Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding
The Kraft-Hiatt fund supports campus and community-wide educational initiatives that foster understanding of Judaism and Jewish culture, and dialogue between Jews and Christians. The fund is administered by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, with the assistance of a Kraft-Hiatt faculty Advisory Committee whose members include:
Alan J. Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies
Patricia Bizzell, Professor, English
Noel Cary, Associate Professor, History
Maurice A. Geracht, Stephen J. Prior Professor of Humanities
Osvaldo Golijov, Loyola Professor of Music
Roger Hankins, Director, Cantor Art Gallery
Ed Isser, Associate Professor, Theater
Amy Wolfson, Associate Professor, Psychology
Thomas M. Landy, Director, Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture; Lecturer, Sociology
Upcoming Lectures
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Representation of the Holocaust in Poetry - Marc Lee Raphael is professor and chair of religious studies, Nathan and Sophia Gumenick Professor of Judaic Studies and director of the program and minor in Judaic Studies at the College of William and Mary.
7:30 pm, Rehm Library
Past Lectures
2008-2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany - Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, discusses the influence of Nazism on German Protestant theologians during the Third Reich.
Listen online» | iTunes download»
Thursday, November 12, 2009
After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward — "How to Prevent the Next Great Depression: A Jewish Law Perspective." Aaron Levine is the Samson and Halina Bitensky Professor of Economics and chairman of the department at Yeshiva University. A noted authority on Jewish commercial law, he recently published "The Global Recession and Jewish Law” in American Economist and is editor of the forthcoming publication Judaism and Economics (Oxford University Press, Spring 2010).
Listen online» | iTunes download»
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Summer in the Holy Land — Two students, Amy Lazarus '10 and Miriam Westin '11, share their experiences as part of the Rothberg Summer Institute at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, last summer. Amy speaks about studying Judaism in Jerusalem and of her interactions with local Israelis and fellow international students. Miriaml shares what was unearthed during her three-week archaeological dig at Tel Hazor in Northern Israel and talk about her experiences living in a kibbutz.
March 16, 2009
The Religious Enlightenment - David Sorkin, professor of history and Frances and Laurence Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggests that the Enlightenment, which gave birth to Modernity, should best be understood as a religious, not an anti-religious, project.
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March 17, 2009
Lessons from the Shoah: Why we teach the Holocaust at Holy Cross, Daniel Bitran, associate professor of psychology. With the support of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish Christian Understanding, Dan visited Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 2008 and participated in the intensive International Seminar for Educators Teaching about the Shoah and Antisemitism. His lecture will reflect on his experience and the ways we can better understand and teach the Holocaust at Holy Cross.
Listen online» | iTunes download»
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Holocaust and the Jewish Resistance, Yehuda Bauer, known worldwide as a compelling speaker and one of the world's most important scholars on holocaust studies.
2007-2008
September 25, 2007
Max Michelson, Holocaust survivor, shares his story.
November 7, 2007
The Catholic Church, the Holocaust and the Silence of Pius XII, Frank Coppa, professor of history at St. John’s University, author of the Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust (2006), and Encyclopedia of the Vatican and Papacy.
November 19, 2007
Israel: Facing an Uncertain Future, Michael Eisenstadt, senior fellow and director, Military and Security Studies Program, Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Cosponsored by Worcester Interreligious Forum.
February 13, 2008
Broken Homes, Broken Hearts: The Holocaust and its Languages, Alan Rosen, lecturer in English and Holocaust Literature at Bar-Ilan University and the International School for Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem.
March 10, 2008
Finding My Family at Yad Vashem, French professor Stephen Shapiro.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Roads to Peace in Israel and the Relationship between Jews and Muslims, Yehezkel Landau, faculty associate in interfaith relations, Hartford Seminary, and Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University.
March 25, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion: Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, editor of The Encyclopedia of Judaism.
2006-2007
September 17, 2006
First Kraft-Hiatt Symposium on Jewish and Roman Catholic Relations: "Jews and Catholics in Dialogue: What's on the Agenda?" Rabbi Irving Greenberg, president of Jewish Life Network and author of For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity (2004) and Dr. Eugene Fisher, associate director of the American Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
November 16, 2006
Effects of the Passing of Shoah Survivors: what happens to memory when the witnesses are gone?, Michael Berenbaum, director, Ziering Institute and professor of philosophy, University of Judaism, Los Angeles.
November 20, 2006
Jesuits and Jews: The Holocaust and the search for forgiveness, James Bernauer, S.J., Boston College.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
An Evening with Madame F, a one-person play about Fanja Fenelson, performed by Claudia Stevens, daughter of holocaust survivors.
2005-2006
April 4, 2006
Religion and Culture in the New World: Why America Was Different for Jews, Stephen J. Whitfield, the Max Richter Chair in American Civilization, Brandeis University.
April 19, 2006
Belonging and Genocide. A German Story, 1914-1945, Thomas Kuehne, associate professor and Strassler Family Chair in the Study of Holocaust History, Clark University.
2004-2005
January 26, 2005
Jewish Magic and Jewish Witches: How and How Many?, Prof. Maier Bar-Ilan, Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv.
February 8, 2005
How Holy Are Holy Wars?, Prof. Ithamar Gruenwald, Tel Aviv University
February 9, 2005
Opening Reception for "A Child Artist in Terezin: Witness to the Holocaust," featuring guest speaker Edgar Krasa, Terezin Survivor
2003-2004
February 10, 2004
Early Jewish Mysticism, Ithamar Gruenwald, professor of Jewish Mysticism, Department of Jewish Philisophy, Tel Aviv University.
March 18, 2004
Holocaust Denial: the Argument and the Evidence, Robert Jan van Pelt, visiting professor at the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust Research, Clark University, expert witness on Holocaust denial, and author of The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial.
April 21, 2004
Pope Pius XII and the Historians: Who will Win?, Prof. José Sanchez, Saint Louis University.
2002-2003
January 27, 2003
Israel Today: Contexts and Commitments, Hannah Rosenthal, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; and four Jewish Holy Cross faculty - Daniel Bitran, Patricia Bizzell, Edward Isser, and Amy Wolfson.
February 12, 2003
Israel Today: Young People's Perspectives, Tsee'la Shmuely and Ayelet Handler, two young Israeli women living in Worcester, will meet with students to talk about Israeli life today from their perspectives.
March 20, 2003
Who Owns The Bible? A Judaeo-Christian Argument with Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton of Bard College.
2001-2002
February 10, 2002
Klezmer Conservatory Band