We are partnering with Ghetto Fighters’ House for a three-part Zoom series entitled Children, Trauma, and the Work of Recovery – From the Holocaust to October 7: New scholarship, New perspectives, Three conversations.
The first program, on Sunday, October 11, 2026, is From the Holocaust to October 7:
Exploring Child Rehabilitation Across Historical Contexts. The program is dedicated to the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, massacre through a scholarly discussion of child rehabilitation, trauma, and recovery in the aftermath of mass violence. The publication of Child Rehabilitation from the Holocaust to October 7, edited by Dr. Verena Buser and Dr. Boas Cohen, provides the point of departure for the conversation. However, the event is not intended as a traditional book launch. Instead, it will use the volume as a framework for examining broader questions about the care, rehabilitation, and resilience of children across different historical contexts.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
2 PM EDT | 8 PM CET | 9 PM Israel Time | 9 PM SAST
Opening Remarks:
Yigal Cohen, CEO, Ghetto Fighters’ House
Book Editors:
Dr. Verena Buser, Associate Researcher Holocaust Studies Program/Western Galilee College
Dr. Buser will examine what the rehabilitation of children after the Holocaust can teach us about understanding the impact of war, genocide, and mass violence on children today, including those affected by October 7.
Dr. Boaz Cohen, Head, Holocaust Studies Program, Western Galilee College
Dr. Cohen will turn to the experience of approximately 8,000 Holocaust-survivor children detained in the Cyprus camps in 1946–48, exploring the efforts of educators and fellow survivors to help them rebuild trust, resilience, and hope under difficult conditions.
Guest Speaker:
Rotem Semo Bareket, B.Arch, Architect and Head of Planning, Kindergartens for Life,
Brothers and Sisters for Israel
Bringing the discussion into the present, Rotem Bareket will describe the development of Kindergartens for Life, from an emergency response providing safe spaces for children displaced after October 7 to a long-term initiative using architecture, education, and community to restore safety, continuity, belonging, and hope.
The second Zoom program, on October 25, is The Kindertransport: Rescue, Separation, and Recovery. Revisiting the Kindertransport through the lens of children’s experiences, trauma, and resilience. The third Zoom program, on November 8, is Through the Eyes of Jewish Child Survivors from Poland. Centering children’s voices in understanding survival, memory, and postwar recovery.
This Talking Memory series turns to the enduring questions of trauma, memory, loss, resilience, and recovery. Together, these three encounters ask how we remember, how we rebuild, and how memory can become a space for understanding and healing.
This Ghetto Fighters’ House series is in partnership with Remember the Women Institute, Brothers and Sisters for Israel, Edut 710, Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, and Classrooms Without Borders.