JANUARY 27 • 2022 | 33

D

eborah Dash Moore has taught 
Jewish history surrounding the 
Holocaust for 30 years and is confi-
dent there always is a lot more to be learned 
by students and teachers. 
Moore, the Frederick G.L. Huetwell 
Professor of history and professor of Judaic 
Studies at the University of Michigan as well 
as editor-in-chief of the Posen Library of 
Jewish Culture and Civilization, applied that 
stance throughout the pandemic. 
Accessing the resources of the Posen 
Library and apart from her university respon-
sibilities, Moore oversaw the creation of 
videos digitally available for free by the gen-
eral public and especially in anticipation of 
International Holocaust Remembrance Day 
on Thursday, Jan. 27.
“We have a cluster of what we call teaching 
clips, which are three-to-five minute clips on 
seven specific topics that are designed to be 
potentially used for classroom instruction,
” 
Moore explained. 
“It’s like having a visiting professor come 
into a class about a specific issue, but each clip 
is also accessible for anyone who has three-to-
five minutes and wants to think about some-
thing different.
”
The topics include “
Antisemitism, 
Holocaust,
” “Religious and Spiritual 
Culture,
” “Modern Jewish History,
” “Jewish 
Visual Cultures,
” “Secular Jews,
” “Gender 
Studies,
” “Jewish Literature” and “Biblical 
Literature.
” 
For in-depth presentations, Moore 
serves as moderator for 11 digital events 
that cover a range of religion-based top-
ics, each running about an hour and pre-
pared in varying collaborations that include 
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 
Washington, D.C., Center for Jewish History 
in New York and the Holocaust Museum Los 
Angeles. 
 The presentation titled “Jewish Writing 
During the Holocaust” brought new and 
valuable knowledge to Moore as she inter-

viewed Samuel Kassow, the Charles Northam 
Professor of History at Trinity College in 
Hartford, Conn., and author of Who Will 
Write Our History? Rediscovering a Hidden 
Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto.
“I learned of several women poets I did not 
know about, and one, Zuzanna Ginczanka 
(1917-1944), wrote the poem ‘Non Omnis 
Moriar’ that stands out beyond being a liter-
ary work,
” Moore said.
“She wrote about being in hiding during 
the Holocaust and being betrayed by her 
landlady, who reported Ginczanka’s Jewish 
identity to the Nazis before going on to enjoy 
the poet’s clothes and other things left behind 
although the poet certainly didn’t have much 
to leave behind.
“What becomes so powerful about this 
poem is that it names the landlady so the 

poem was used to convict the woman after 
the war. I had never imagined poetry able to 
be summoned in a trial as testimony, but this 
poem was.
” 
A wider exploration of the Holocaust is 
presented in the video “Catastrophe and 
Rebirth, 1939-1973.
” The two guest speakers 
include Kassow and David Roskies, Sol and 
Evelyn Henkind Chair in Yiddish Literature 
and Culture and professor of Jewish Literature 
at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New 
York.
Other programs include “Secularism and 
Religious Tradition,
” “What’s New in the 
Bible,
” “Voices of Jewish Women,
” “Midwives, 
Musicians. Soldiers, Rabbis: Whose Stories 
Will Become Jewish History?” and “Between 
the World Wars: Great Creativity and 
Growing Crisis.
”
Making subjects and materials available 
digitally falls in line with the Posen Library, 
which is not a physical library but a published 
collection available for purchase in hard copy 
by the Yale University Press and also online 
for free. The library was founded and funded 
by Felix Posen, a retired commodities trader.
“I think these videos are really interesting 
because of the ways in which they broaden 
appreciation of the context of the Holocaust 
by looking at the entire Jewish world, not just 
the world of Jews who were under Nazi rule,
” 
Moore said. 
In discussions pointing to issues of 
antisemitism and ways of resistance, tapes 
refer to religious, spiritual, artistic, political 
and combative responses.
 “People don’t always recognize there are 
many ways of fighting back,
” Moore said. 
“That’s one of the things that’s relevant today 
from these videos.
” 

To access a teaching clip or full program, go to 

posenlibrary.com, click on “About” and scroll down to 

“Teaching Clips” or “Events.” The programs also are 

available on YouTube.

Posen Library makes “teaching clips” 
available to the everyone.

Educating the Public 
on the Holocaust

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

pared in varying collaborations that include 

Deborah 
Dash 
Moore

OUR COMMUNITY
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

