Hindudvesha / Hinduphobia Webinar: What Can Hindus Learn from the Jewish Holocaust

The horrors of the Holocaust that unfolded in Nazi Germany in the 20th century were preceded by an intense anti-Semitic discourse that dehumanized the Jewish people. Anti-Semitic discourse paved the way for a society claiming to be civilized to perpetrate, without remorse or protest, the horrors of the Holocaust. 

This Webinar will feature two Jewish speakers, a Holocaust survivor and a Holocaust Historian, who reflect on their experiences. How does the Jewish community preserve the memories of those events and tirelessly work to ensure that they never happen again? What are possible Holocaust lessons for Hindus who have experienced genocide in several countries and who continue to experience sustained Hindudvesha –  a discourse that dehumanizes Hindus everywhere.
 
 
Speakers:
 

Luna Fuss Kaufman was born in Krakow in 1926. After the outbreak of World War II, Luna, along with her parents and sister, was interned first in the Krakow Ghetto, then moved to Plaszow Concentration Camp. Luna’s father, sister and 70 members of her extended family perished in the camps, while Luna and her mother were transferred to the Hassag ammunition factory in Skarzysko and then Leipzig, where they survived the war. After completing her education in Poland, Luna and her mother emigrated to Israel in 1950. Luna met her husband, an American, and moved with him to New York, and together they built a family.

Luna has dedicated her life to teaching about the Holocaust throughout the state of NJ and beyond. In 2006 Luna published her memoirs, Luna’s Life, written to inspire readers of all faiths to secular and religious cooperation. Even during the time of the Covid-19 Virus lockdown of 2020 Luna has continued her work, conducting Zoom lectures online with students of all ages – she is tireless lecturer on the need for unity and peace.

Dr. Adara Goldberg is the Director of the Holocaust Resource Center and Diversity Council on Global Education and Citizenship at Kean University (Union, NJ). Since earning her doctorate in Holocaust History at Clark University (2012), Dr. Goldberg has held an Azrieli Foundation fellowship at fellowship at Hebrew University, a Post-doc fellowship at Stockton University, and served as education director for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center. Recipient of the Marsid Foundation Prize at the 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards, Dr. Goldberg’s book, Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955 (2015), represented the first comprehensive analysis of the resettlement and integration experiences of 35,000 Holocaust survivors and their families in postwar Canada.

Dr. Goldberg served as a consultant for the Azrieli Foundation, and is a featured historian for the Montreal Holocaust Museum virtual exhibition, Building New Lives. Her current research projects explore the phenomenon of post-genocidal familial reconstruction, and the role of national apologies in collective memory.