Peace Should Not Be This Fragile – A Portrait of Panzi

Showing April 1, 2012 – July 1, 2012

Through the artwork of area students and Philadelphia-based sculptor Peter Frantz, Museum visitors will learn about the humanitarian crisis and the vibrant culture imperiled by violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

GHRAM Opening Reception

Florida Holocaust Museum
March 31, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

Join us for a reception and public program opening the Museum’s annual Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Month and the Peace Should Not Be This Fragile exhibition. This event will feature special guest, Michael Berenbaum, Ph.D. Berenbaum is a writer, lecturer, and teacher consulting in the conceptual development of museums and the development of historical films. He is the author and editor of twenty books, scores of scholarly articles, and hundreds of journalistic pieces. Berenbaum is the director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at the American Jewish University, where he is also a professor of Jewish Studies. He was the Director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Hymen Goldman Adjunct Professor of Theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Berenbaum served as Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, overseeing its creation. He also served as Deputy Director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust where he authored its Report to the President.

I'm Not Leaving - Rwanda's Remarkable Journey Out of Genocide

Florida Holocaust Museum
April 5, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

As a humanitarian aid worker, Carl Wilkens moved his young family to Rwanda in the spring of 1990. When the genocide was launched in April 1994, Wilkens refused to leave, even when urged to do so by close friends, his church and the United States government. He was the only American to remain in the country. Venturing out each day into streets crackling with mortars and gunfire, he worked his way through roadblocks of angry, bloodstained soldiers and civilians armed with machetes and assault rifles in order to bring food, water and medicine to groups of orphans trapped around the city. His actions saved the lives of hundreds. Wilkens will discuss his experiences which are recounted in his book, I’m Not Leaving.

Rembrance and Hope Performance

By the Performing Arts Consortium of St. Petersburg
The Palladium Theater
April 12, 2012, 7:30 pm

The Consortium of St. Petersburg is honored to present a tribute to the Survivors of the Holocaust. As part of the evening, you will hear works by local composers David Martinez III and James Weaver. Weaver’s piece Rhapsody of Remembrance: Auschwitz will incorporate expressive dance by Travis Mesman and acting by Brian Shea. The Saint Petersburg College Madrigalians, under the direction of Dr. Vernon Taranto, will also perform a series of choral works by both composers.

 

 

The Palladium Theater
253 Fifth Avenue North
St. Petersburg, Florida

Yom HaShoah Commemoration

Florida Holocaust Museum
April 19, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.

After a commemorative ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, keynote speaker, Dr. E. Edward Herman will tell his story as a Holocaust survivor and his experience of returning to Poland where he had lived in a ghetto before escaping to Hungary. Yom HaShoah is presented in partnership with the Pinellas County Board of Rabbis.

Erase Hate Tampa Bay Festival

Curtis Hixon Park, downtown Tampa
April 21, 2012 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Please join us for Erase Hate Tampa Bay Festival as we raise awareness of the dangers of bullying and hate driven behaviors. The family-friendly event features live music and performers, plus activities like rock climbing, face painting and more will be available.

Armenian Genocide Commemoration

St. Hagop Armenian Church
April 24, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.

Ronald Grigor Suny is the Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History and Director of the Eisenberg Institute of Historical Studies at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. He was the first holder of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of Michigan (1981-1995), where he founded and directed the Armenian Studies Program. He is the author of several books including Armenia in the Twentieth Century (Scholars Press, 1983); The Making of the Georgian Nation; Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History; and The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. He is also the editor of Transcaucasia, Nationalism and Social Change: Essays in the History of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. He is currently working on a two-volume biography of Stalin for Oxford University Press, a short history of the Armenian Genocide, a series of essays on empire and nations, and studies of emotions and ethnic politics. He has appeared numerous times on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, CBS Evening News, CNN, Voice of America, and National Public Radio, and has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, New Left Review, Dissent, and other newspapers and journals.

St. Hagop Armenian Church,
7010 90th Ave, Pinellas Park, Florida

Escape from Slavery

April 30, 2012, 6:30 p.m.
Florida Holocaust Museum

Francis Bok (Piol Bol Buk) was a seven-year-old Sudanese Dinka boy when he was captured by Arab gunmen and forced into slavery. He spent ten grueling years as a slave, tending large herds of goats and cattle, enduring numerous beatings, and living on scraps from his owner’s meals. Finally, on his third attempt, he was successful in escaping. Bok made his way to a refugee camp where he spoke openly about his captivity. He was soon sent to prison for “speaking out against the government.” After his release from prison, he eventually was granted UN refugee status and came to the United States. He was the first escaped slave to testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and has met with former President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, and other important leaders. His book, Escape from Slavery, is considered an important record of the experience of contemporary slavery.