(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)June 24, 2019

MAHWAH, N.J. – On February 28, Dr. Monika Rice, director of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Programs at Gratz College in Philadelphia, spoke at Ramapo College about her recently published book, “What! Still Alive?!” Jewish Survivors in Poland and Israel Remember Homecoming, published by Syracuse University Press in 2017. The program was presented under the auspices of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

In her book, Dr. Rice examines the complex memories of Jewish survivors returning to their homes in Poland after the Holocaust. Having found themselves no longer welcome by their Polish neighbors, many chose to settle in the new state of Israel and left unparalleled testimonies of their first impressions with the Jewish historical commissions from 1944 to 1950. Through close readings of these firsthand narratives, Rice traces the ways in which the passage of time and a changing geopolitical context influenced the survivors’ memories. An intricate history emerges in which survivors’ memories from the initial account after their return to Poland and subsequent accounts become transformed.

Rice earned her Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University and her M.A. and B.A. in Cultural Anthropology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland. She teaches courses in Catholic Studies and Jewish-Christian Studies, including Catholic-Jewish Dialogue on the Holocaust: A Catholic Perspective and Modern Women of Faith.Currently, her larger research project is focused on investigating postwar mixed identities of Polish-Jewish doctors. She has been a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and grants, among them: the Claims Conference Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Studies, the Albert Abramson Fellowship in Holocaust Studies, and grants from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the Kosciuszko Foundation and others. She also has been a selected participant in several international scholarly workshops and seminars at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and others. Rice’s articles, book chapters and reviews have been published in edited volumes and academic journals (Yad Vashem Studies, Holocaust Studies, Polin, etc.).

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