American Professor to Conduct Open Seminar on 65th Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Łódź Ghetto

24 August 2009

The book cover of Łódź Ghetto by Isaiah Trunk, translated by Robert Moses Shapiro

Robert Moses Shapiro, Associate Professor in the Judaic Studies Department at Brooklyn College, will be in Łódź through August 31, 2009 to give lectures and conduct workshops in conjunction with the 65th anniversary of the uprising of the Łódź Ghetto.  The main topic of his presentation will be the pre-war history of the Jewish self-government in Łódź and the history of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. His seminar on the “Litzmannstadt Ghetto” on August 28 at 15:00 is open to the public, and will be organized by the Center for Jewish Research at the University of Łódź’s Institute of History. Those interested in participating should send an email to: judaica@uni.lodz.pl. Christian J. Kennedy, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the U.S. Department of State, will be in Poland to participate in the 65th Anniversary Commemoration events in Łódź. He is the principal advisor to the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary on foreign policy issues relating to the era of Nazi rule in Germany and Europe. He oversees U.S. participation in the International Holocaust Education Task Force.

Professor Robert Moses Shapiro is Associate Professor in the Judaic Studies Department at Brooklyn College, where he teaches history of Jews in Eastern Europe, the Holocaust, and Yiddish language and literature. Educated at Johns Hopkins and Columbia University, he has also held fellowships at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He published several books and numerous articles, including Holocaust Chronicles and Why Didn't the Press Shout: American and International Journalism during the Holocaust, both of which were finalists in the National Jewish Book Award in Holocaust Studies. Dr. Shapiro's translation of Isaiah Trunk's classic Yiddish Lodz Ghetto: A History, has been published in a new paperback edition in 2008. Dr. Shapiro's translation of the The Warsaw Ghetto Oyneg Shabes—Ringelblum Archive is about to be published by Indiana University Press in association with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. Prof. Shapiro has previously taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Hebrew University, Yeshiva University, the National Yiddish Book Center, and the Remaz School. His current research focuses on diaries in Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew and German from the Lodz Ghetto, and the Sonderkommando Papers that have been recovered from the crematoria ash pits at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Interesting links:

Judaic Studies Department at Brooklyn College

65th anniversary of the uprising of the Lodz Ghetto

Center for Jewish Research at the Institute of History of the University of Łódź