Ithaca College

Please join us this Friday afternoon for the 2015 Rachel Siegel Lecture

Dr. Natasha Zaretsky

Generations of Memory​: Reflecting on Holocaust Testimony, Gender, and Survival in Contemporary Buenos Aires

Friday, April 24th
3-4pm
Friends Hall 210

Free and open to the public

Dr. Natasha Zaretsky, Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University, will deliver this year's Rachel Siegel Lecture. Zaretsky is a cultural anthropologist focusing on human rights, migration, and the politics of memory in the Jewish diaspora in the Americas.   

Zaretsky's talk will address the role of testimony in understanding the aftermath of the Holocaust and the complex intersections of gender and survival in Argentina. How does memory continue to shape the way citizens make sense of and rebuild their worlds in the wake of ongoing political violence and impunity? Many Jews originally sought refuge in Argentina in response to genocide and political violence (including the Holocaust), building one of the largest and most vibrant Jewish communities in the world.  However, they continued to experience periods of political violence and repression, including the “Dirty War” (1976-1983) and two terrorist attacks in the 1990s.  Despite the challenge such violence presents to representation, memory has become an important site for rebuilding societies and selves after periods of genocide and political repression. This talk will take an ethnographic approach to understanding the significance of testimony as a space for engendering survival and belonging, and the unexpected intersections between gender and survival for new generations of Jewish Argentines rebuilding their community.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Annette Levine at alevine@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3252. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.