Call for Applications: 2025 Curt C. and Else Silberman Faculty Seminar

Jewish Experiences Under Nazi and Soviet Occupation of Eastern Europe

The 2025 Silberman Seminar will explore Jewish experiences during World War II in eastern Europe’s borderlands. Focusing on territories occupied by the Nazis and the Soviets in the wake of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, the seminar will pay particular attention to the history of Jews who lived in the territories of present-day Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states.

Co-facilitators will discuss Jews’ methods of survival, routes of escape, acts of resilience, practices of memory, and responses to antisemitism during and after the Holocaust. The seminar aims to deepen, broaden, and enrich how we teach about the Holocaust, drawing on a range of perspectives and disciplinary approaches.

Co-Facilitators

Eliyana R. Adler, Professor of History and Judaic Studies, Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University

Elissa Bemporad, Professor of History and Ungar Chair in East European Jewish History and the Holocaust, Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center

Applicants can be at any career stage but must be teaching or anticipate teaching relevant courses at accredited institutions in North America. Apply online by Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

Find more information about the seminar, application, and co-facilitators on the Mandel Center’s 2025 Silberman Seminar page. Please contact the Campus Outreach team at campusoutreach@ushmm.org with any questions.

The Curt C. and Else Silberman Foundation endowed the Silberman Seminar for University Faculty in memory of Curt C. and Else Silberman. The Foundation supports programs in higher education that promote, protect, and strengthen Jewish values in democracy, human rights, ethical leadership, and cultural pluralism.

_{The mission of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center, part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is to ensure the long-term growth and vitality of Holocaust Studies. To do that, it is essential to provide opportunities for new generations of scholars. The vitality and the integrity of Holocaust Studies require openness, independence, and free inquiry, so that new ideas are generated and tested through peer review and public debate. The opinions of scholars expressed before, during, or after their activities with the Mandel Center do not represent and are not endorsed by the Mandel Center or the Museum.}