UPCOMING EVENTS:
JUNE 5: Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff and Craig Yoe will speak about their new book, Cartoonists Against the Holocaust, on Sunday, June 5, at Awesome Con, a major comic book and cartoon convention in Washington, D.C. More information: www.awesome-con.com
JUNE 7: Wyman Institute Academic Council member Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein will receive an Honorary Doctorate from Bar Ilan University, in recognition of his lifetime of outstanding achievement as a rabbi, educator, and historian.
JUNE 18-19: Rafael Medoff will serve as scholar in residence for the weekend at the Young Israel of Fort Lee, New Jersey. His talks will include “The Day the Rabbis Marched on Washington” and “FDR’s Response to the Holocaust.” More information: 202-592-1518.
JULY 6: Wyman Institute Arts & Letters Council member Prof. Thane Rosenbaum will host “Law of the Land: The Supreme Court’s Year in Review,” on Wednesday, July 6 at 7:30 pm as part of his ongoing series of public programs at the 92nd Street Y, in New York City. Panelists will include Adam Liptak, Dahlia Lithwick, Nina Totenberg, Trevor Morrison, and Kenji Yoshino. For more information and tickets call 212-415-5500 or visit http://www.92y.org/Event/Law-
JULY 13-15: Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker (Bar Ilan University) will speak at the University of Salzburg, Austria, on “Life in the Shadows, Hidden Jewish Children in Convents and the Impact it had on their Jewish Identity,” at the university’s third international multidisciplinary conference. The conference theme is “Children and War: Past and Present.” The event is co-sponsored by the University of Salzburg and the University of Wolverhampton, in association with the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. More information: http://www.hsozkult.de/event/
ONGOING: Wyman Institute Arts & Letters Council member Archie Rand has a solo exhibition at SRO Gallery (1144 Dean St., Brooklyn), and is part of a group exhibition at the Trestle Gallery, also in Brooklyn (718-858-9069).
RECENT EVENTS, LECTURES, AND PUBLICATIONS:
1. Wyman Institute Chairman of the Board Sigmund Rolat received the Polish government’s prestigious Jan Karski Humanitarian Award, at a recent ceremony at the Consulate of Poland, in New York City. Consul General Urszula Gacek hosted the event.The award is in recognition of Mr. Rolat’s leadership role in the building of Warsaw’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Krakow Jewish Cultural Festival, as well as his outstanding efforts to publicize Jan Karski’s heroism.
Karski, the Polish Underground courier who risked his life to alert the world about the Holocaust, is also the subject of the Wyman Institute’s new educational comic book, “Karski’s Mission: To Stop the Holocaust,” co-published with the Jan Karski Educational Foundation. The comic book is already being used in high schools in the United States and Poland. For more information: info@wymaninstitute.org
2. Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Zev Garber (Los Angeles Valley College) authored “From Zion: Academic and Personal,” in J.CV. Friedman and R.D. Miller, eds., The Highest Form of Wisdom: a Memorial Book in Honor of Professor Saul S. Friedman (Ktav, 2016).
3. Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Stephen H. Norwood (University of Oklahoma) published “Forging Friendly Ties: American Universities and Nazi Germany,” in Academic Milieu, Jews and Antisemitism at European Universities between 1918 and 1939, edited by Regina Fritz, Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe and Jana Starek (Vienna: New Academic Press, 2016).
4. Hentrich & Hentrich recently published Jewish Bestiary (Jüdisches Bestiarium):
Fabulous Animals from A to Z, by Wyman Institute Arts & Letters Council member Mark Podwal. Wyman Institute Advisory Committee member Elie Wiesel wrote: “For those who love Bible stories and Talmudic legends, is Mark Podwal’s Jewish Bestiary pure pleasure. His art is both haunting and soulful, his imagination enriched with ancient wisdom and humor.Today there are only a few books that I would recommend with so much enthusiasm.” (To order, visit www.hentrichhentrich.de)
Podwal’s series Mozart and Prague was exhibited at The Klementinum Galler in Prague, along with Mozart’s handwritten manuscripts. Podwal is currently developing posters for each new seas of the Metropolitan Opera (see ForumGallery.com)
5. Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Alan L. Berger (Florida Atlantic University) edited, and is a contributor to, Post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian Dialogue: After the Flood, before the Rainbow, just released in paperback by Lexington Books (www.lexingtonbooks.com).
6. ForcesOfGeek.com, a major pop culture web site, recently published this review of Cartoonists Against the Holocaust, by Rafael Medoff and Craig Yoe: “So this is a book that may start appearing in classrooms. Or maybe it already has. It’s that good.
This is a compilation of many of the cartoons that appeared during the second World War. Should you buy it? The simple answer is: Yes. This book shows cartoonists taking a stand against the atrocities of that time period. There are cartoons by various and they are all fascinating to look at and read. Medoff is the director of the David S. Wyman Institute. This started off as an exhibit there. The work presented here shows the power a simple comic strip can have. It’s impactful. It’s a compilation of history contained in these pages. Pick up this book. It’s bold, arresting, and heartbreaking all at once. It shows what happens when people take a stand together in the darkest times in history. It stands as a testament of hope in a world that needed it in the time these were created. Rating: A+ “
7. The Tel Aviv Cinematheque recently hosted a screening of “A Voice Among the Silent,” Shuli Eshel’s critically-acclaimed documentary about 1930s refugee advocate James G. McDonald. The film includes interviews with David S. Wyman, Rafael Medoff, and Wyman Institute Academic Council members Laurel Leff and Stephen Norwood. To view the trailer, or to arrange for a screening of the film, please visit www.avoiceamongthesilent.com
8. Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Shimon Shetreet (Hebrew University) has authored an essay, “Legal Qspects of Holocaust Dilemmas in Israel,” which will be published in a forthcoming volume in honor of Israeli Supreme Court Justice Tzvi Tal (edited by Eyal Noon).
9. Wyman Institute Academic Council member Prof. Steven Jacobs (University of Alabama) spoke recently on “The Holocaust after 70 Years: What Have We Learned?,” at Whitman College, in Walla Walla, WA.
10. Arts & Letters Council member Archie Rand spoke at the Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn on May 26, about the arc of his development that led to the creation of his landmark project, “The 613.”
11. The Wyman Institute’s new Online Encyclopedia of America’s Response to the Holocaust continues to serve as an important resource for the public. View it at: http://enc.wymaninstitute.org/
12. Copies of the Wyman Institute’s monograph, “Breaking the Rules: Violations of Academic Standards in the Debate Over FDR’s Response to the Holocaust,” by Dr. Rafael Medoff and Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker are available by writing to: info@wymaninstitute.org