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2008-2007 ACTIVITIES OF ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

KAREN DOERR PRESENTS NEW LECTURES AND RECEIVES BOARD APPOINTMENT

PROF. ALICE SHALVI WINS ISRAEL PRIZE

BOARD MEMBER STARTS BLOG AS "GOTHAM GIRL"

ROSEMARIE REED COMPLETES PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM

LILY RIVLIN SCREENS DOCUMENTARY

DR KARIN DOERR CHAIRS PROGRAM IN MONTREAL

NOREEN BRAND ACCEPTS NEW POSITION WITH FLORIDA HOLOCAUST MUSEUM

DR. SUSAN BENEDICT RECEIVES NIH GRANT

DR. SONJA HEDGEPETH AT SPECIAL SEMINAR ON MIDDLE EAST

Congratulations to Dr. Susan Pentlin, on the publication of the new edition of Mary Berg's DIary, which she edited. For more information on this significant new book, see library/book reviews.

JOAN ROTH'S PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS ON WOMEN IN BUKHARA AND UKRAINE ON VIEW IN NEW YORK CITY

DR. MYRNA GOLDBERG HAS JUST CO-EDITED A BOOK WITH ROCHELLE L. MILLEN, TESTIMONY, TEACHING AND TIKKUN: TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST IN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITIES

ROSEMARIE REED RECEIVES GRANT FOR "TELLING THEIR STORIES: THREE WOMEN IN SCIENCE"

Karin Doerr recently presented lectures in Montreal at Concordia University and Hadassah, Sichuan University in Chengdu and Foreign Languages University in Beijing, Carleton University in Ottawa, and University of Louisville in Honolulu. She is a newly appointed member of the Board for the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies

Gotham Girl Blog Welcomes Comments
A member of the Advisory Board of the Remember the Women Institute has started a blog called GothamGirl and has an entry about Fiorello's Sister and the reception at Hebrew Union College in New York on December 12. The blog is being written under the nom de plume: Lily Loring and "Lily"
welcomes comments and submissions. http://www.gothamgirl.info/
Contact Lily at Lily@gothamgirl.info

Rosemarie Reed Film to Air Summer 2008
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Rosemarie Reed has completed production of a documentary film of Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, which she expects to be ready by summer 2008. She filmed at the camp memorials in Germany in October 2007, including interviews with the Ravensbrück memorial's director, Dr. Insa Eschebach, also a member of the advisory board of Remember the Women Institute, and with Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel. Watch for further details.

Lilly Rivlin
CAN YOU HEAR ME? Israeli and Palestinian Women Fight for Peace
Lilly Rivlin's not to be missed documentary has been shown and will be shown in the following locations:

Jerusalem International film festival, July 2006. Honorable mention
Mill Valley International film festival. September 2006
La Femme Film Festival, Beverly Hills, CA, October 2006
Denver Film Festival, October 2006
MAKOR of the 92nd St. Y, NYC November 2006
NCJW, Jewish Women’s Film Festival, November 2006
Anchorage Int. film Festival, December 2006
Basel-Karlsruhe Forum, Switzerland January 29, 2007
Middle Tennessee State University Screening, January 31, 2007
DC Independent Film Festival, March 10, 2007,
Riz Kahn show, Aljazeera International, March 8, 2007, International Women’s Day, interview and clips from film.
Cinema Arts Film Festival, Huntington, NY, March 11, 2007
Women’s Film Festival, Brattleboro, VT, March 16, 2007
Denver Film Society, by popular demand repeat screening, April 27, 28 and 29, 2007
Stockholm Jewish Film Festival, May 5-9, 2007
Queens College, Project of International Relations and Conflict Resolution, Department of Political Science, Political Science Club, and the Puffin foundation.
West End Synagogue, New York, May 15, 2007
UN screening, presented by The Department of Political Affairs, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the Department of Public Information, together with Search for Common Ground, May 24, 2007
Swedish Jewish Film Festival, May 2007
The New School, Theresa Lang Center, 55 West 13th Street, New York, Peace and “The Street,” screening as part of new school program with speakers, June 13, 2007
Westbeth, West Village, New York, September 27, 2007
Hillel presents, The Athena Movie Theatre, Athens, Ohio, October 10, 2007
East Bay JCC, Berkeley, CA, October 11, 2007
KBDI Colorado Public Television, October 22, 2007
The Graduate Center, City University, the Ralph Bunch Institute for International Studies,October 31, 2007
World Bank, Washington, D.C. part of the Common Ground Film Festival, December 6, 2007.
Brooklyn Museum's First Saturday celebration. Q & A follows screening, January 5th, 2008, 6pm

Lilly Rivlin is currently working on a film about Grace Paley.

Dr. Karin Doerr Chairs Program at the Simone de Beauvoir Insitute, Montreal
On the occasion of the 10th annual Holocaust Education Series, Dr. Doerr chaired a program sponsored by the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. A lecture by Hannah Lessing was entitled “Same Hell Different Horror: Women in the Holocaust.” This event took place November 1, 2007, at Simone de Beauvoir Institute, 2170 Bishop, Montreal. Hannah Lessing is the Secretary General of the Austrian National Fund and the General Settlement Fund. She spoke on the gender specific persecution of women in the Holocaust, addressing their particular suffering during the war and the difficulties they faced as women after their liberation.

