The Department of Religion and Classics presents the first part of a six part series: Conversations on Israel, Palestine, and the War in Gaza.  Omer Bartov in conversation with Thomas Fleischman. Please note the change in location and time, this event will also be offered as a virtual livestream at the following link: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/99085409966.

This talk discusses some fundamental questions regarding the use and abuse of the Holocaust as a historical event, a traumatic memory, and a warning to future generations. It asks: Was the Holocaust unique, and if so, what can we learn from it? Was the pledge to prevent genocide from happening again kept, and if not, why? Can the mass murder of the Jews serve as a guide to the nations of the world, and in what ways? And, most importantly perhaps for the current moment: If the Holocaust was the clearest justification for the need to create a Jewish state, what role has it played in Israel's history for the last seven decades?

Omer Bartov is the Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. Educated at Tel Aviv University and St. Antony's College, Oxford, he has written widely on war crimes, interethnic relations, and genocide. Recent books include Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz (2018), which won the National Jewish Book Award; Tales from the Borderlands: Making and Unmaking the Galician Past (2022), and Genocide, The Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis (2023). Bartov’s essays and commentaries on the current crisis in the Middle East have been featured in many national and international outlets. He is currently writing a book tentatively titled “The Broken Promise: A Personal Political History of Israel and Palestine.” His novel, The Butterfly and the Axe, was published last year in the United States and Israel.

Thomas Fleischman is a historian of modern Europe, Germany, environmental history, and animals. He is the author of Communist Pigs: An Animal History of the Rise and Fall of East Germany, published in the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books series at the University of Washington Press in 2020. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University as well as the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at NYU. He has taught at Bowdoin College and The Cooper Union while his work has received support from the Social Science Research Council, the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the J. William Fulbright Program.

This year-long speaker series is designed to foster intellectual growth and enrich the campus community, particularly in the wake of last year's campus conflicts regarding Israel and Palestine. Recognizing the need for more open dialogue and a deeper understanding of complex issues, we seek to create a space for respectful discussion, critical thinking, and a broadening of perspectives. These topics, often deeply personal and emotionally charged, can be difficult to navigate, but the series aims to provide a platform for exploring them with empathy, understanding, and a commitment to informed discourse. By inviting renowned experts from various fields, even those with controversial viewpoints, we hope to stimulate thought-provoking conversations, challenge prevailing perspectives, and elevate the overall level of discourse on campus.

A reception will follow the event.  Parking is available in Intercampus Lot along Intercampus Drive. 

Sponsored by the Department of Religion & Classics, the Center for Jewish Studies, and the Department of History.