Update on Recent Developments

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Wyman Institute Update: October 26, 2003

 

    1. The Wyman Institute continues to receive widespread media attention for its role in the controversy over the attempt by Homes & Gardens magazine to restrict access to its 1938 article glamorizing Adolf Hitler.For example, see the front page article in this week’s issue of the national Jewish weekly, The Forward:

      http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.10.24/news15.hitler.html

      The article focuses on the recent petition drive, spearheaded by Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Paul Miller, which brought together 68 leading Holocaust scholars and educators to protest the action by Homes & Gardens.

    2. Welcome to the two newest members of the Wyman Institute’s Arts & Letters Council:

      Mark Podwal is one of the world’s foremost Jewish artists. He is the author of nine books and has illustrated 18 works by other authors, including several award-winning collaborations with Elie Wiesel, illuminating themes of Jewish legend, history, and tradition. His art is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Library of Congress, as well as numerous other prominent institutions. Dr. Podwal continues to pursue a parallel career as a physician, and currently serves on the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine.

      Neshama Carlebach, singer and songwriter, follows in the tradition of soul singing and storytelling established by her late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. She performs frequently throughout the United States, Europe, and Israel, singing both her father’s Hebrew classics as well as her own original compositions. Billboard recently wrote that her “dark hued, spiritually evocative soprano drew comparisons to the likes of Sheryl Crow and Linda Ronstadt,” and the New York Times wrote of one of her concerts: “Neshama demonstrated that she had much of her father’s charisma, confidence, and musical abilities…Before long the audience was on its feet dancing.” Her most recent albums are “Ani Shelach” and “Dancing With My Soul.”

    3. “They Looked Away,” the powerful new documentary about the Allies’ failure to bomb Auschwitz, will be screened at the University of Pennsylvania on November 4. The film was produced by Stuart Erdheim (a member of the Wyman Institute’s Arts & Letters Council) and Prof. Paul Miller ( a member of our Academic Council), and is narrated by Mike Wallace.To arrange for a screening of “They Looked Away” in your community, please contact Prof. Miller at: pmiller@mcdaniel.edu

    4. Agence France Presse reported on October 12 that as a result of the efforts of Dr. Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (a member of the Wyman Institute’s Academic Council), Austrian prosecutors have launched a new effort to identify and prosecute Austrian SS members involved in war crimes. Dr. Zuroff has provided the Austrian authorities with a list of 47 men who served in SS battalions stationed in Salzburg and Vienna and were sent to France, Italy, Russia, and Poland, where they were involved in atrocities against Jews. The Austrian news magazine Profil has already tracked down three of the 47 men on the list. A feature story about Dr. Zuroff’s campaign, known as “Operation Last Chance,” was published in the latest issue of the Jerusalem Report (dated November 3).

    5. Reminder: Prof. David S. Wyman will speak on Sunday, November 9, 2003, at 7:00 pm, at the University of Texas at Dallas on “America and the Holocaust.” For further information, contact Debbie Fister at the U. of Texas Holocaust Studies Program: dhpfister56@aol.com or 214-906-8867.Prof. Wyman will speak on “A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust,” on November 23, 2003, at 3:00 p.m., at the Jewish Center for Community Services, 4200 Park Ave., Bridgeport, CT. For more information, call: 203-372-6567.

    6. An article by Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff, concerning the ‘Homes & Gardens’ controversy, appeared in the last issue of the Chicago Jewish News:
      http://www.chicagojewishnews.com/features.jsp#143338 

      Dr. Medoff will speak on “FDR & the Holocaust” at Congregation Beth Sholom, 11825 Seven Locks Road, Potomac, MD, on Sunday, October 26, 2003, at 8:00 pm.