Holocaust Memorial Center Hosts Jewish-African American Speaker Series

The Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History are partnering to host a two-event series focusing on Jewish-African American relations. 

The presentations on Dec. 5 and 12 are part of a current Holocaust Memorial Center exhibit, “Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow,” which is on display through Dec. 15. The exhibit tells the story of Jewish professors who fled Nazism and came to America in the 1930s and 1940s, finding teaching positions at historically black colleges and universities. 

On Dec. 5, 7 p.m., at the Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Rd., Dr. Howard Lupovitch, director of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University, will present “Emancipation and Abolition: The Transatlantic Search for Freedom.” He will explore the activism of a group of Jewish freedom fighters who fought for Jewish emancipation in Central Europe until 1848, and then came to America and joined with the Abolitionists to fight against slavery.  

Admission for the event is $8, or free for Holocaust Memorial Center members.

On Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m., the Charles H. Wright Museum, 315 E. Warren Ave. in Detroit, hosts University of North Carolina Professor of History Dr. Genna Rae McNeil for a presentation on “Convergence in the Midst of Conflict: African Americans and Jewish Relationships, 1930-1954.” 

McNeil will discuss the courage of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred in Germany during World War II, the impact of Jewish scholars at historically black colleges and universities, and Jewish defenders of the rights of African Americans in movements for justice, freedom and equality prior to the Civil Rights Movement.

Admission for this event is free.

Learn more at holocaustcenter.org or thewright.org.