HWS News
18 January 2024 • Faculty Dobkowski to Lecture at Notre Dame
Talks will examine life and influence of Dr. Janusz Korczak, famed mid-century Polish pediatrician and children’s rights advocate.
Professor of Religious Studies Michael Dobkowski will deliver two lectures on Dr. Janusz Korczak at University of Notre Dame on Sunday, Jan. 21 and Monday, Jan. 22 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The first lecture, “The Remarkable Life, Legacy and Ultimate Sacrifice of Dr. Janusz Korczak in the Warsaw Ghetto and the ‘Road’ to Treblinka,” will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday at The Jewish Community Federation of St. Joseph Valley. The talk will examine the life and contributions of famed Polish author and public intellectual Dr. Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit. Dobkowski will pay particular attention to his position as head of a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw and his final months in the Warsaw Ghetto. Dobkowski will explore how Korczak’s groundbreaking views on the rights of children and his unique approaches to raising children faced their final test in the Warsaw Ghetto. Details can be found here.
The second lecture, “‘Children are not the people of tomorrow but are people of today. They are entitled to be taken seriously.’ The Philosophy and Praxis of Dr. Janusz Korczak, Pioneer Champion of Children’s Rights, Child-Centered Pedagogy and Author of hugely Popular Children’s Books and Childcare Books for Adults,” will be held at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs. The talk will examine Korczak’s life and legacy as a champion of children’s rights who continues to inspire educators and childcare experts today. More information can be found here.
At HWS, Dobkowski holds the John Milton Potter Chair in the Humanities and teaches courses in Jewish Studies and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He serves as the coordinator of the Holocaust Studies Minor and is a founding member and current co-chair of the Genocide and Human Rights Symposium. His main areas of interest include the American Jewish experience, Holocaust studies, antisemitism and contemporary Jewish thought. He was instrumental in establishing the biennial off-campus program, The March: Bearing Witness to Hope. For 20 years, the March has offered participants a unique experience focusing on important landmarks and historical sites in Germany and Poland that are central to understanding the Nazi period and World War II, culminating in the Holocaust.
Dobkowski is the author, coauthor or editor of more than 10 books including The Tarnished Dream: The Basis of American Anti-Semitism (1979), The Politics of Indifference: Documentary History of Holocaust Victims in America(1982), Jewish American Voluntary Organizations (1986) and Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear States and Terrorism (2007). He has co-written and edited other volumes on the Holocaust, genocide, nuclear weapons and anti-Semitism, including The Coming Age of Scarcity (1998), The Nuclear Predicament: Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century (2000) and On The Edge of Scarcity (2003). His recent work has focused on Judaism and violence, and anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
