THE CENTER
for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS) is actively engaged in supporting scholarly research on antisemitism and in organizing programming to educate university faculty, students, and the general public about the nature, history, and consequences of antisemitism.
During the current 2005-2006 fellowship year, for instance, the Center’s Visiting Scholars Program is supporting research projects on various aspects of antisemitism and its historical impact on American refugee policy, Jews and ethnic relations in the Soviet Union, Catholic clergy in the Nazi party, and the mutlifacted interactions between victims, bystanders, and perpetrators in Bulgaria, Czechslovakia, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Research projects undertaken by 2005-2006 Center fellows included bio-ethics and the development of modern antisemitism, Jews-Catholic relations in France during the Holocaust, ethical dilemmas during and after the Holocaust, the Nazi “proof of ancestry” and its origins, and “Judenforschung” in the Third Reich.
“This Museum presents the ultimate consequences of unchecked antisemitism.”
— Sara J. Bloomfield
Director United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
On July 20, 2004, David Bankier, John Najman Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem; Salomon and Victoria Cohen Professor of Contemporary Latin American Studies and Director of the Holocaust Studies Division at the Avraham Harmon Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Associate Editor of the Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies; and 2004 Matthew Family Fellow at the Center, delivered an Evening Lecture at the Museum on "The Holocaust and the New Antisemitism."
“I’d like to address the issue of antisemitism in the Muslim context. I do not believe that any dialogue is going to poison wells...”
— Center Fellow: Dr. Aron Rodrigue
Ina Levine Invitational Scholarship
The Center’s University Programs, in association with the Committee on Church Relations (CCR), has organized a winter seminar and two summer research workshops on the Holocaust and antisemitism. The fourth annual Winter Seminar for Faculty was held in January 2003.
It was taught by CCR members Stephen Haynes and John Pawlikowski and featured sessions on the history of anti-Judaism and antisemitism, the churches and the Holocaust, the Holocaust and contemporary general ethics, and debates on the actions of specific religious figures. A workshop on “The Churches and the Holocaust: The Responses of Laity, Clergy, and Church Authorities” was held June 18-29, 2001; and a second workshop on “The Holocaust and Antisemitism in Christian Europe” took place June 21-July 2, 2004, and was co-facilitated by CCR members Donald Dietrich and Kevin Spicer.
Antisemitism: Special Two-Part Presentation PART 1: German Churches, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust PART 2: How Deep are the Roots? Antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Now Thursday, December 18, 2003
e x c e r p t — “In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Christian denominations suddenly realized that, even though Nazism was deeply anti-Christian, those early religious teachings could not be separated from the catastrophe that befell Europe’s Jews. Intense self-examination led to such monumental shifts as the doctrinal changes begun by the Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council of 1965 and subsequently adopted by some Protestant denominations.
The Museum works closely with various traditions to help them explore Holocaust history ...”
