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September 14, 2007

Contact: Scott Silversten Phone: (718) 862-7232 E-mail: Public Relations

Acclaimed Darfur Expert To Open Manhattan College Holocaust Resource Center Fall Program

Dr. Jeff Horn named new Director

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Dr. Eric Reeves, professor of English language and literature at Smith College, will open the fall program of Manhattan College’s Holocaust Resource Center with his lecture A Long Day’s Dying: Genocide by Attrition in Darfur on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Smith Auditorium.

The Holocaust Resource Center is continuing its programs under the new leadership of Dr. Jeff Horn, associate professor of history at Manhattan College. Dr. Horn has assumed the role as the center’s director, and the College is currently working to establish a leadership team and board of advisors to help oversee all future programs and lectures.

Dr. Horn succeeds Frederick M. Schweitzer as director. Schweitzer was the instrumental voice in launching the Holocaust Resource Center and overseeing its activities for more than a decade. Schweitzer, professor emeritus of history, has been a member of the Manhattan College community for nearly half a century.

“I am humbled to follow Frederick Schweitzer’s example in maintaining the strong links between Manhattan College and the Riverdale community,” Horn says. “It is my hope, or intention, to emphasize this link even more. The campus community joins me in believing that the Holocaust and other genocides must be studied, understood and never forgotten.”

Under Dr. Horn’s direction, the Holocaust Resource Center will initially be holding two public events per academic year, including the Frederick M. Schweitzer Lecture on the Holocaust and Genocide, which will be inaugurated in the fall of 2008. On Nov. 6, the Center will be commemorating Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass,” a massive, coordinated attack on synagogues and Jewish businesses throughout the German Reich on the night of Nov. 9, 1938. The public program will feature the premier of two educational DVDs in which Manhattan College students interview local Holocaust survivors.

“Manhattan College’s commitment to the Holocaust Resource Center has been unwavering,” says Brother Thomas Scanlan, president of Manhattan College.  “The College is expanding its efforts to institutionalize the center to ensure its effective functioning long into the future. We are hopeful that the Holocaust Resource Center will be enriched by contributions and support which will permit it to expand and further develop its events and activities.”

The Center’s first event under Dr. Horn’s direction, A Long Day’s Dying: Genocide by Attrition in Darfur, is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by JustPeace, a student group dedicated to spreading awareness of social issues worldwide, and by the student government of Manhattan College.

Dr. Reeves is internationally recognized for his knowledge of current events in Sudan and is the author of A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide (2007). He is a longtime public advocate of issues related to Darfur and has spent the last eight years working as a Sudan researcher and analyst. Dr. Reeves has testified several times before Congress and has served as a consultant to a number of human rights and humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan.

For more information about Dr. Reeves’ lecture or the Holocaust Resource Center, please contact Dr. Horn at (718) 862-7129 or jeff.horn@manhattan.edu. Members of the media who would like to attend the event should contact Scott Silversten, communications manager, at (718) 862-7232 or scott.silversten@manhattan.edu.

The history of the Holocaust Resource Center dates back to 1996, when discussions among concerned faculty and administrators at the College and the Riverdale community led to the founding of the Holocaust Resource Center with the mission to promote Catholic-Jewish dialogue and to educate future generations about the Holocaust. The Center inaugurated its Visiting Scholars Program the follow year, and in 2006, an additional annual lecture was added to the series focusing on genocides other than the Holocaust.

To further its mission, the Center sponsored workshops for teachers in the metropolitan area from 1997-2002 and worked closely with the College’s school of education to incorporate segments on the Holocaust into curriculum and special courses. In the past decade, the Center has sponsored bus trips to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and New York City’s Battery Park. It also has sponsored events, such as commemorations of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Kristallnacht, and model Passover seders on campus and in the community.

Founded in 1853, Manhattan College is an independent, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning offering more than 40 major programs of undergraduate study in the areas of arts, business, education, engineering and science, along with graduate programs in education and engineering. For more information about Manhattan College, visit www.manhattan.edu.