Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 @ 4:00 pm, Walker 201D

Anti-Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Memory: Then and Now

• Rachel Gordan (Center for Jewish Studies & Religion) “1940s: The Decade of Anti-Anti-Semitism”

Dr. Gordan illustrates how in American Jewish literary history, the 1940s could be called the decade of the “anti-anti-Semitism novel.” Novelists including Arthur Miller, Saul Bellow, and lesser known, commercial writers published books about anti-Semitism in America. While anti-Semitism was a theme of most American Jewish literature before the mid-twentieth century, it was not the focus, as it was in this anti-anti-Semitism genre. These anti-anti-Semitism novels suggest that one of the ways that Americans responded to Hitler’s atrocities was by reviewing their own anti-Semitism problem, in fiction.

• Esther Romeyn (European Studies, Rothman Faculty Summer Fellow) “Holocaust Memory and Migration Politics in the Netherlands” 

Dr. Romeyn’s talk focuses on the role of memory of WW II and the Holocaust in the EU, proposing that it has taken on the status of a negative foundation myth. She will account for the EU’s efforts to institutionalize a transnational memory of the Holocaust as part of advocating for a shared set of values, which transforms Holocaust memory into a benchmark of European belonging. Such notions of European identity intersect with the question of migrant belonging discussed in relationship to European history. Dr. Romeyn will report on her research at Dutch Holocaust memorial institutions and their engagement with minority and migrant youth.