Virtual Event: Navigating Holocaust Remembrance Across Europe

Opening slide of the lecture

Join the Baltimore Zionist District on January 28th
at 11:00 AM for a virtual lecture

“Echoes of Memory: Navigating Holocaust Remembrance Across Europe”

Presenter:
Internationally published writer and educator Irene Shaland

Date and Time:
Tuesday, January 28th, 2025 at 11:00 AM EST

Description provided by BZD: 

Join the Baltimore Zionist District on January 28th at 11:00 AM for “Echoes of Memory: Navigating Holocaust Remembrance Across Europe,” a powerful virtual event that coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Hosted by internationally published writer and educator Irene Shaland, this session provides a poignant exploration of four European countries to understand the multifaceted responses to Holocaust remembrance.

Journey Across Four Nations: Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the Soviet Union

Our exploration begins in Vienna, Austria, where the city’s reputation as a beacon of European culture dramatically darkened after the Anschluss. Discover how Vienna transformed from the home of Mahler and Freud into a place marked by profound antisemitism, and trace Austria’s path from initial denial to its current reckoning with the past.

In Germany, witness a nation’s proactive engagement with its painful history. We will virtually visit Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, concluding with a discussion on the Stolpersteine project, which personalizes the Holocaust experience across Europe.

Our virtual tour then takes us to Budapest, Hungary, where the haunting “Shoes on the Danube” memorial serves as a stark reminder of Hungarian involvement in the Holocaust. Examine Hungary’s struggle with its history and identity, highlighted by contentious modern memorials that ignite national debate.

Finally, in the former Soviet Union, we visited Minsk, Belarus, home to the deeply moving Yama memorial. Learn about the Soviet suppression of Holocaust recognition and witness how this denial shaped the collective memory of Jews in Soviet territories.

Echoes of Memory” offers an immersive look at how nations confront or conceal their histories. It’s an essential session for anyone interested in the dynamics of memory, the lessons of the past, and their implications for fighting antisemitism today.

 For registration and ticketing information follow the link below:

Link to event on BZD website:    https://bzdisrael.org/echoes-of-memory-navigating-holocaust-remembrance-across-europe/

Text above by BZD

Learn more about the presenter, Irene Shaland:   https://amzn.to/3DM6rDk

 

In Search of a Jewish Story in China

In Search of a Jewish Story in China
Free Virtual Presentation Hosted by
New City Library, New York

Date and Time: May 6th, 7:00 PM EST

Join an art and travel writer Irene Shaland as she takes us on a fascinating expedition, both familiar and unknown, through the 2,000 years of history in China. We will journey along the Silk Road and Gobi Desert, and visit six cities: Harbin, Beijing, Dunhuang, Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Shanghai.  

As a Jewish historian, Irene Shaland remains ever attuned to what she calls the Jewish story, an often “endless chain of persecutions, from century to century, from country to country.” However, in China, she uncovered an entirely different chapter in Jewish history, which is divided into two unique narratives: the Jews in China and the Jews of China.

You are invited to discover these fascinating stories and find answers to many perplexing questions:

What are the secrets of the Gobi Desert and the Silk Road?

What do the most anti-Semitic of Russian Tsars, a railroad, a Chinese fishing village, and Russian-Yiddish culture have in common?

How did it happen that a port city in China occupied by the Japanese became a safe haven for thousands of European Jews during World War II?

What important lessons can we learn today from the history of the Chinese Jews?

Finally, why did the Jews of China disappear? And – did they really?

To register follow the link to the New City Library website: https://newcity.librarycalendar.com/event/search-jewish-story-china-43823

Read about Jews in China in Irene Shaland’s book “The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories: Tales of Jewish Diaspora, Persecution, the Holocaust and Rebirth in Europe, Africa and Asia.” https://amzn.to/2T1u5kK

Irene Shaland’s Upcoming October 2021 Lectures

images of lecture add

 

In October, Irene Shaland will be presenting two lectures for you to choose from or – to attend both!

1st Lecture Date: October 14th

Time: 4:30 EST.

Title: Global Response to the Holocaust: From Europe to Asia—Norway, Sweden, China, India.” This lecture is virtual.

Sponsoring institution: Holocaust Resource Center of New Jersey. Kean University. Union Town.

Targeted audiences are the Holocaust studies teachers. However, the event is free and open to the public; anyone can register and attend.

To register, follow the link below to fill a simple Registration Form:

Link to Registration Form

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2nd Lecture Date: October 21st  

Time: 6:30 PM CST

In person with a virtual option.

Title: “In Search of a Jewish Story in China. This lecture is in-person and virtual. Presented in connection with the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s current exhibit: Shanghai as a Safe Haven during the Holocaust.

Sponsoring institution is Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, Chicago.

https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/events/in-search-of-a-jewish-story-in-china/

To register, click below and select “Virtual option.”

https://18161.blackbaudhosting.com/18161/tickets?tab=2&txobjid=8d226f05-f43c-4e9f-a903-57da06c242e8

 

The “Jewish Question” in Vienna (excerpt from The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories)

monument in Vienna, Austria

Don’t look for the Steinedererinnerung in your guidebook: the murdered Jews of Austria have neither a Rick Steves nor a Frommer. And Vienna, basking in its Baroque and Art Nouveau splendor, would rather have you waltzing from Schonbrunn palace to Sachertorte’s shops instead of searching out the synagogues and homes of long-gone Jews. An Austrian sarcastic proverb, as noted by Magrit Reiter in her conference presentation “Antisemitism in Austria after the Shoa,” declares that Germans were the “better Nazis,” while Austrians were definitely the “better anti-Semites.”

Continue reading “The “Jewish Question” in Vienna (excerpt from The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories)”

The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories Released

cover of Irene Shaland book the Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories

New book of stories from Irene Shaland is now available in paperback. In The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories Irene Shaland presents a collective Jewish narrative from various parts of the globe. She takes the reader on a fascinating journey, both familiar and unknown, from Europe to Asia and Africa, from Vienna to Delhi and Nairobi. The fate of the brilliant Jewish community of Vienna annihilated during the Holocaust shines a disturbing light on the stories of the current rise of Antisemitism in Scandinavia and throughout Europe.

Continue reading “The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories Released”