August 20, 2004
In this issue:

Library project works overtime

Wallace takes Vice Chancellor reins

At the Movies

Owens Field House to be rebuilt

Opinion: A new year is here

Boyd, Brantz join to inform community of Holocaust

By David Brewer
Staff Writer

Just a few years ago, department of English professor Dr. Zohara M. Boyd and department of History professor Dr. Rennie W. Brantz had an idea.

They had been team-teaching a class for honors students entitled “The Nazi Holocaust,” focusing on the events of World War II. After a couple of years, enrollment in the class began to swell to over double the capacity.

Not only were honor students signing up, but others as well, leaving the professors with a bit of an overcrowding problem.

Realizing that there was a need for greater education in the area of the Holocaust and Judaic studies in general, Boyd and Brantz set out to seek a solution to this problem.

The result of their collective brainstorming came to fruition in the form of the Martin and Doris Rosen Summer Symposium.

Upon receiving a generous donation from the Rosen family as well as other sources of state and school funding, the first symposium was held in the campus of Appalachian State University in the summer of 2002. The week-long event was, and continues to be aimed at educators from across North Carolina, hoping to aid them in their ability to teach North Carolina students at the middle and high school level more in the area of Holocaust and Judaic studies.

“This is a new venture for both Dr. Boyd and myself. It has grown rather quickly over the past three years, from the idea of a summer symposium for school teachers to something far greater with visiting scholars,” Brantz said.

The symposium’s third annual meeting on Appalachian State’s campus June 26-July 1 at the Broyhill Inn & Conference Center brought over 30 attendees from all over North Carolina as well as a number of participants from all over the country. With continued funding from the University, State, families and major fundraising done by the High Country Havurah, the symposium has continued to grow for each of the last three years.

In addition, Boyd and Brantz wanted to create a more permanent facility on campus to serve the needs of both students and educators seeking resources in all areas of Judaic studies. The Center for Judaic Studies, Holocaust Education, and Studies in Non-Violence was formed with the help of dedicated volunteer Jennifer Propst and others in the Hubbard Center in Whitener Hall.

“It’s a resource center, to lend out books, videos, and DVDs to teachers and students around the county,” Boyd said.

In addition to serving as a lend-lease library, the center is also responsible for the Nazi Holocaust Film Series. The films, ranging from Nazi propaganda films to such recently critically acclaimed pictures such as “The Pianist” will be showing in the Greenbriar Theater in Plemmons Student Union on Sundays at 2 p.m.

Although Boyd and Brantz still only teach the one class together, it is their hope that the center will allow for greater study by students and teachers alike in areas not limited simply to the holocaust.
With the help of professors in the departments of History and Philosophy, they hope to cover areas such as modern genocide around the world as well as domestic types of one-on-one violence.

“We’re trying to take it forward with a more modern and broader context,” Boyd said.

The first scheduled event being sponsored by the center will be an evening of klezmer music, taking place on Wednesday, Sept. 8th at 7:30 p.m. in the Rosen Concert Hall located in Broyhill Music Center. The concert is free to students and faculty.

“There needs to be more focused and energetic support for this kind of activity here at the university,” Brantz said. “In a way, we are still defining our purpose.”

For more information on the Center for Judaic Studies, Holocaust Education and studies in Non-Violence, visit their website.