The Ackerman Center Podcast

On this Fourth of July weekend, listen to Dr. Nils Roemer and Dr. Sarah Valente discuss the contributions of Jewish-Americans Emma Lazarus and Irving Berlin to American culture. #GodBlessAmerica #GiveMeYourTiredYourPoor

Join Dr. Sarah Valente and Dr. Nils Roemer to learn about Operation Barbarossa, the creation of the word "genocide" by Raphael Lemkin, and be inspired by new music by Max Richter that appeals to our common humanity.

In this new episode, Dr. Valente and Dr. Roemer discuss an exciting upcoming lecture on Operation Barbarossa, the Teacher Institute workshop, which will be hosted virtually by the Ackerman Center this week, and the beautiful concert "We Are Here" (you get to enjoy a few musical fragments from the concert). The professors also reflect on this past week's monumental landmark decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court on LGBT rights, and on protection for young immigrants. They consider how historically these vulnerable groups were persecuted during the Nazi regime.

In this episode Dr. Valente and Dr. Roemer discuss Deeyah Khan's 2017 Emmy-winning documentary White Right: Meeting the Enemy, and the historical parallels in the rise of anti-Semitism in moments of crisis in Germany in the 1930s and during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“The most important thing that I learned in my life is that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence." Rabbi Joachim Prinz

Prinz was a rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime and victim of the Holocaust who spoke minutes before Martin Luther King, Jr. took the stage to deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in the 1963 March on Washington. His words are a timely reminder for us all. 

Join Dr. Valente in conversation with Dr. Roemer as they discuss Prinz's speech in this new episode of the Ackerman Center Podcast.

In this new series, "New Connections," Dr. Sarah Valente and Dr. Nils Roemer meet with directors of Holocaust and Human Rights centers and museums around the world. Our first special guest is Morgan Blum Schneider, the director of the Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco. Listen to find out about meaningful new ways of connecting and supporting Holocaust education in our communities during these difficult times.  

To learn more about our guest and the JFCS Holocaust Center, please visit: https://holocaustcenter.jfcs.org/. 

Be sure to follow them on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/JFCSHolCenter, https://twitter.com/holocaustjfcs, and https://instagram.com/jfcsholocaustcenter/

In this episode, Dr. Roemer and Dr. Valente discuss the ending of the PBS series World on Fire. They consider the lacking historical considerations by the show when it came to showcasing the abrupt disruption to Jewish life during the occupation of Poland and France by the advancing Nazis.

In this episode, Dr. Nils Roemer and Dr. Sarah Valente discuss the various storylines that develop while the war itself seems to be put on hold, as the Nazis march through and occupy Paris.

In this episode, we celebrate the successful conclusion of teaching the Spring 2020 semester, where we all came together to make it to the finish line. And, we also discuss the significance of the Battle of Dunkirk and its memory as it appears in the fifth episode of World on Fire.

Join Dr. Roemer and Dr. Valente's conversation reflecting on the end of the spring semester, and the rapid changes in the storyline of the PBS series World on Fire.