THE 40TH ANNUAL SCHOLARS’ CONFERENCE ON THE HOLOCAUST AND THE CHURCHES
MARCH 6 – 8, 2010
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Elie Wiesel - Honorary Chairman
Saint Joseph's University - Host
Rev. Timothy R. Lannon, S.J. - Honorary Host Chairman
Dr. Nancy R. Fox and Dr. William Madges - Host Program Co-Chairpersons
Dr. Hubert G. Locke - Conference Chairman
Dr. Marcia Sachs Littell - Conference Executive Director, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
The Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches (ASC) was founded in 1970 by Franklin H. Littell and Hubert G Locke as an interfaith, interdisciplinary, and international organization. Since that initial gathering at Wayne State University, the Conference has been devoted to remembering, learning and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust in tandem with the study of the churches’ struggle and failure to confront Nazi anti-Semitism and the “Final Solution.” It is a project of The Philadelphia Center on the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights also based at Saint Joseph's University with the Annual Scholars Conference.
2010 marks the 40th anniversary of that first meeting, a period equal to that in the wilderness following the Exodus from Egypt, the former slaves requiring a generation to come to grips with that "watershed" event in their history. We, too, have spent forty years struggling to understand the meaning and significance of the Shoah, the "watershed" event of our time. We, too, have journeyed; our meetings have been hosted by academic institutions in more than a dozen states, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Our venue is a familiar one, as Saint Joseph’s University, our host institution, extends an association with the Annual Scholars’ Conference which began a decade ago. However, this will be the first Conference without our beloved Co-Founder and Chairman, Franklin H. Littell.
The Conference theme this year, “Crisis & Credibility in the Jewish Christian World: Remembering Franklin H. Littell,” underscores the continued investigation of two issues which most engaged our Co-Founder, a College Professor and Ordained Minister in the United Methodist Church, since his confrontation with an SS officer in Germany more than seventy years ago, the tragedy that befell the Jewish People that we call the Holocaust and the failure of the churches to take a stand against it. Conference participants have come to Philadelphia from all over the world, to report the findings of the latest researches and to remember our founder, our teacher, our colleague, our friend. May his memory be for a blessing and may the work of this Conference be a worthy effort in his memory.
Annual Scholars' Conference Program
