Michael Berenbaum

Michael Berenbaum ( born July 31, 1945 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer and filmmaker who specializes in the study of Holocaust remembrance.

Life

Berenbaum is probably best known for his work as Deputy Director of the Cabinet of the President of the Commission on the Holocaust (1979-1980), as a project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ( USHMM ) ( 1988-1993 ) and Director of the USHMM 's Holocaust Research Institute (1993-1997) is known; as such, Berenbaum played a significant role in the creation of the USHMM and the content of the permanent exhibitions. From 1997 to 1999, Berenbaum served as President and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and subsequently as Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: This explores the ethical and religious implications of the Holocaust, and is part of the American Jewish University ( formerly known as the University of Judaism ) in Los Angeles, California.

Berenbaum, completed in 1967, the Queens College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1975 and received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. He also visited the The Hebrew University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Boston University. Berenbaum received semicha from Rabbi Yaakov Rabin at the age of 23 years. Berenbaum has taught at Florida State University, Yale University, Georgetown University, Wesleyan University, George Washington University, University of Maryland, College Park, and American University, and is currently Professor of Jewish Studies at the American Jewish University (Los Angeles ).

He is the author or editor of eighteen books, including After Tragedy and Triumph, a study of the lives of American Jews of the early 1990s, as well as The World Must Know, Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Berenbaum is the executive editor of the New Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition, containing 22 volumes, 6 million words and 25,000 individual contributions to Jewish knowledge. Posted it was in December 2006 ( ISBN 0028659287 ). It won the Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association for outstanding reference work of 2006.

One Survivor Remembers, co-produced Berenbaum: The Gerda Weissmann Klein Story, a film which won an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and a Cable Ace Award. He was the chief historical consultant for "Last Days", which also won an Oscar in 1998. In 2001, Berenbaum was a historical consultant for the History Channel 's "The Holocaust: The Untold Story," the CINE Golden Eagle Award in the and a silver medal at the U.S. International Film and Video Festival won. He was also a producer of a film entitled Desperate Hours by the unique and rarely acknowledged role of the Republic of Turkey is discussed in the rescue of Jews before the " final solution" of Nazi Germany and producer of " About Face: The Story of The Jewish Refugee Soldiers of WWII ". Furthermore, was Berenbaum producer of " Swimming in Auschwitz " and was a consultant for " Defiance " and " Uprising".

Berenbaum's wife, Melissa Patack Berenbaum, is the Vice President and Managing Director of the Motion Picture Association of America ( MPAA ), California Group, and president of the local branch of the California MPAA. Berenbaum is the father of four children.

He is the model for the character of Monty Pincus Tova Reich's 2007 satirical novel My Holocaust.

Publications (selection)

• The Madness of Contemporary Times by Michael Berenbaum
• The Complexity of the Jewish Narrative in Our Times by Michael Berenbaum
• More articles by Michael Berenbaum on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner