MELROSE PARK, Pa. — Seven renowned Holocaust scholars have joined a newly established advisory board for Gratz College’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program. Members include some of the most distinguished academics and prominent leaders in the areas of Holocaust history, commemoration and genocide prevention.

The board meets once per year to discuss trends in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and to advise Gratz’s program director, Dr. Monika Rice, on curriculum direction, research gaps and emerging subspecialties. The goal is to help create a new generation of scholars, educators and activists in this critical area with the knowledge and assistance of some of the best minds in the field.

“My intention in inviting this eminent group of scholars to be an advisory board—some of whom were my own mentors—was to gain perspective and guidance in steering our unique program into the future by staying on the cutting edge of the field,” Dr. Rice said. “I am humbled and grateful that leading historians and practitioners are graciously contributing their experience to our effort to educate the next generation of researchers and educators.”

Gratz College created the first online Master of Arts program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and operates the only Ph.D. program in the field. Both programs are delivered in a mainly online format.

So far, about 100 students have graduated from the program with a master’s degree or graduate certificate, and 120 students are currently enrolled, about half of whom are doctoral students.

The following scholars have accepted invitations to serve on the advisory board:

Antony Polonsky, D. Phil. (Chair), is emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Warsaw, the Institute for the Human Sciences, Vienna, and the University of Cape Town, among other prestigious appointments. In addition, Dr. Polonsky has been Chief Historian of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw since 2013. The Jews in Poland and Russia, is his most recent work, among others too numerous to list. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University and is the recipient of many awards.

Omer Bartov, Ph.D., is the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University. He is the author of eight monographs, including Hitler’s Army (1991), Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine (2007), and Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz (2018), which received the 2018 National Jewish Book Award and the 2019 Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research. He has also edited or coedited six additional volumes. Bartov’s current book projects are titled “Tales from a Vanished World: Small-Town Galicians Discover Modernity,” and “Israel/Palestine: A Personal Political History.”

David Engel, Ph.D., is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies at New York University.

Laura Jockusch, Ph.D., is the Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University, where her research and teaching focus on the social, political, cultural, and legal histories of European Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust. Jockusch holds a doctorate from New York University and was a research fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, Hebrew University, and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University. Her first book, Collect and Record! Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Postwar Europe won the National Jewish Book Award and the Sybil Halpern Milton Book Prize. She has also coedited other works. She is currently working on the book, The Trials of Stella Goldschlag: Nazi Victim, Holocaust Survivor, and War Criminal.

Steven Luckert, Ph.D., is Senior Program Curator for the Levine Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He served for 20 years as the Curator of the Museum’s acclaimed permanent exhibition, The Holocaust, and also curated eight special exhibitions, including State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda. Dr. Luckert has appeared on CSPAN, CNN, NBC, and The History Channel, as well as in the Huffington Post,
Washington Post, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other media outlets. Dr. Luckert earned his Ph.D. in Modern European History from the State University of New York at Binghamton and has published on German history, the Holocaust, and Nazi propaganda.

Robert Melson, Ph.D., is emeritus Professor of Political Science and a member of the Jewish Studies Program at Purdue University. From 2003–2005, he was the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). In 2006 and 2007, he was the Cathy Cohen-Lasry Distinguished Professor in the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. His primary area of expertise is in ethnic conflict and genocide. His interest in the topic derives from his family’s experience in Europe, as well as from his field work in Nigeria in 1964–65, just before the onset of the Nigerian Civil War. The story of his family’s shared survival during the Holocaust is told in False Papers, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Jewish Book Award. He is also the author of several other books and his articles have been published in the American Political Science Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and elsewhere.

Stephen D. Smith, Ph.D., is the Finci-Viterbi Endowed Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, and holds the UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education. Smith founded the UK Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and co-founded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide. Smith has served as a producer on a number of film and new
media projects, including Dimensions in Testimony, and the VR project “The Last Goodbye.” In recognition of his work, Smith has become a member of the Order of the British Empire and received the Interfaith Gold Medallion. He also holds two honorary doctorates, and lectures widely on issues relating to the history and collective response to the Holocaust, genocide, and crimes against humanity.