Inaugural Executive Director Michelle Stravitz explains the overall infrastructure for the first ever American Jewish Medical Association and how all Jewish health professionals from every background including students to retirees and non-clinical patient advocates may benefit and participate to help the cause.

Talking Point             BIPACT News

Ron Hassner teaches international conflict and religion.  He is a recipient of the Berkeley Undergraduate Political Science Association’s “Distinguished Teaching Award”, the Berkeley Division of Social Sciences’ “Distinguished Teaching Award”, Berkeley’s campus-wide “Distinguished Teaching Award”, and the American Political Science Association’s “Outstanding Teaching in Political Science Award”.  He is a faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies and he holds the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at U.C. Berkeley.

His research explores the role of ideas, practices and symbols in international security with particular attention to the relationship between religion and violence.  His published work focuses on territorial disputes, religion in the military, conflicts over holy places, the pervasive role of religion on the modern battlefield, and on the politics of interrogational torture.

Anatomy of Torture (Cornell University Press, 2022) draws on manuscripts from the archives of the Spanish Inquisition to explore the causes and effects of interrogational torture.  Religion on the Battlefield (Cornell University Press, 2016) examines the impact of religious ideas, symbols and practices on military decision making in 20^th century interstate wars. Religion and International Relations (with Isaac Svensson, Sage, 2016) offers an edited  collection of significant scholarly texts organized into four volumes.  Religion in the Military Worldwide (Cambridge, 2013), is a collection of essays on religion in contemporary armed forces. War on Sacred Grounds (Cornell, 2009) analyzes the causes and characteristics of disputes over sacred places around the globe and the conditions under which these conflicts can be managed.  He has published on religion and conflict in the journals Security Studies, International Security, Terrorism and Political Violence, Politics and Religion, Civil Wars and others and he has contributed chapters on similar themes to numerous volumes.  He is the editor of the Cornell University Press book series “Religion and Conflict”.

Talking Point             BIPACT News

Janet Singer Applefield is a child survivor of the Holocaust, author, and notable speaker. She earned her Master of Social Work at Boston University and practiced as a clinical social worker in the court system with perpetrators of hate crimes in the Greater Boston area for 30+ years. Janet speaks openly about her experiences with thousands of people each year through regular speaking engagements. In 2021, she was invited to tell her story before the Massachusetts State Legislature, on the occasion of the passage Bill H.692, an act mandating statewide genocide education in all middle and secondary schools. Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust will be released on May 7, 2024 and available at bookstores and online retailers.

When Janet first arrived in the U.S. in 1947, her father insisted that she relay to him everything she could remember since they were separated in August of 1942, so that he could capture it in writing. During his life, they never spoke about their collective torture. She discovered the seven hand script pages in 1984 in a box of yellowed papers, translated the document, and it became a blueprint for her self-discovery.  Janet learned of those who saved her during the war and she was able to meet her rescuers in person that same year.  They are now recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” at Yad Vashem in Israel.

At 88 years old, Janet continues to be an avid reader and international traveler. She has three children and five grandchildren and lives south of Boston, MA.

Study Guide Questions for Teachers:

1. Did Janet’s story affect you? Describe how.
2. What does Janet mean when she says that her Aryan features probably saved her life?
3. The Nazis disseminated messages of hatred toward Jews. What were some of the messages they used to fuel antisemitism?
4. Why might someone hate someone else merely because they are different from themselves?
5. What does the term “legacy” mean to you?
6. Write a letter to Gustawa. Tell her if there are any ways in which you identify with her.
7. Gustawa, her father, and other Jews who returned to Nowy Targ at the end of the war met with danger even though the war was over. How do you explain this?
8. How was Gustawa changed by her experiences during and after the war? How have trauma and tragic loss influenced Janet’s identity? How have your own circumstances shaped your character?
9. Why do you think Gustawa was asked to take a new name when she arrived to register for elementary school?
10. What does it mean to be resilient? Describe two examples of resilience from Janet’s story, and share a time when you had to recover quickly from challenges in your own life.
11. Think about the freedoms and security you enjoy. How would you feel if they were taken away from you?
12. In Janet’s story, why do you think some people chose to look away from injustice while others chose to stand up and make a difference even though it meant risking their own lives? What factors influenced their choices?
13. Janet wrote that the choices we make can have a ripple effect. What is one thing you can do to make a positive difference?

Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust

Launching May 7, 2024

Available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

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