Sixty Years Later: Spirituality After the Shoah

This symposium will present aesthetic responses to suffering as pursued in the arts as well as conceptual approaches of philosophers, historians, theologians, scholars and religious leaders.

Sixty Years Later: Spirituality After the Shoah

A CONFERENCE IN ASPEN, COLORADO

June 17th – 20th, 2007

SPONSORING INSTITUTIONS


Jewish Community Center, Aspen, CO

Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding, Muhlenberg College

Mizel Museum, Denver, CO

Wake Forest University Divinity School

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Greenberg Center for Learning and Tolerance, Colorado Springs, CO

Babi Yar Park Foundation

Holocaust Awareness Institute of the University of Denver"s Center for Judaic Studies

Susan Steiner Bolhouse

 

STEERING COMMITTEE
Rabbi Mendel Mintz, co-chair
Director, Jewish Community Center Chabad
Aspen, CO
Carolyn H. Manosevitz, co-chair
Visiting Lecturer, Austin Seminary
Wake Forest University Divinity School

Robert H. Abzug, Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor of History and American Studies, University of Texas.

John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Emeritus Professor of Philosophy; Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College

Barry Schochet, Chair, Aspen Center for Jewish Thought and Culture

Rev. Chuck Cram, Pastor, Aspen Community Church

 

PROSPECTUS


“For those of us who lived through the terrible years, whether in safety or as victims, the Shoah conditions the way we encounter all things sacred and profane. Nothing in our experience is untouched by that absolutely decisive event. Because of the Shoah, some of us enter the synagogue to partake of our sacred times and seasons with those to whom we are bound in shared memory, pain, fate, and hope; yet, once inside, we are struck dumb by words we can no longer honestly utter. All that we can offer is our reverent and attentive silence before the Divine.”

Richard L. Rubenstein, After Auschwitz, second ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press), p. 200.

The Shoah has brought about a crisis in Western Religion, calling into question how we see ourselves and our world and how we make sense of our most basic moral and religious values.

Through a gathering of educators, scholars, religious leaders and artists, this symposium will examine the phenomenon of faith and how it has been affected by the Shoah. What was lost? How have we dealt with the aftermath of this volcanic rupture? How have we responded in faith?

This symposium will present aesthetic responses to suffering as pursued in the arts as well as conceptual approaches of philosophers, historians, theologians, scholars and religious leaders. This event will also attempt to establish connections between visual expressions of the Shoah and literary or other narratives, which have become part of the legacy of the event.

After sixty years, we have become aware of links between various disciplines on the cultural representation of the Shoah. As it has become an archetype of suffering, while acknowledging at the same time the specificity of Jewish suffering, its possible links to theology have become more clear.

And what about the future? In a few years, there will be no physical witness to this event that shaped our world, our tradition, our culture for generations to come. How will we look at it with no survivors present? How will we remember? What direction should and will our faith take?

Participation of several academic institutions, theological seminaries, foundations, museums and community organizations will lend authenticity to issues discussed at this symposium. They will also provide a broad base for both presenters and participants.

 

ADVISORY PANEL

Bill Leonard, Dean, Wake Forest University Divinity School. Ellen Premack, Director, Mizel Museum, Denver, CO., Peter Pettit, Director, Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding, Muhlenberg College. Heather Gosda, Aspen, CO., Linda Rutland, Aspen, CO., Decatur, GA., Debbie and Todd Burkholder. Debbie and Ron Rader, Aspen,CO., Eric Childers, Stamford, CT., John Brantly, Austin, TX., Michael Jinkins, Dean, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Father Tom Dentici, Aspen, CO.

PRESENTERS

 

John K. Roth
Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights
Claremont McKenna College
Betty Rubenstein
Senior Research Fellow
University of Bridgeport
Richard L. Rubenstein
President Emeritus
University of Bridgeport
Carolyn H. Manosevitz
Visiting Lecturer
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Roger S. Gottlieb
Professor of Philosophy
Dept. of Humanities and Arts
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
John T. Pawlikowski
Professor/Director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program,
Catholic Theological Union
Bill Leonard
Dean and Professor of Church History
Wake Forest University Divinity School
Carol Rittner
Distinguished Professor of Holocaust/ Genocide Studies
The Richard Stockton College
William Dean
Emeritus Professor
The Illif School of Theology
Rabbi Marc Sack
Congregtion Rodeph Sholom
Tampa, Florida
Robert H. Abzug
Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor of History and American Studies
Dept. of History,
University of Texas
David Dunne
Sculptor, Filmmaker
Dublin, Ireland
Peter Ochs
Edgar Bronfman Professor
University of Virginia
Brad R. Braxton
Assoc. Professor of Homiletics and New Testament
Vanderbilt University Divinity School

 

For further information, contact lynmano8(at)carolynmanosevitz.com