Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center to Host Abrahamic Religions Conference
The two-day event, Feb. 29 – March 1, explores challenges in an age of extremism.
Manhattan College’s Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith (HGI) Education Center will host a two-day conference on Abrahamic Religions: Challenges and Cooperation in the Age of Extremism on Monday, Feb. 29 and Tuesday, March 1 in the Raymond W. Kelly ’63 Student Commons. The full schedule of events can be found at the HGI Center’s website.
The event begins at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 29 with an introduction from Mehnaz Afridi, Ph.D., Director of the HGI Center. The first day’s events will explore the history of encounters between Jews, Muslims and Christians, from the biblical to medieval eras to present day.
The Feb. 29 schedule will conclude with a keynote address by renowned journalist E. Thomas Wood in the Alumni Room of O’Malley Library. Wood will discuss the work of Jan Karski, a Polish resistance emissary whose efforts to alert the world to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II were detailed in Wood’s book Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust. An exhibit celebrating Karski’s life and work hangs in the room where Wood will speak.
Beginning at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, March 1, the second day of events will start with a discussion on Christian, Jewish and Muslim intersections with the Holocaust. The 11:15 a.m. panel focuses on the challenges of academic centers focused on the Holocaust. The 1:30 p.m. panel will close the conference, detailing modern challenges of religious extremism.
All events are free of charge and open to the general public. Founded in 1996, the HGI Center is committed to understanding and respecting differences and similarities between people of all religions, races, ethnicities and nationalities. For more information about the HGI Center’s events, please contact Mehnaz Afridi, Ph.D., at (718) 862-7284 or mehnaz.afridi@manhattan.edu.