Feb 11
Forgotten Hero: Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz and the Rescue of the Jews of Europe, 1939-1950
New York, New York
Region
Co-Sponsor
Presentation
Date
12:00 p.m.
Location
711 Third Avenue
(between 44th and 45th Streets)
New York, New York
Light lunch will be provided.
Dietary laws observed. Admission is free.
RSVP
Register online or contact
Dana Ben-Benyamin at [email protected] or 646-452-3702.
Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, a rabbi from Baltimore, became the head of “the Joint” (the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) in Europe in 1941 on the eve of the “Final Solution.” From his office in Lisbon, Portugal, he directed a rescue and relief effort undertaken in coordination with every imaginable resource, an effort that would play a key role in the salvation of tens of thousands of lives. After the war, the Joint’s offices returned to Paris, and from there he oversaw the relief work being done in the displaced persons (DP) camps, which became home to most of the surviving remnant of European Jewry.
Prof. Tuvia Friling is working on a scholarly biography of Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, expected to be completed in 2016. Currently a senior researcher at BGU’s Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, Prof. Friling is a longtime member of the BGU faculty and an expert scholar in Israeli history, Zionism and the Holocaust. He was previously the head of Ben-Gurion Research Institute (1993 to 2001) and the state archivist of Israel (2001 to 2004) under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. For his accomplishments as the head of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute, Prof. Friling was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize.