Events
The Holocaust Awareness Institute is dedicated to furthering education about the Holocaust and its significance for current and future generations. Our public programs present new scholarship and perspectives on the Holocaust, commemorate the countless lives lost, and pay tribute to the stories of those who survived.
HAI also works to inform our community about other local events that relate to Holocaust awareness and education. Our calendar of events includes important dates that are commemorated throughout the year.
Fred and Audrey Friedman Marcus Holocaust Lecture
The Marcus Lecture was created in 2003 in memory of Fred Marcus, a Jewish educator who was born in Berlin and spent the war years in Shanghai as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Fred served as a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Holocaust Awareness Institute for many years, educating students and members of churches and synagogues about the Holocaust.
In 2022, the Lecture was renamed to also honor Audrey Friedman Marcus, who co-founded the Marcus Lecture in her late husband’s memory, and without whose tireless advocacy on behalf of Holocaust education this longstanding community program would not be possible.
Presented in partnership with the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, the Marcus Lecture highlights new scholarship and perspectives on the Holocaust and illuminates its continuing significance today.
Holocaust Memorial Social Action Site
The Holocaust Memorial Social Action Site (HMSAS) is a space dedicated to inclusivity and diversity through learning, intercultural dialogue and social justice initiatives. The mission of the site is to honor and remember those who lost their lives in the Holocaust by dedicating ourselves to acts of learning, dialogue and bridge-building aimed at making the world a better place today and into the future.
Our vision is linked to the Hebrew expression, "Hineni": "Here I am," a post-Holocaust ethical teaching about the infinite responsibility that each one of us has for the other. In post-Holocaust Jewish philosophy, this expression conveys a strong message; the words "Here I am" are words of ethical response—they mark the infinite responsibility that each of us has to the person standing before us. In this spirit, the site calls us to action, while emphasizing learning and dialogue.
Upcoming Center for Judaic Studies Events
Monday, January 27, 2025
The 22nd Annual Fred & Audrey Friedman Marcus Holocaust Lecture presents "The Return From The Other Planet"
Documentary film screening and discussion with director Assaf Lapid
Survivor and author Yehiel De-Nur shaped the way readers worldwide imagined the Holocaust. Increasingly haunted by his experience in Auschwitz, De-Nur underwent experimental psychiatric treatment with LSD to confront the source of his trauma and find a way to return to life.
- 6:30 – 9:00 p.m. MT
- Elaine Wolf Theatre, 350 S Dahlia St, Denver, CO, 80246
Sunday, February 2, 2025
The RMJHS Book Club is reading "Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream"
Join RMJHS at the Golda Meir House for a discussion of acclaimed author Francine Klagsbrun's biography of Hadassah founder and Zionist trailblazer Henrietta Szold, and a tour of the museum with director Lena Fishman.
RSVP to joshua.furman@du.edu
- 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. MT
- Golda Meir House Museum, Auraria Campus, 1148 9th Street, Denver, CO 80204
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Antisemitism in American History: Perspectives from the Archives with Dr. Britt Tevis
RMJHS welcomes Dr. Britt Tevis (Syracuse University) for a virtual talk with a fresh historical perspective on antisemitism in the United States using archival materials created between 1654 and 2024 from across the country.
- 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. MT
- Attend virtually via Zoom
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Exodus: One Story, Two Communities
CJS and the Spirituals Project present a concert celebrating Jewish and African American faith and freedom, and the importance of the Exodus narrative. Following the concert, RMJHS Director Dr. Joshua Furman will participate in a talkback on the significance of the Exodus story for the Jewish and the African American communities.
- 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. MT
- Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Gates Concert Hall
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin
The Lamont Symphony Orchestra presents Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin. This concert-drama conceived and created by Maestro Murry Sidlin tells the story of the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezín) who performed Verdi’s Requiem while experiencing the depths of human degradation. Defiant Requiem combines the magnificent music of Verdi with video testimony from survivors of the original Terezín chorus and footage from the 1944 Nazi propaganda film about Theresienstadt. Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Awareness Institute.
- 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. MT
- Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Gates Concert Hall
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Behind the Podcast: The Nightingale of Iran
RMJHS welcomes Galeet and Danielle Dardashti, creators of the award-winning audio documentary The Nightingale of Iran, which explores their family’s musical journey from Iran to Israel to the United States. Presented in partnership with the Mizel Arts & Culture Center.
Registration page coming soon!
- 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. MT
- JCC Elaine Wolf Theatre, 350 S Dahlia St, Denver CO 8024
