at the United Nations in New York (2016) and is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar (2014-2020). She published many articles and contributed chapters to different books, among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015) and Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018). Tali serves on the Academic Advisory Group of the School of Social and Health Sciences, Monash University (IIEMSA), South Africa. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, Tali’s father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler.
