Ocean County College Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education fosters student and community understanding of the causes and legacy of the Holocaust and other genocides such as the Armenian genocide, to create an acute awareness of contemporary human rights abuses locally, nationally, and globally through lectures, exhibits, and events. Please visit our website often to see what programs are forthcoming.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future programs and presenters, please contact:
Dr. Ali Botein-Furrevig, Professor/Director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education
Location: W. Kable Russell Building (#7), Room 227
Phone: 732.255.0400, Ext. 2368
Email: abotein-furrevig@freoreport.net
Our Mission Statement
The core mission of the Ocean County College Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education at Ocean County College is to serve the college and community by offering innovative educational programs and events which foster awareness of the Holocaust, genocides, and other crimes against humanity, and which advance ongoing dialogue about the pernicious consequences of bigotry, ethnic hatred, indifference, and intolerance. To this end, the Center will:
- Regularly invite distinguished speakers to discuss topics regarding the Holocaust, genocides, and human rights.
- Encourage student involvement in the work of the Center and in the pursuit of further study on issues pertinent to genocides and human rights, including an understanding of the various systemic stages of genocide and recognition of the signs and symptoms of prejudice and intolerance.
- Introduce to the community, timely and frequent discussion of local, national, and global issues relevant to the mission of the Center.
- Cultivate a campus climate that encourages reflection upon moral and ethical questions, so that students can become engaged and informed citizens committed to mutual respect and justice.
- Maintain a program of outreach to local schools to engage students in the Center’s programs and to be a resource center for further study in holocaust and genocide studies, as well as cultural diversity.
- Sponsor Yom haShoah, a week of Holocaust Remembrance events, including: personal testimonies and experiences of survivors; scholarly historical presentations; workshops; memorial prayer services; film, art, and music programs relative to the Holocaust.
2024 Events
Book Discussion and Selected Readings: Shtetl Roots, Emigrant Routes, and a New York City Love Story by Dr. Ali Botein-Furrevig
Date: Monday, January 27, 2025
Time: 11:00am – 12:15pm
Location: Instructional 202
Both historical and memoir in nature, the book begins with an overview of Polish Jewry during the period when Poland was partially annexed by Russia, where her paternal grandparents were born. The author explores the inception and evolution of shtetl culture, illustrated with stories she grew up hearing from her grandmother. She then provides a vibrant description of life on New York’s Lower East Side in the 19th century, where, as a child, she would accompany her father and grandmother to visit the place where her grandmother met her husband. Later, as a young widow, her grandmother raised three children, all of whom achieved the American dream through education and hard work in der goldene medina, the Golden World.
First, They Came for…: Hitler’s Other 5 Million Victims
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Time: 11:00am – 12:15pm
Location: Instructional 202
Although Jews were the primary victims of the Nazis’ atrocities, many other groups were targeted on both racial and political grounds. Those singled out included homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled, clergy, intellectuals, Roma (Gypsies), Poles and other Slavic peoples, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and members of political opposition groups.
| Tuesday, April 22, 2025 | 9:30 – 10:45 am | TECH Lecture Hall – Tech 115 |
| Tuesday, April 22, 2025 | 11:30am – 12:45 pm | TECH Lecture Hall – Tech 115 |
| Wednesday, April 23, 2025 | 9:30 – 10:45 am | TECH Lecture Hall – Tech 115 |
| Thursday, April 24, 2025 | 9:30 – 10:45 am | TECH Lecture Hall – Tech 115 |
All events are free and open to the public.
Questions?
Contact Dr. Ali Botein-Furrevig 732-255-0400 ext. 2368 or abotein-furrevig@freoreport.net.
Remembering October 7, 2024
After the Holocaust, we vowed, “Never Again.” We believed such an atrocity would never be repeated; that somehow humanity learned its lesson. Yet in the early morning hours of October 7, 2023, thousands of the Palestinian armed group, Hamas, launched an unprovoked large -scale air, sea, and land attack against Israel. They fired thousands of rockets and infiltrated towns and cities after crossing the fortified borders between Israel and Gaza. Funded by Iran and fueled by hatred for Jews, they had one goal: to indiscriminately butcher and kidnap as many Israelis as possible—women, the elderly, children, and babies. To date, the attacks killed1,195 people, including 815 civilians. A further 251 persons were taken hostage during the initial attack on Israel to the Gaza Strip. Equally horrific is that Hamas made a spectacle of their horrific actions on social media. Even the Nazis tried to cover up what they did.
The all -out war that still rages and expands has little to do with any political point, gaining territory, or 1 or 2 state solutions. It has to do with the Final Solution and the fact that the Jewish people and a Jewish state exist. Israel has the right to exist, to defend itself, and to not be held to a double standard to justify its response to such evil more so than any other nation. That is indisputable. Such evil will continue until Hamas is held accountable and eliminated.
The anniversary falls as Jewish people around the world prepare for the Jewish New Year, a day of atonement, renewal, and hope. Let us all pause for a moment of silence to not only remember this unspeakable tragedy, but reflect on the threats all of humanity faces when such hatred and inhuman atrocities are perpetrated. We must also have pity for the suffering of the victims of people of Gaza, many of whom are also victims of the brutal tactics of Hamas. October was not merely a national tragedy –it was a crime against humanity. And that should concern us all.
“The most deadly poison of our time is indifference” – Maximillian Kolbe
Maximillian Kolbe, venerated as Saint Maximillian Kolbe, a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a Jewish man in the German death camp of Auschwitz.
Yom ha Shoah 2024
The 365球赛平台 Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education has announced its Spring, 2024 program for Holocaust Remembrance Week May 6th through the 9th. The historical and topical theme of the event is: Aspects of the Holocaust and their Implications and Relevance in Today’s World. More information to follow in early 2024.
Questions? Contact Dr. Botein-Furrevig: (732)255-0400 X2368; abotein-furrevig@freoreport.net
For Additional Information
Please contact:
Ali Botein Furrevig, Ph.D.
Professor/Director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education
Notable Quotes
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) Born in Transylvania. Holocaust survivor, Nobel Prize winning writer, teacher, activist speaking out against persecution and injustice around the globe.
“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and educator who was blind and deaf.
More About Dr. Ali Botein Furrevig
Dr. Botein-Furrevig holds a BA, MA, and Ph.D. in English literature and is a recipient of a 2009 fellowship at the renowned YIVO Institute in NYC. She holds certificates in Jewish and Holocaust studies from American and Israeli universities. A retired tenured English professor at 365球赛平台, she developed courses in Hebrew, Jewish literature, and Holocaust literature. As Center Director, she teaches courses for the college community on Holocaust and Genocide studies, and Jewish culture and history. She also develops and delivers outreach programs for local schools on Judaism and antisemitism. Dr. Botein-Furrevig is the author of four books, two of which received distinguished awards: Heart of the Stranger: A Portrait of Lakewood’s Orthodox Community and Last Waltz on the Danube: The Ethnic German Genocide in History and Memory; The Stories We Carry: Texts and Contexts of Jewish History and Literature from the Biblical Era through the Diaspora; Beyond the Pale: Shtetl Roots, Emigrant Routes, and a New York City Love Story. Dr. Botein-Furrevig is a popular speaker throughout New York and New Jersey.