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Holocaust & Genocide Awareness Week 2026

JANUARY 22 – 29

Presented by Hillel at FIU, the Holocaust & Genocide Studies Program, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU

Please join Hillel at FIU, the Holocaust & Genocide Studies Program, the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, and our many co-sponsors for FIU’s 11th Annual Holocaust & Genocide Awareness Week (HGAW), a series of on- and off-campus in-person and online events that will raise awareness about these darkest moments in history. In this era of heightened antisemitism, HGAW will engage our community with a range of perspectives on genocide and mass violence and will culminate in a campus-wide observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Multiple campus-specific locations are listed below. To locate campus buildings, please use the FIU Interactive Map.

This schedule is being actively updated. Please check back for additional information.

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  • Thursday, January 22

    What is the Government's Role in Combating Antisemitism?

    Featuring Dr. Kathrin Meyer, The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI)

    Time: 2-3:15 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Green School International Pavilion (SIPA II, Room 102)
    Description: Dr. Kathrin Meyer will speak about her extensive experience with intergovernmental organizations and their involvement in fighting antisemitism. She will reflect on the roles Holocaust denial and distortion play in governance, top-down vs. grassroots approaches to the problem, and the importance of protecting democracy as a whole.

    Click here to register.

  • Friday, January 23

    HGAW Shabbat Dinner

    Featuring Yoel Levy, The Jewish Fitness Coach.

    Time: 6:30-9 PM EST
    Location: The Graham Center (10955 SW 15th Terrace, Miami, FL 33199) Room 243
    Description: Yoel Levy, The Jewish Fitness Coach, shares his powerful journey from early personal struggles and uncertainty about his Jewish identity to becoming a global voice for Jewish pride and resilience. Through his marathon efforts around the world, he brings awareness to the Bibas family, strengthens the connection to the wider Jewish community, and shows how one individual can turn movement into meaning. Presented in partnership with Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) and with the support of the Philip & Suzi Cohen Jewish Values Fund of AEPi.

    Click here to register.

  • Saturday, January 24

    Havdalah Around Miami

    Featuring Mark Baranek, Director of Congregational Engagement at Temple Beth Sholom.

    Time(s): 5-6:45 PM EST
    Location(s): Temple Beth Sholom (4144 Chase Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33140)
    Description: Mark Baranek tells the harrowing story of his father, Martin Baranek, who survived multiple concentration camps and death marches, eventually documenting his experiences in the memoir Determined.

    Featuring Merle Saferstein.

    Time(s): 6-8 PM EST
    Location(s): Temple Sinai (18801 NE 22nd Ave, Miami, FL 33180)
    Description: After working with Holocaust Survivors for over 30 years, Merle Saferstein stresses the importance of storytelling, especially when it comes how important the lessons of the Holocaust are in today's climate.

    Click here to register.

  • Sunday, January 25

    Hope and Courage in Rosewood and the Holocaust

    Join us for a conversation exploring Hope Prevails (2018) and Ometz Lev/Courage of the Heart (2025) by Florida artist Pedro Jermaine.

    Time: 6-8:00 PM EST
    Location: Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU (301 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139)
    Description: On view through March 31, these paintings commemorate the 1923 Rosewood massacre and the Holocaust, respectively. The event will feature a dialogue with Jermaine and public historian Lizzie Robinson Jenkins about their work to keep the memory of both histories alive, followed by a light reception.

    Click here to register.

  • Monday, January 26

    Remembering Partition: Violence, Memory and Historical Reflection

    Featuring Dr. Gyanendra Pandey, Emory University.

    Time: 1-2:15 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Green School International Pavilion (SIPA II, Room 102)
    Description:Dr. Pandey will examine the violence that accompanied the 1947 Partition of British India into the independent states of India and Pakistan. Drawing on his seminal work Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India, Dr. Pandey explores how differently partition was remembered in historical accounts and in popular memory. His lecture reflects on one of South Asia’s most significant historical tragedies and presents an opportunity to consider how violence, memory, nationalism, and historical narrative intersect in shaping collective understanding in the region and elsewhere.

    Click here to register.

