The University of Toledo’s Dr. Barry Jackisch will examine a small number of Jewish private schools that existed in Nazi Berlin until the outbreak of World War II during the Philip Markowicz Annual Lecture in Judaism and Jewish Biblical Studies supported by the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Greater Toledo.
Presented by the College of Arts and Letters, the free, public lecture is at 6 p.m. Monday, March 18, in UToledo’s Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall.
Jackisch
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Because Jews were banned from German schools under Nazi racial policy, those who stayed in Germany formed their own educational institutions. In “Teaching with Tolerance in a Time of Hate: Jewish Private Schools in Nazi Berlin, 1933-1939,” Jackisch, an associate professor in the Department of History and the 2024 Philip Markowicz Endowed Professor in Judaism and Jewish Biblical Studies, will explore how the survival of these schools in the capital of Hitler’s Germany points to the importance of understanding the Holocaust as a process — something that did not simply occur overnight, but as a long history rooted in antisemitism that became increasingly more discriminatory and violent.
It also shows us where potential existed, even in Nazi society, for Jewish survival and resistance in the face of growing persecution.
“Studying these schools helps us remember and commemorate the teachers, administrators, students and families who fell victim to the persecution of the Nazi regime and also those who escaped and survived,” Jackisch said. “This overlooked subject offers a valuable perspective on the history of the Holocaust and the cancer of hate and intolerance in modern societies.”
The Philip Markowicz Endowed Professorship in Judaism and Jewish Biblical provides support for a professor at UToledo, as well as for community education and interreligious dialogue.
It’s named in honor of Philip Markowicz, who was born in 1924 in Przerab, Poland. The son of a rabbi, Markowicz was known as a Talmud prodigy, but his yeshiva education was interrupted by the Nazi invasion of Poland. He survived the ghetto of Lodz, several concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a death march. His entire family, with the exception of his brother, was murdered by the Nazis. After being liberated by the Allies, he met and married his wife, Ruth, and emigrated to Toledo, where, with no connections or resources, he trained himself in electronics and created a thriving business.
Markowicz continued his passion for Torah study and wrote extensively in his retirement. He published a well-received autobiography, “My Three Lives,” and, shortly before his passing in 2017, he completed the manuscript for “Losing God in Translation,” both of which were published by The University of Toledo Press.
