Western Washington University to host the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Meyerhoff Lecture Friday, April 7  

  • “Teaching Exclusion in Nazi Germany and the United States: Antisemitism & Racist Ideology in the Classroom, 1920-1945” is the chosen topic of one of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s oldest endowed academic lecture  
  • Friday, April 7 at 5 p.m. (PDT) at WWU Bellingham campus’s Fraser Hall 102  

Western Washington University’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity is pleased to announce that its first in-person event at WWU in more than three years will be as co-host for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) annual Meyerhoff Lecture on WWU’s campus.   

The topic of this year’s lecture will be “Teaching Exclusion in Nazi Germany and the United States: Antisemitism & Racist Ideology in the Classroom, 1920-1945” and will be led by Dr. Margaret D. Jacobs, Charles Mach Professor of History and Director of the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Dr. Adam Knowles, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Zurich.  

The event will be hosted in person at Fraser Hall 102 at 5 p.m. (PDT) on Friday, April 7. Free campus parking will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in WWU lot 9G. It will also be available to stream online. To register to attend the event in-person or virtually, visit: www.wwu.edu/meyerhoff-annual-lecture

The event’s commentator and moderator will be Dr. Hollie Mackey, Associate Professor of Educational and Organizational Leadership and Associate Director of the UCEA Graduate Student Development, North Dakota State University, and former Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Advancing Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities.  

This discussion will explore the role of ​two different ​educational systems ​– Nazi Germany and the United States –​ and their underlying ideologies as they each sought to create a specific national identity during the 1920s through the 1940s.  

“We are honored that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum​ and its Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies​ has asked WWU to co-host the renowned Meyerhoff Lecture and are thankful to WWU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Office of Tribal Relations for helping us make this lecture a reality,” said Dr. Sandra Alfers, Director for the Ray Wolpow Institute, “We understand that the topic of this year’s lecture may be personally impactful for many in our community, especially during this month of remembrance and reflection for so many people. We warmly encourage all to join us for this very special and important opportunity.” 

About the Meyerhoff Lecture  

The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Annual Lecture on the Holocaust was endowed by the Meyerhoff family in 1994 to honor excellence in research and foster dissemination of scholarly work in Holocaust Studies. Meyerhoff annual lectures are free, open to the public, and are held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and at partner institutions nationwide.  

Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff of Baltimore, Maryland, were active philanthropists in the United States and abroad, focusing especially on Jewish learning and scholarship, music, the arts and humanitarian causes. Their children, Eleanor Katz and Harvey M. Meyerhoff, member and chairman emeritus of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, have endowed this lecture.  

About the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum  

Located in Washington D.C, the federally-funded USHMM “is a living memorial to the Holocaust and inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.” For the past few years, Dr. Babafemi Akinrinade and Dr. Sandra Alfers, along with other faculty members, have been part of a museum-led Regional Programming Initiative that has been bringing academic programs to the Pacific Northwest.   

About the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity  

The Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity (RWI) at Western Washington University was established in the summer of 2016. It is named after Western Professor Ray Wolpow, faculty emeritus at WWU’s Woodring College of Education and founder of the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Ethnocide Education (NWCHGEE).  

poster has details about the upcoming Meyerhoff lecture