On November 26, 2007, Dr. Doerr also chaired a film, lecture and book launch for Johanna, Twice Persecuted, Surviving in Nazi Germany and Communist East Germany, a new book by co-authors Carolyn Gammon and Christiane Hemker. The event was held at Concordia University in cooperation with the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.

Carolyn Gammon studied at the University of New Brunswick and at Concordia University. From 1992-95, she was a Lecturer at the Free University,Berlin. Her poetry, prose, and essays have appeared in anthologies in North America and Europe. Her recent book complements her work with Holocaust survivors, their families, and other visitors who come to Germany to both confront the past and gain a current impression of the country.

Dr. Christiane Hemker has lived in Dresden since 1993. She is the state archaeologist for Saxony and has widely published in the field of archaeology. Her volunteer work with union and social politics focuses on women's rights.

The 28-minute documentary film Johanna, A Dresden Ballad by civil-rights activist and filmmaker Freya Klier provides an overview of Johanna Krause's life, and was followed by a short reading from Twice Persecuted and discussion. The event was co-hosted with the Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Loyola International College, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Montreal Institute of Genocide Studies.

ALICE SHALVI AWARDED ISRAEL PRIZE FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Remember the Women Institute congratulates Prof. Alice Shalvi, our Advisory Board Member, for receiving the prestigious Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel. In their decision, the judges called Alice Shalvi "revolutionary and courageously trailblazing, with intellectual integrity and long-term vision." The prize is presented at a ceremony on Independence Day.

One of Israel's leading and pioneer feminists, Alice Shalvi served as principal of the Pelech School for Girls in Jerusalem. Under her direction, it became one of the first religious experimental schools and a model for democratic schools in Israel. She began her feminist activities in the 1970s, fighting for rights for agunot, women whose husbands would not grant them religious divorces. She was also among the founders of the Israel Women's Network, and chaired it from its founding in 1984 until the beginning of this year.

Born in Germany in 1926, Alice Shalvi fled to Britain shortly after the Nazi rise to power. She studied English literature at Cambridge University, and immigrated to Israel in 1950. She then became a professor of English at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Sometimes called Israel’s Nobel Prize, the Israel Prize is awarded to those whose long careers have made distinctive contributions to Israeli society in various fields. Alice's career has been dedicated to promoting the rights and the place of women in Israel, in government, education, the courts, and the religious sector. Together with her husband Moshe Shalvi, she was key in producing the recent CD, Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. For decades Alice has been a role model for all of us who believe in equality for women and recognition of women's achievements, in Israel and in the world. She has opened doors for the generations of women who follow her many accomplishments. Remember the Women Institute offers Alice our congratulations and a hearty mazal tov!

NOREEN BRAND APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, FLORIDA HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education is pleased to announce the appointment of Noreen Brand as Director of Education, effective May 1, 2007. Since 1998, Noreen has served with distinction as a senior staff member of the Florida Holocaust Museum. She was instrumental in the creation of the museum and, since 2004, has served as Director of Curatorial Affairs.

The new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, now under construction in Skokie, will be a 65,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility dedicated to applying the lessons of the Holocaust to issues of hate, bigotry, and genocide in our world today. Slated to open in late 2008, the museum is expected to draw 250,000 visitors per year.Please visit www.hmfi.org to see the progress of the new museum.

In announcing the appointment, Richard S. Hirschhaut, Project and Executive Director, added: “We are thrilled that Noreen is joining our growing Museum family. She brings a rare combination of expertise, passion, creativity, and experience to the cause of remembrance and understanding that will be essential to fulfilling the vision of this exciting new institution.”

DR. SUSAN BENEDICT RECEIVES NIH GRANT
Dr. Susan Benedict has received a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health and a two-year grant from the Greenwall Foundation to study the roles of nurses in the medical experiments of Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. She has recently made presentations at the Royal College of Nursing
International Research Conference in Dundee, Scotland and the University of Hull, UK on nurses
during National Socialism.

DR. SONJA HEDGEPETH AT SPECIAL SEMINAR ON MIDDLE EAST
Dr. Sonja Hedgepeth was chosen to participate in a workshop on University Teaching of the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the 21st Century. The purpose of the workshop is to provide selected university teachers from around the world with a better understanding of the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict, its latest dynamics and the prospects for war and/or peace in the near future. The workshop aims to increase knowledge and enhance teaching on the subject, and to provide participants, and thereby their students, with tools and information that will help them combat the increasingly hostile atmosphere on many campuses. The 9-day workshop in June 2007 included lectures by scholars and specialists, briefings by policy makers, study tours along Israel's borders and exposure to techniques for improving communication skills on this charged subject. The workshop, based in Jerusalem, was directed by Prof. Efraim Inbar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar Ilan University and was co-sponsored by The International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, Hebrew University and Bar Ilan.

