Queensborough Community College is hosting a virtual webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 27, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The online event, “Under Siege Again? Holocaust Distortion And The Rise Of Hate Crimes Against Jews,” discusses how anti-Semitism at the local, national and international level fuels Holocaust distortion and also touches on the difficulties of prosecuting religiously based hate crimes.
Special webinar guests include Michael Brovner, the chief of the Queens County District Attorney’s Hate Crimes Bureau, and Michael Weizman, director of government affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The event also commemorates the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination and concentration camp in Poland that was operated by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Since its establishment in 1983, the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC), which is co-sponsoring the webinar, has been one of the first East Coast-based research archives devoted to studying and teaching about the Holocaust.
“Our mission is to use the lessons of the Holocaust to educate current and future generations about the ramifications of unbridled prejudice, racism and stereotyping. In doing so, we teach and empower citizens to become agents of positive social change in their lives and in their communities,” according to the center’s website.
KHC uses local artifacts and archival materials from its own collection to tell the story of the Holocaust in Germany from before World War II through the end of the war in 1945.
In addition to KHC, co-sponsors include the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance & Education at Rockland Community College and the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
Tune into the webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 6 p.m. The event is free, but registration is required.
