Invitation

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  23th, Saturday
  24th, Sunday
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.

The 21st annual conference, entitled, "Post-Holocaust Global Terrorism" will take place Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, in the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall of Purdue University. The presenters include Hillel Fradkin, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC, who will open the conference at 1:30 p.m. by considering, "Radical Islam and Global Terrorism." Fradkin is an authority on Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Lt. Col. Joseph Corrigan, Pentagon liaison to Congress, will discuss "War Against Terrorism after Sept. 11" at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Corrigan is a former resident of West Lafayette, Ind.

The third expert from Washington, DC, is Todd Rosenblum, senior foreign affairs and national security advisor to Indiana U S. Senator Evan Bayh. Rosenblum will draw from his experience with the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency for his ideas on "Winning the War Against Terrorism." at 3:20 Sunday. Purdue students will respond during a panel discussion at 4:15 p.m. Sunday, "Terrorism in Our World Today." The conference's focus on international awareness includes the return of Jin Xu, daughter of Chinese political prisoner Xu Wenli, at 2:10 p.m. Sunday. Since her participation in the 1999, Holocaust Remembrance Conferees have annually adopted a resolution on behalf of Xu Wenli. Jin's appeal for "Freedom for My Father" is relevant today since the US Congress recently voted to accept China as an unqualified American trading partner without requiring annual review of China's human rights violations.

Grace Feuerverger, a conflict resolution authority and education professor at the University of Toronto, will consider "Working Together for Common Needs," Saturday at 2:30 P.M. Her background includes growing up as a child of Holocaust Survivors.

Following Feuerverger on Saturday at 3:30 PM, Harlington Wood, Jr., a U.S. Court of Appeals Circuit Judge in Springfield, Ill., will explain his concern for Native Americans , "Learning from Wounded Knee: A 1973 Footnote to 1890 American History." Wood, of Native American ancestry, served as chief government negotiator at Wounded Knee, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he avoided a repetition of the 1890 massacre. Concurrent workshops follow. They include teaching the Holocaust,sweatshops, conflict resolution, recognizing differences in sex and gender, and "Learning Peace - Living Peace." A dialogue about Radical Islam. features experts from Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions, moderated by Donald Mitchell, Purdue University's religious authority.

Holocaust Survivors and witnesses will describe their experiences at 8 p.m. Saturday. Participants include Rudolf Graichen, a Jehovah's Witness Survivor. Paul Parks, a Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumnus, served as an army engineer in World War II. As a GI, Parks entered concentration camps and befriended Survivors. Norman Salsitz, whose Polish Jewish family was killed by Nazis, survived two ghettos and three labor camps. Then, posing as a Christian, Salsitz became a Polish Army Officer. His cousin, Robert Ringel, a Purdue audiologist, brings Holocaust History uptodate, by including his recent trips to Poland, "A Post-Shoah Search for My Heritage." On Sunday morning three concurrent sessions at different locations include a discussion in Spanish by Rudolph Graichen, "Bearing up under Persecution," at 10 a.m. in Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall. At 10:30 a.m., Grace Feuerverger will lead a discussion on "Resolving Differences." at Hillel Foundation at 10:30 a.m. Norman Salsitz will describe "The Miracle of Surviving" at Dayton Memorial Presbyterian Church at 10:30 a.m. .

Sunday afternoon's plenary session in the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall will begin at 1:30 p.m. with a the ROTC Color Guard and the singing of the "Star Spangled Banner." The mayors of Greater Lafayette will read their Holocaust Conference Proclamation. Survivors and their children will kindle the Memorial Flame of Remembrance and the Candle of Hope. Jin Xu's appeal "For My Father" introduces the consideration of resolutions. Two of the three DC representatives will discuss America's Response to Global Terrorism, militarily, by Lt. Col. Corrigan, and politically, by Todd Rosenblum. A Purdue Student panel will consider "Terrorism in Our World Today." "The Conference topic, 'Post-Holocaust Global Terrorism,' has special meaning for Americans since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and in Pennsylvania," Conference Coordinator, Rabbi Gedalyah Engel, says. "The 20 conferences to date dealt with Holocaust terrorism in Europe, reflecting an 'over there' American view of terrorism abroad. Now terrorism is 'over here.' Americans face "Post Holocaust Global Terrorism." "We will overcome."

The conference is sponsored by the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Committee, in cooperation with the Diocese of Lafayette, St. Thomas Aquinas Center, Hillel Foundation, Purdue University's Ackerman Center, the School of Liberal Arts, the Jewish Studies Program and University Religious Leaders, and Tippecanoe Ministerial Association. The Committee is chaired by Marla Bluestein and Myra Mason. Sue Prohofsky serves as secretary. Grants are provided by CINERGY Foundation PSI Energy, Eli Lilly & Company Tippecanoe Laboratories, and Gannett Foundation Journal & Courier.

The entire Conference, "Post-Holocaust Global Terrorism," including Workshops, is free and open to the public. For further information, contact Engel at (765) 743-1716, mkengel@juno.com.