JOAN ROTH'S PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS ON WOMEN IN BUKHARA AND UKRAINE ON VIEW IN NEW YORK CITY
American Sephardi Federation presents Joan Roth's photography exhibition Remembering Old Bukhara through September 30, 2007, at Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York.

In the mid-1980's, photographer Joan Roth traveled to Bukhara, the famous city along the Silk Road, and documented the people, traditions, and daily life of the Jewish community there. An incredible people with a colorful 2,000 year history. This exhibition includes selected objects from the Bukharian Jewish Museum, the collections of the American Sephardi Federation, and a selection of photographs from the collection of Amnun Heifitz.

Her exhibition on Ukraine jewish wommen exhibit opens at Hebrew Union College in October 2007. An award-winning and internationally acclaimed photographer of women, Joan Roth's work features the lives of women changing the face of the Former Soviet Union. This show was featured earlier in the year to benefit Project Kesher. To coincide with International Women’s Day, the Project Kesher Annual NYC benefit was held on March 8, 2007 at the Ukrainian Institute of America.

Photographing women for over 30 years, Joan Roth's most recent body of work illustrates the collective voices of the women that make Project Kesher’s grassroots work and the rebirth of Jewish life in the Commonwealth of Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CIS) so powerful. Her images document a slice of rich Jewish feminist history and the strength, voice and pride of communities that had almost been silenced by 70 years of systematic religious oppression and anti-Semitism. Roth’s commitment to Project Kesher and to documenting the enormous changes taking place in the CIS is inspired by the organization’s mission to develop a new accessibility to Jewish women living in the CIS and by the transformative effects the Project Kesher trained leaders are having on their communities, both Jewish and secular.

Joan Roth is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose work has been collected, exhibited and published worldwide--in New York alone her work can be seen at the New York Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, The Schomberg Center for Black Culture and The Jewish Museum. She is the author of several books including, Shopping Bag Ladies of New York; Jewish Women: A World of Tradition and Change; and The Jews of Ethiopia. After the event Roth’s work will begin a national tour.

Founded in 1989, Project Kesher is changing the fabric of Jewish and secular communities throughout the CIS by engaging women in Jewish learning, and training them to be leaders in Jewish community building, social activism and the advocacy of human rights. With a grassroots movement of 150 Jewish women’s groups across eight time zones in the CIS and 83 multi-faith/multi-national women’s coalitions, Project Kesher engages people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds in an activist network to improve their society including job training, education, and combating domestic violence, human trafficking, anti-Semitism, and other forms of ethnic intolerance.

ROSEMARIE REED RECEIVES GRANT FOR "TELLING THEIR STORIES: THREE WOMEN IN SCIENCE"

Congratulations to Advisory Board Member Rosemarie Reed, who has received a nearly one million dollar grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the production of a three part, three hour television series, "Telling Their Stories: Three Women of Science."

More than a Lord's Daughter: The story of Ada Byron Lovelace
The first documentary will tell the story of Ada Byron Lovelace, the only legitimate daughter of the poet Lord Byron. Ada Byron Lovelace, a mathematician, worked with Charles Babbage's drawings and designs for his Analytical Engine and developed a set of Notes with Bernoulli numbers to explain the Engine, becoming the world's first computer programmer.

Out of Her Mother's Shadow: The Irène Joliot-Curie Story
The second film is on the life of Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie Curie who, along with her husband Frédéric Joliot, demonstrated how it is possible to artificially create radioactive isotopes in a laboratory, for which they both won a Nobel Prize. Their scientific work and their political involvement in occupied France during World War II, are the subjects of this film.

Suffer the Children: The Story of Frances Kelsey and Thalidomide
The third film of the trilogy focuses on the life of Frances Kelsey who, at the Food and Drug Administration in Washington D.C. in the 1960s, single handedly stopped the drug thalidomide from entering the United States from Germany where it had been developed by a physician, a former member of the Nazi Party. In Germany the drug was called Contergan. Given to pregnant women as a sleep aid, the drug, severely under tested, caused horrible deformities and children were born with "flipper" type extremities.

This series will be our second project with the Sloan Foundation. The grant will be used for production and will assist us in raising the additional money needed to complete the project. For this series, we will also partner with D.A. Pennebaker, one of America's premier filmmakers, as our fiscal partner. Mr. Pennebaker's film work includes "The War Room," about the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton; "Don't Look Back," on the life and times of Bob Dylan; and most recently, "Al Franken: God Spoke."

All films in their entirety and the interviews not included in the films, will be available on our web site as streaming video. The films and all other materials will be technically accessible to the blind and hearing impaired through the technology of SAMI, developed at Microsoft.

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DR. MYRNA GOLDBERG HAS JUST CO-EDITED A BOOK WITH ROCHELLE L. MILLEN, TESTIMONY, TEACHING AND TIKKUN: TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST IN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITIES.

Myrna Goldenberg has just co-edited a book with Rochelle L. Millen, Testimony, Teaching, and Tikkun: Teaching the Holocaust in College and Universities (University of Washington Press). The book will be out this spring. She has recently finished a year as an Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar on Holocaust Studies at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

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