Elie Wiesel Memorial Lecture with Rabbi Joseph Polak

Rabbi Joseph Polak is the author of After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring (2015). He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health and rabbi emeritus of the Hillel House at Boston University. He also serves as Chief Justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts.

As few adult survivors of the Holocaust remain alive today, our attention shifts to child survivors who, in their life and work, attest to a traumatic past they experienced as children or infants. Their tales provide a window into the difficult aftermath of the trauma of persecution and genocide. Rabbi Polak is the author of a harrowing account of his family’s deportation from the Netherlands to the Nazi concentration camp at Westerbork and speaks to the difficulties of living with traumatic early childhood memories. He will also speak of what he learned over many years of friendship with Professor Wiesel.

The lecture is part of the 2019 Boston University Alumni Weekend.