The Jewish World at Ground Zero

March 22, 2007 -- David G. Roskies, expert in Jewish literature, will present "1943: The Jewish World at Ground Zero" at 8 p.m. March 29 in McDonnell Hall, Room 162.

The free lecture is sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and the Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies program, both in Arts & Sciences.

Roskies is the Sol and Evelyn Henkind Chair in Yiddish Literature and Culture and professor of Jewish literature at Jewish Theological Seminar in New York. He is also the 2006-07 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

His talk will explain how contrary to popular belief, the Jewish world was not silent during the Holocaust. In every language, everywhere within the war zone and on the home front, and in every form of self-expression, Jews gave voice to their grief, rage, pride and protest. In the course of one year, as they learned of the annihilation of European Jewry, they began to pray for victory and vengeance, to exalt martyrdom and resistance, to confess their sins of omission and commission, to mobilize for rescue and radical renewal and to mourn their incalculable losses.

For more information on the lecture, contact Debra Schwartz at 935-8567 or jines@artsci.wustl.edu.