The Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the University of Michigan will host its inaugural event — a roundtable discussion on the question of “Can one person make a difference, and if so, how?” — on Jan. 21.
The discussion will take place at 5 p.m. at the Rackham Amphitheater and will include an intergenerational group of panelists who will consider the historical impact of individuals such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Raoul Wallenberg, as well as the movements they joined, created or motivated through their actions.
Panelists will include:
- Holocaust survivor Irene Butter, professor emerita of health management and policy in the School of Public Health.
- Matthew Countryman, associate professor of history and of Afroamerican and African studies in LSA.
- Elliot Ratzman, research fellow of the Wallenberg Institute.
- Sooyun Christina Kim, U-M undergraduate student.
The event will be the first in a series of roundtable discussions on contentious questions of religious, ethnic, national and moral significance sponsored by the institute. The remaining events will take place at the same time and location Feb. 4 and 18, and March 18.
Announced in late 2023, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute opened in the fall of 2024, under the leadership of Jeffrey Veidlinger, the Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professorship of History and Judaic Studies, and professor of Judaic studies and of history in LSA. The institute’s leadership also includes an executive committee of faculty experts at U-M.
Inspired by the example of Raoul Wallenberg, a 1935 U-M graduate who went on to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, the mission of the Wallenberg Institute is to study hatred directed against religious and ethnic communities, foster cross-cultural understanding and elevate civic discourse.
Through teaching, research and public engagement, the institute seeks to develop strategies to combat antisemitism, divisiveness and discrimination.
In its first year of operation, the institute has initiated three research projects:
- A study of religious holiday celebrations in public schools in the United States and their effects on religiously diverse children and families.
- A history of hatred in the Great Lakes region.
- A longitudinal study of the views of university students regarding religious and ethnic minorities, which is being conducted in partnership with the Institute for Social Research.
Three research fellows are also in residence:
- Ratzman works on antiracism in the late 20th century.
- Yuri Kaparulin researches genocide in Ukraine.
- Aaron Rock-Singer studies Islamic movements and law in Mandate Palestine, a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine.
The institute also has initiated several courses, including a dialogue course on Israel and Palestine, and a flagship course on religious and ethnic tolerance.
