Tom Gjelten and Robert Siegel
14 Dec
Latest, Zoominars

Uyghurs in China: An Inconvenient Genocide with journalists Tom Gjelten and Robert Siegel

The Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority concentrated in the Xinjiang region along China’s western border, have faced discrimination, detention, and genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist authorities. And yet most countries-including the U.S.-have largely remained silent. Tom Gjelten, a former NPR international and domestic affairs correspondent and Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered, explore why, and how the situation recalls inaction in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, how discrimination against the Uyghurs became Chinese policy, and what can be done. Gjelten recently wrote about the Uyghurs as part of Moment‘s Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative, which examines prejudice and discrimination worldwide.

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22 Nov
Culture, History

Walking Over to the Other Side of the Pro-Peace Debate

By Scott Fox Soon after I sat down at my table at a fundraiser sponsored by the local Justice in Palestine chapter, the elderly woman sitting next to me said, “I see you crossed over to the other side.” What she meant was that I had crossed over to the St. Olaf side of town for the event. Northfield, Minn., has two liberal arts colleges, Carleton and St. Olaf. Carleton is on the east side; St. Olaf is on the west. Even though the two institutions are only a 20-minute walk from one another, it is not too often that students from each school interact. I could not help but see a parallel between Carleton and St. Olaf and the difference between my beliefs and those of Justice in Palestine. In other words, I could see where they...

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17 Aug
Uncategorized

Yizkor Education

By Adina Rosenthal British historian Sir Ian Kershaw famously wrote: “The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference,” a sentiment that provides much rationale for solid Holocaust education today. However, despite its clear importance, Holocaust education is not always the norm in schools. In 2007, a controversy erupted over Britain dropping required subjects such as the Holocaust and the Crusades from History curriculums due to fear of Muslim discontent. But the study citing Muslim opposition was debunked—only a small number of teachers at two schools involved in the study reported incidents—and the British have rebounded since the incident. In a recent article, the Jerusalem Post reported that British teachers have been brought to Israel as part of a three-week course on making the Holocaust more accessible to students. Funded by the Holocaust Education Trust,...

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13 May
History

Bosnian Jews and the Siege of Sarajevo

By Symi Rom-Rymer People have wrestled with the question of what drives human beings to commit genocide since the end of the Holocaust.  Less often considered is the flip side: Why do some societies subsumed by violence not lead to genocide?  A paper recently presented at the annual Association for the Study of Nationalities conference, held at Columbia University's Harriman Institute, examines two cases of recent genocides in which two different religious minority groups not only abstained from the mass killings, but actively tried to help those who were under threat.  The instance most pertinent to this forum is the case of the Sarajevo Jewish community, who in the midst of the Bosnian War (1992-1996), rescued, fed, and even educated those who were attempting to escape the military onslaught. The Jewish presence in Bosnia dates back to the 16th...

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