The Weiss-Livnat International MA  Program in Holocaust Studies is a branch of the Weiss-Livnat International Center for Holocaust Research and Education - a center dedicated to perpetuating academic scholarship while also preserving Holocaust memory and awareness. Our MA program is the only graduate studies program of its kind in the world. With a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the Holocaust, we offer our students a wide range of courses in the disciplines of History, Anthropology, Psychology, Education, and the Arts taught by leading scholars in the field. In one year, our students attain the knowledge and skills to continue in academia or set out on a career path in Holocaust education or commemoration.

The Weiss-Livnat alumni traveling seminar is a new initiative of the Weiss-Livnat Center for Holocaust Commemoration and Education, aimed to provide alumni with the opportunity to gain new perspectives on current trends in Holocaust education and commemoration. During the seminar, the participants visited various sites of remembrance, museums, and research institutions, guided by experts and scholars, allowing them to acquire new knowledge and insight into the behind-the-scenes of the different institutions and understand their daily challenges. Furthermore, the seminar provided opportunities for the participants to share experiences, generate discussions, understand each other’s areas of focus, foster connections and collaborations, and ultimately inspire continued work, research, and commemoration of the Holocaust.

Read the full report on the traveling seminar

Holocaust memory in Europe is shifting and diversifying, often in conflicting ways. This report is the culmination of a comparative multidisciplinary study aimed at exploring shifts in Holocaust memory in five European countries that played very different roles during the Holocaust, and whose post-WWII histories differed too: Poland, Hungary, Germany, England and Spain.

The study took place from 2019-2022 and offers a snapshot of Holocaust memory at the start of the 21st century. In addition to the rise of far-right political parties, antisemitic incidents and crises around immigration and refugees, this period was also overshadowed by the Covid pandemic and its ensuing economic instability.

Our central guiding question was: How do experiences of the present relate to the memory of the Holocaust? Do they supersede it, leading to the gradual fading from memory of the mass-murder that shook the twentieth century? Do they reshape it, shedding new light on its lessons? Is the meaning assigned to present-day events shaped by its metaphors and symbols, or perhaps the present and the past engage in multidirectional dialogue over diverse memory platforms?

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