On Thursday, Nov. 5, at 8 p.m., Dr. Shay Pilnik, director of the Emil and Jenny A. Fish Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center at Yeshiva University, and the son of Holocaust survivors, will lead a virtual discussion of “The Night of Broken Glass: History & Memory. Hosted by the Center for Community Education and Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy. Pilnik is the former executive director of the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center (HERC) in Milwaukee. He earned a B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, majoring in Comparative Literature and Jewish Thought; an M.A. in Jewish Studies from McGill University; and a doctoral degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in the field of Modern Jewish Studies. His PhD dissertation dealt with the commemoration of the Babi Yar Massacre in Soviet Russian and Yiddish literature. From 2008–2014, he was an adjunct instructor at the Universities of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Oshkosh, lecturing on a variety of topics including the Holocaust, modern Jewish history and culture, Judaism, Hebrew Bible, and the religions of the world.

Register at zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0rd-uprz8uE9Bv93_VWdqd20KXelcqfLlP. 

14th Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration, Nov. 5

Congregation Or Shalom in Orange and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven will sponsor the 14th Annual Community-Wide Kristallnacht Commemoration. This year’s commemoration will pay tribute to Odd Nansen for his conscience and heroism. Nansen financed and operated an orphanage in Oslo, Norway for Jews and others facing imminent death in Nazi-occupied Europe. Sent to a concentration camp by the Nazi Gestapo, Nansen kept a secret diary there which later became an important testimony to the realities of the Holocaust. In the camp, Nansen risked his life in order to save inmates. 

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal will present a U.S. Senate Commendation to the Nansen daily; and attorney Timothy Boyce, who republished From Day to Day, the secret diary of Odd Nansen.  

Register at jewishnewhaven.org/RSVP.

Interfaith Kristallnacht commemoration,
Nov. 5 & 7

On Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 8 at 5:30 p.m., Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford will host a virtual community gathering to remember Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass – when over the course of two nights in 1938 the terror of the Holocaust began in the streets of Germany.  All are invited to join in this program of music, dance and innovative ritual. Register at charteroakenter.org/events.