Israeli band to perform on Yom Hashoah in Germany [JTA]
Acclaimed Israeli group Balkan Beat Box (above), once members of the now defunct JDub label, were scheduled to perform Wednesday in Munich, Germany. The group released a statement saying that the scheduling was an unfortunate coincidence, but they intended to perform nonetheless.
Stonybrook no longer to close on Jewish Holidays [Jewocity]
Stonybrook University, the second largest member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, announced Monday that it would no longer close for Jewish or Christian holidays, except where mandated by Federal law. In response, an interfaith campaign has begun to to try and change the university’s mind.
“Spokesmen for the school said that the changes had been made to ensure that the school did not favor individual religions over others. The school’s newspaper, The Statesman, said that officials had also made the changes in order to address complaints from students and faculty, who said that breaks were “unpredictable”. Officials claimed that the new policy would accommodate students who complained that their breaks did not give them an adequate amount of time to prepare for their final exams.”
Vienna to remove Anti-Semitic mayor’s name from statue [AP]
An area in a wealthy neighborhood in the Austrian capital currently named after former mayor Karl Lueger, a vehement anti-Semite whom Hitler later cited as an inspiration, is being renamed, city officials announced Thursday. The change is being heralded by Jewish representatives but demonized by members of Austria’s more right wing parties.
“Vienna Counselor for Culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny of the governing Social Democrat-Greens coalition announced the name change on Thursday, saying the city “should not act as if there were no dark spots” in its history. At the same time, he said, statues and other reminders of Lueger’s tenure spread throughout the city will remain standing.”
Grandfather’s struggle, remembered [Tablet]
Aaron Wolfe recounts his grandfather’s silence in light of the atrocities that occurred to him during the Holocaust, and discusses what it was like to hear his grandfather speak about the experience for the first time – on videotape, five years after his death.
“There is so much in these two hours that cannot be captured in my words; they are barely captured in his. You have to hear his throat get dry when he talks about how cold it was and how lucky he was to work inside with the books. You have to see the moment he laughs when he recalls the endless series of coincidences that begin to add up to the improbability of his survival. You have to see his heart rate elevate as he describes the man caught whistling Russian melodies who was hanged over and over again because the rope kept breaking.”
Broadening perspectives on Yom Hashoah [NY Daily News]
Lehman College professor Sondra Perl, a founder of the Holocaust Educator’s Network, has recently returned from a 10 day trip to Poland and Israel. Through the Holocaust Educator’s Network, she has begun teaching teachers from all over the country – particularly areas where the Holocaust is not widely discussed – how to address the Holocaust and the issues that it brings up with care to regional differences.
