"The Last Laugh" (2016) is a feature-length documentary about humor and the Holocaust. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Ferne Pearlstein and Robert Edwards, filmmakers, and Avinoam Patt, (Philip D. Feltman Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford) and David Slucki, (Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston), both of whom are editors of a forthcoming anthology of essays on the topic of humor after the Holocaust.

This event is organized and sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program at UVM, with additional support from the Miller Center for Holocaust Studies.

30th Annual Harry H. Kahn Memorial Lecture
“German Jews in an Age of New Nationalism”
Robert Bernheim, University of Maine at Augusta

Further details will be posted here.

Sponsored by the UVM Department of German and Russian

Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing
Lecture by James Waller, Keene State College

While the macro-level mechanics and structures of genocide are most often our focus of study, at its heart, genocide and mass atrocity happen because individual humans choose to kill other individual humans in large numbers and over an extended period of time. Who are the killers on the frontlines of genocide, and how do they come to do such extraordinary evil? Drawing from over two decades of archival study of Holocaust perpetrators and face-to-face interviews with over 225 rank-and-file perpetrators from Latin America, the former Yugoslavia, Africa, and Northern Ireland, this presentation will focus on the ordinary origins of these killers and the processes by which they become capable of such atrocities. Understanding these processes can be vital to resolving current conflicts as well as preventing the future occurrence of genocide and mass atrocity.

Sponsored by the Kinsler Endowment for Holocaust Studies at UVM

Dr. James Waller is Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and chair of that same department, at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire. He is the author of five books, most notably his award-winning book “Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing” (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2007) and “Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide” (Oxford University Press, 2016). His sixth book, “A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland,” is scheduled for release by Oxford University Press in late 2019.

Holocaust Remembrance Day Lecture

Remembering the Shoah through Muslim Eyes

Speaker: Mehnaz Afridi, Manhattan College

In her lecture, Dr. Afridi will discuss her journey with Judaism, antisemitism, and the Holocaust. She will explore some of the ways in which Muslims and Jews can cooperate both historically and religiously. Based on her struggle with antisemitism in Muslim communities and in light of today’s rise in antisemitism, she will discuss how we can work to dispel myths about Jews and the Holocaust. Afridi offers new paths of creating understanding between the two communities through the acceptance of the enormity of the Shoah.

Sponsored by the Richard Ader and Paul Konigsberg Endowment for Holocaust Studies at UVM

Dr. Afridi is an Associate Professor of Religious studies and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College. She teaches courses on Islam, the Holocaust, Genocide, and issues of gender within Islam. Her recent book _Shoah through Muslim Eyes_(Academic Studies Press, 2017) has been nominated for the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research and the Jacob Schnitzer Book Award.

Dr. Afridi obtained her Ph.D. from the University of South Africa, and her M.A. and B.A. from Syracuse University.