Guest Lecturer: Professor Kenneth Waltzer

Last week our students were lucky to have an excellent lecture from Professor Kenneth Waltzer.  Professor Waltzer is the Director of Jewish Studies program at Michigan State University and presented a wonderful lecture to our students about his research in Buchenwald.  The main focus of the research centers around block 66 in Buchenwald, and the stories of the many boys and young men who were protected in the children’s block until the end of the world.  Professor Waltzer’s approach to his research challenges the paradigm of how most scholars represent the act of rescue.  He looks at rescue on a more collective level, and suggests that the motives were not always altruistic.  As part of his research, he has used pictures from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to trace members of the children’s block, and has managed to contact many of these men around the world.  

We are privileged to have scholars like Professor Waltzer join us in Haifa and provide guest lectures to our students.