East Brunswick Library To Host Talk On Holocaust Memoirs

EAST BRUNSWICK — East Brunswick Public Library is continuing with its Holocaust Remembrance Program series with an online lecture on May 25.

Glenn Dynner, Professor of Religion at Sarah Lawrence College, will deliver the lecture "Jewish Responses to the Shoah: Insights from Personal Memoirs," at 7 p.m.

The talk will focus on Holocaust memoirs by Primo Levi Elie Wiesel, and others.

It will delve into people's lives, to bring home the realities of trauma, heroism, and moments of impossible humanity during the holocaust.

The program includes a discussion of “The Remnant,” written by Michael Kesler, an East Brunswick resident.

The Holocaust Remembrance Series is produced by Kesler.

"Our aim is to commemorate and celebrate the rich historical and cultural contributions of Jewish communities, beginning with that of Ukraine before its tragic extinction by the Germans," Kesler said.

"It is our way of honoring and keeping alive their legacy as time marches on so that these once-thriving civilizations, from whom many among us are descended, are never forgotten."

Since his retirement in 2006, Kesler has written extensively of his and his late wife's experiences during World War II.

This will be the seventh event that he has planned in a series that chronicles the history and culture of the Jewish people in Europe before the Holocaust.

Dynner has worked extensively on exploring the religious and social history of Polish Jewry.

He is a Fulbright scholar, a member of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies.

The online program is free and open to the public. To register or for additional information, visit www.ebpl.org/calendar.