Holocaust Scholar Michael Berenbaum Visiting CMC
As Spring '03 Podlich Visiting Professor

Michael Berenbaum, former director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and former director of Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is the 2003 William F. Podlich Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Claremont McKenna College, through mid-April.
Berenbaum will present the first of two public lectures at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, on the topic Time and History, Politics, Memory, and Identity: The Shifting Consciousness of the Holocaust. He will work with Jonathan Petropoulos, the John V. Croul Professor of European History, and John Roth, the Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, on their class, "Researching the Holocaust," and will present a series of seminars for faculty and advanced students in such disciplines as film studies, leadership, management, philosophy, and economics. He will also work with Professors Roth and Petropoulos on a major conference on the Holocaust to be held at CMC during the 2003-2004 academic year.
"The classroom is a home for me. It's a natural forum. It impacts my reading and my writing. It's where I try things out. It's where we can interact around a common text or theme, where you can explore your ideas," Berenbaum said. "And CMC is a special place. There's a great deal of interaction with the students, who are the kings and queens, the princes and princesses of the institution. They're truly cherished."
On Feb. 18 at 7 p.m., he will participate in the panel discussion The Vatican, Daniel Goldhagen, and the Holocaust, featuring Holocaust scholar and author Daniel Goldhagen, Professor John Roth, and Eva Fleischner, a Catholic theologian and professor emerita at Montclair State University.
An internationally recognized writer, lecturer, teacher and consultant, Berenbaum guides the development of museums and historical films as president of The Berenbaum Group in Los Angeles. He also serves as director of the Sigi Ziering Institute for the Study of the Ethical Implications of the Holocaust and as an adjunct professor of theology at L.A.'s University of Judaism.
Berenbaum received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Queens College, and studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew University and Boston University, before receiving his Ph.D. in humanities/religion and culture from Florida State University.