Holocaust Days of Remembrance Returns to SUNY Plattsburgh April 27

SUNY Plattsburgh’s Days of Remembrance commemoration of the Holocaust will be held in person 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 27 in the Douglas and Evelyn Skopp Holocaust Memorial Gallery, 2^nd floor of Feinberg Library.

Hosted by the Jewish studies program, the event will feature an opening reflection by Mary Skillan, director of campus ministry at St. John XXIII Newman Center, followed by acknowledgements and a welcome by Dr. Jonathan Slater, director of the Jewish studies program.

This marks the first such observance since 2019, before the pandemic halted face-to-face events. To reduce it to a virtual ceremony would trivialize it, Slater said, “So I preferred to not hold it at all.”

This also marks the return of the Douglas R. Skopp Creative Competition on the Theme of the Holocaust where students are invited to submit original essays, historical analyses, stories, poems, musical and dance compositions, videos, theater and visual arts works that explore and expresses their own personal relationship or reflections on the time in history when Nazis murdered 6 million Jews. The competition is named for the professor emeritus of history, college historian and Holocaust scholar who died in 2018.

A multi-disciplinary jury of faculty evaluate submissions based on relevance, originality, creativity, insight and the ability to enhance the learning experience of the Holocaust. Winning entries receive $250, awarded during the Days of Remembrance.

This year’s winners were Laman Hanifayeva, a junior biomedical sciences and biology major, and Kelsey Rambach, a senior fine arts major, who will discuss their winning entries: Hanifayeva an essay, “Doris Warschawski: Germany to Shanghai, then to the Land of Freedom: Her Story;” and artist Rambach, a triptych — a three-paneled work of art — titled, “Preserve and Protect: Forgive But Never Forget.” Both winning entries are on display in Feinberg Library.

Dr. Monica Ciobanu, professor of criminal justice and 2021-2022 Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellow in Atrocity Prevention at SUNY Binghamton, will speak on “Responses to Mass Atrocities: Reflections on Ukraine.”

Rabbi David Kominsky, rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Plattsburgh, will deliver the closing reflection.

Days of Remembrance is free and open to members of the SUNY Plattsburgh community and the general public. Masks are required for this event.

For more information about Days of Remembrance and the Jewish studies program, contact Slater at Slater at [email protected].