The Brother John G. Driscoll Professorship
in Jewish-Catholic Studies

2007-2008
In commemoration of the Shoah, author and local resident Cynthia Ozick will offer reflections on what she calls “those extraordinary Christian rescuers who during the Shoah saved Jewish lives while radically endangering their own. The meditation is a writer’s grappling with one merciful shaft of light in the blackest period of the twentieth century.”
Invited Author: Cynthia Ozick
Date: April 29, 2008 Time: 7:30 p .m . Location: Spellman Hall

Cynthia Ozick is acclaimed for her many works of fiction and criticism. She was a finalist for the National Book Award for her previous novel, The Puttermesser Papers, which was named one of the top ten books of the year by the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Her essay collection, Quarrel & Quandary, won the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Ozick’s work has been translated into thirteen languages worldwide. Her classic novella The Shawl was produced for the stage in New York, directed by Sidney Lumet, and has been chosen by the National Endowment of the Arts as part of its nationwide Big Read program. Her many awards include a Guggenheim fellowship and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Without question, Cynthia Ozick is among the major living American writers.
The Shawl and Ozick’s brand new Dictation: A Quartet (to be released just days prior to her Iona appearance) will be available for sale and a book signing


2006-2007
STANLEY L. RONELL, Born in Krakow, Poland, a Holocaust survivor, was saved with his mother by being hidden in Poland and Hungary by “The Righteous Among Nations”. His father perished in Auschwitz. Most of his father’s and mother’s family died in various concentration camps. Mother and son came to the USA in 1951. A graduate
Mechanical Engineer with a Masters in Business Administration, Ronell is a marketing professional, having won numerous awards as a top sales and advertising executive. Ronell has devoted himself to the teaching of the Holocaust to students in secular and religious schools.. He has lectured on the subject of the Holocaust to over 5000 students, including student teachers, full time teachers, and various adult groups. A widely recognized and sought after speaker he is the recipient of several awards. Ronell’s passion is to fulfill the legacy of “Remember” left by the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis, and to ensure that such a genocide never happens again!
Tuesday, March 27, 12 noon, Joyce Auditorium

2005-2006
The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust
Jerry Silverman, one of america's outstanding folksingers, will perform The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust for Iona College's Annual Shoah commemoration. The Undying Flame is a major work in the field of Holocaust scholarship.
Tuesday, March 7, 7:30pm, Joyce Auditorium

The Renaissance of a Survivor: An Evening of Art, Song, and Reflection with Judith Goldstein
Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 7:00 pm Joyce Auditorium
Artist, musician and Holocaust survivor, Judith Goldstein, will use slides of her art and offer selections from her musical compositions as she reflects on living through the deep sorrows of the Holocaust, the empathetic solidarity with those experiencing subsequent human tragedies, and the necessity to discover joy again.

2004-2005
Secret Lives: Hidden Children andTheir Rescuers During WWII
A new documentary film by Academy Award Winner Aviva Slesin
Wednesday, March 2, 7:30pm, Spellman HallLounge

2003-2004
The Challenge of the Holocaust for Christian Ethics and Theology
Keynote Speaker: John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, PhD, professor of Ethics and director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, is president of the International Council of Christians and Jews.
Response: Rabbi Michael D. Stanger, assistant rabbi at the Westchester Jewish Center.

2002-2003
Voices from the Attic: A film screening and discussion.
Sally Frishberg, featured survivor in the film.
Grace M. Caporino, Mandel Fellow of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

2001-2002
The Soul of the People: Commemorating the Shoah, Works by Alice Lok Cahana.
This six-week exploration of the Shoah was highlighted by an exhibition of the paintings and sculpture of Hungarian surivor, Alice Cahana. Special events included public addresses by the artist, screenings of the Oscar winning documentary The Last Days, a lecture by the documentary's research coordinator, Bonnie Samotin of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, a dramatic presentation in word, song, and slide of the memoirs of Cahana titled "Through My Mother's Eyes," and a closing panel discussion led by Dutch, Polish, and Hungarian survivors. Elements of the published and copyrighted catalogue of the exhibit appear at the Alice Lok Cahana web site.

2000-2001
The Holocaust Kingdom.
William Donat, editor of the memoir named above, recounted his experiences as a child survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto.

1999-2000
Is God Still Our Father After Auschwitz?
Rabbi Leon Klenicki, formerly ADL Director of Interreligious Affairs.

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