    Holocaust and Genocide Education: Considerations for Elementary Students

    Join us for an evening exploring inquiry-based pedagogical strategies/activities to engage young people in lessons from the Holocaust and genocide.

    Time: 6:15-7:30 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Green School International Pavilion (SIPA II, Room 102)
    Description: We will discuss the importance of teaching about the Holocaust and genocides to students, review recommendations for how to engage children in these types of lessons in age-appropriate ways, and provide resources and examples of teaching these difficult histories.

    Click here to register.

  • Tuesday, January 27

    Free Speech, Antisemitism, and Academic Spaces

    Featuring Professor Andrew Pessin, Connecticut College.

    Time: 3:30-4:45 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Green School International Pavilion (SIPA II, Room 102)
    Description: Professor Andrew Pessin discusses how democratic ideals of free expression sometimes collide with the protection and exclusion of minority communities, particularly Jewish students, and how societies should navigate that tension without authoritarian overreach.

    Click here to register.

    The Last Twins

    Please join us at the Miami Jewish Film Festival as we host the Southeast US premiere of The Last Twins.

    Time: 6:00 PM EST
    Location: O Cinema (1130 Washington Ave #200, Miami Beach, FL 33139)
    Description:The Last Twins documents the true story of Erno “Zvi” Spiegel, a Hungarian Jewish prisoner whose courage and compassion saved the lives of dozens of young twins targeted for Nazi medical experiments, followed by a special talkback with Judith Richter, Spiegel’s daughter and a film participant.

  • Wednesday, January 28

    Voices of Truth

    Featuring Zach Sage Fox.

    Time: 11:00 AM-12:00 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Green School International Pavilion (SIPA II, Room 102)
    Description: Zach Sage Fox, with over 250 thousand followers on Instagram alone, discusses Holocaust denial with special guests, and how he's fighting back on social media.

    Click here to register.

    Medical Ethics and the Holocaust

    Featuring Dr. Alex Kor, Podiatrist, Hendricks Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Indiana.

    Time: 5-6:15 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Academic Health Center 2 (AHC2) Room 180
    Description: Dr. Alex Kor will discuss lessons learned from the Holocaust that impact how medical professionals interact with patients, colleagues, and attending physicians, demonstrating how medical education can be positively affected by understanding the terrible atrocities committed by doctors over 80 years ago.

    Click here to register.

  • Thursday, January 29

    Annual Remembrance Ceremony

    Featuring Leslie Gelrubin Benitah in conversation with Anita Karl.

    Time: 11:00 AM-12:15 PM EST
    Location: FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC), Green School International Pavilion (SIPA II, Room 102)
    Description: Annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony featuring Leslie Gelrubin Benitah, journalist and filmmaker, and co-founder of the intergenerational multimedia project The Last Ones, in conversation with local survivor Anita Karl.

    Click here to register.

Co-sponsors

Alpha Epsilon Pi
ChabadFIU
College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
David Posnack Jewish Community Center
Department of Politics and International Relations
Department of Religious Studies
Department of Teaching & Learning, School of Education and Human Development
Dorothea Green Lecture Series
Dr. Gordon R. Miller Charitable Trust
Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Hillel at FIU Jewish Faculty and Staff Association

Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach
Jain Studies Program
Jewish Medical Student Association
Miami Jewish Film Festival
Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence
Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Center for Muslim World Studies
Office of Global Learning Initiatives
Office of Public Policy Events
Philip & Suzi Cohen Jewish Values Fund of Alpha Epsilon Pi
Public Humanities Lab

Ruth K. and Shepard Broad Distinguished Lecture Series
School of Architecture Miami Beach Urban Studios
Stand With Us
Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs
Temple Beth Sholom
Temple Sinai North Dade
The Last Ones
The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI)
The Real Rosewood Foundation
Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Democracy

Archive

In late January of every year the HGSP, along with Hillel at FIU and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, presents FIU’s Annual Holocaust & Genocide Awareness Week (HGAW), a series of on- and off-campus in-person and online events that engage our community with a range of perspectives on genocide and mass violence, culminating in a campus-wide observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.