(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)October 31, 2005

(Mahwah) – Under the auspices of the Gross Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Ramapo College, two leading scholars will present programs at events commemorating Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), the government-sponsored series of attacks on Jews of November 9-10 that signaled Nazi Germany’s outright turn toward physical violence in its program of anti-Jewish persecution.

On November 9 at 1 p.m., there will be a lecture by lawyer and historian Dr. Douglas G. Morris, The Rule of Law Shall Prevail: The Jewish Lawyer Max Hirschberg Confronts Hitler in Court.”  Co-sponsored by Ramapo College’s History Club, the event will be held on the Ramapo College campus in the York Room of the Mansion. 

Based on Morris’ much-praised new book, Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany (University of Michigan Press), the lecture will tell the story of how, throughout the Weimar period, Hirschberg squared off in court against Munich’s conservatives, reactionaries, and Nazis-twice facing Hitler himself.  As he litigated politically charged disputes, he also began fighting to reverse the criminal convictions of innocent defendants and to study what mistaken verdicts teach us about the criminal justice system as a whole.  Sister Helen Prejean has said of Morris’ work, This book reads like a legal thriller.  It will leave you thinking about the nature of justice and inspired by the human spirit.”

On November 10 at 7 p.m. at Temple Beth Haverim of Mahwah, the Gross Center for Holocaust & Genocide will join Beth Haverim in co-sponsoring a lecture by Dr. Ann Mann Millin. special assistant to the director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the program coordinator of the Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance at the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.  Her topic will be Jewish Cultural Adaptation in Nazi Germany Prior to Kristallnacht” and will focus on the activities of the Kulturbund deutscher Juden (Cultural League of German Jews).

This was the original name given to the German-Jewish cultural organization that was established in Berlin in July 1933.  On the same day that the Nuremberg Laws of September 15, 1935 deprived German Jews of their citizenship, all these separate chapters were incorporated under the newly created Reichsverband der Jüdischen Kulturbünde in Deutschland. From this time on, all German-Jewish cultural organizations had to belong to this umbrella organization that was under the control of the Ministry of Propaganda and Gestapo.

The lecture is made possible through the support of Jack and Goldie Wolf Miller through their generous donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Foundation’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies.

Dr. Millin’s presentation will be part of a program in which Rabbi Joel Mosbacher and Cantor Barbra Lieberstein, with participation of the choir and members of the congregation, the college community and survivors, will lead a service of commemoration.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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