The Fit at Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾

Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ has an excellent record of blending community outreach, engagement, and student-centered teaching.  

Since 1986, Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ has served as home to the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center, which actively collects oral testimonies of Holocaust survivors, liberators, and rescuers, as well as assists survivors in writing and publishing their memoirs. Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ inaugurated a Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies—the first such program in the United States—in 1998. The director of Yad Vashem has stated that Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ offers more undergraduate courses in Holocaust-related topics than any institution of higher learning in the United States.

Since 2011, Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ and the Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage have fostered an initiative that highlights the significance of the immigrant community at Woodbine in Cape May County. Situated in the historic Brotherhood Synagogue, the Azeez Museum focuses on reducing hate and prejudice of any sort through education. The museum provides educational programming to students from 5th through 12th grades.

Also in 2011, Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ instituted the South Jersey Culture & History Center (SJCHC) which fosters awareness of the rich cultural heritage found throughout South Jersey. SJCHC has already begun to identify and digitize documents that chronicle the contributions of the Alliance Colony, including Norma and Brotmanville. The Alliance Heritage Center will partner with this existing center.

Over the last decade, Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ has augmented its Special Collections Department in the University’s Bjork Library with a range of South Jersey centered texts, ephemera, and manuscript collections and has recently hired a full-time special collections librarian and archivist.

 

Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center

South Jersey Culture & History Center