The Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences has hosted many distinguished scholars and historians at Appalachian State University in recent years, but few – if any – have been as eminent as professor Dan Michman of Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel.
The campus and community are invited to professor Michman’s evening lecture on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 114. The lecture is entitled “Holocaust Research Since 1990: Contemporary Contexts and Their Impact on the Comprehension of the Event.” The lecture is free of charge and tickets are not required.
Professor Michman is the head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. He is also a professor of modern Jewish history at The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, as well as the chair of the Arnold and Leona Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research. He is the incumbent of the Abe and Edita Spiegel Family Chair of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Professor Michman has been at the forefront of Holocaust research in Israel, North America and Europe for decades. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and started his career as a lecturer in Jewish history and biblical Hebrew at the Dutch-Jewish [Ashkenazi Orthodox] Rabbinical Seminary in Amsterdam in the early 1970s. Born to Holocaust survivors in Holland in 1947, Michman and his family came to Israel in 1957, when his father, Joseph Melkman/Michman was appointed to head Yad Vashem as its general director.
Professor Michman has written 14 books, including “Pour une historiographie de la Shoah: Conceptualisations, terminologie, définitions, problèmes fondamentaux” (2001); “The Emergence of Jewish Ghettos during the Holocaust” (2011); and “Angst vor den ‘Ostjuden’: Die Entstehung der Ghettos während des Holocaust” (2011). He edited 15 more volumes (with an additional five more in preparation), such as “Belgium and the Holocaust: Germans, Belgians, Jews” (1998) and “Hitler, Ha-Shoa veha-hevra ha-germanit” (2007). He has authored numerous articles in a variety of languages on the history of Dutch and Belgian Jewry, Israeli society and on various aspects of the Shoah, ranging from historiography, ghettos, religious life and Jewish leadership to problems of Jewish refugees, migration, resistance and survivor communities.
The Center will also organize a lunch research colloquium with professor Michman on Thursday, Oct. 26, that begins at 12:00 p.m. To attend the colloquium, please RSVP to receive the pre-circulated texts. To RSVP, email the Center at holocaust@appstate.edu or call 828-262-2311.
This event is organized by the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies, as well as co-sponsored by the Department of History, the German Program, the Department of Philosophy and Religion, the Honors College, Appalachian’s Hillel chapter, the Temple of the High Country, Academic Affairs and the Office of International Education and Development.
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By Ellen Gwin Burnette
College of Arts and Sciences
Boone, N.C.
last updated Oct. 19, 2017
About the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies
The Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies offers research and educational opportunities for faculty and students at Appalachian State University, secondary school teachers and the broader community. Founded in 2002, it seeks to strengthen acceptance, understanding and remembrance by increasing the knowledge of Jewish culture, teaching the history and meaning of the Holocaust, and using these experiences to explore peaceful avenues for human improvement and the prevention of future genocides. The Center organizes a broad range of programs, ranging from talks and research colloquia with renowned scholars to academic conferences and the Doris and Martin Rosen Summer Symposium: Remembering the Holocaust. It also offers research fellowships for students and supports group research endeavors in the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, two stand-alone academic programs, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. Our values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of our students as global citizens. There are approximately 5,850 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian's general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at cas.appstate.edu.
Professor Dan Michman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel at Appalachian State
Professor Dan Michman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel at Appalachian State