Naming Genocide: The Legacy of Lemkin
Panel Discussion
“Sovereignty cannot be conceived as the right to kill innocent people.” —Raphael Lemkin
How can we define genocide? How is the concept of genocide interpreted in discussions of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, Rwanda, and other devastating events such as those in Cambodia, Darfur and the former Yugoslavia? And what about Syria?
After escaping Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940, Polish Jewish legal scholar Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide” and was instrumental in passing the UN Genocide Convention in 1948. Join genocide studies scholars Donna-Lee Frieze (editor of Totally Unofficial and Prins Fellow at the Center for Jewish History), Peter Balakian (Colgate University) and A. Dirk Moses (European University Institute and the University of Sydney) as they discuss how Lemkin’s work and legacy can help us understand present-day conflicts.
This event is presented by the Center for Jewish History in honor of the publication of Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin (2013). Lemkin’s unedited manuscript is held at the NYPL
Ticket Info: $15 general; $10 CJH members, seniors & students
To Take place on September 24th at 6:30 pm at the Center for Jewish History
presented by CJH