Professor of History Stephen M. Berk, widely
known for his expertise on the Holocaust, Russia, and the Middle East, has been named the
Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies at Union College.
Creation of the professorship was announced
recently by the H. Schaffer Foundation.
A member of the Union faculty since 1967, Berk
has earned an international reputation for his teaching, writing, and research
about such topics as Russian and Soviet Jewish history, the Holocaust, the
American Jewish experience, and anti-Semitism.
Union President Roger Hull said, “Steve Berk's
lectures, both to his classes and to many organizations and conferences
nationally and internationally, are legendary for their eloquence and
knowledge. “
Berk said the Holocaust teaches a number of
important lessons including the “pernicious impact of racism and demonological
thinking in general, the role of personality in history, the need to confront
evil, and the meaning of heroism.
“The Holocaust, important though it might be, is
not the core of the Jewish religious and historical experience,” he continued.
“The Jewish people made remarkable contributions to humanity, and this chair in
Holocaust and Jewish Studies will help subsequent generations of Union students
to become cognizant both of the Holocaust and the role played by Jews and
Judaism in world history.”
Berk, a native of New York City, received his B.A. in
history from the University of Pennsylvania, his master's degree
from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. While at Columbia he also earned a
certificate in Russian studies. He teaches a variety of classes at Union, including Russian
history, modern history of the Middle East, history of Poland, European history, and
Jewish history. He also directs the college's interdepartmental program in Russia and Eastern Europe.
For more than 25 years, Berk's annual course on
the Holocaust has been one of the College's most popular courses. As a young
boy during World War II, he remembers watching film footage of Nazi death
camps, and the images contributed to his desire to teach about the subject. “I
want students to learn about the Holocaust, in an attempt to make them aware of
the evil around them now and what it takes to oppose evil,” he says.
“Anti-Semitism made Auschwitz possible; indifference made it almost
inevitable.”
Berk has extensive field experience and travel
in the former Soviet Union, Israel, Egypt, and Poland. He is the author of
articles in such journals as Soviet Jewish Affairs, The Oral History Review,
and Canadian-American Slavic Studies and of a book, Year of Crisis,
Year of Hope: Russian Jewry and the Pogroms of 1881-1882.
In creating the professorship through a $1.5
million gift, H. Schaffer Foundation President Sonya A. Stall said, “It is with
pleasure that the H. Schaffer Foundation creates this academic chair for the
continuing study of Holocaust and Jewish Studies benefiting all current and
future students of Union. There is no more deserving professor worthy of
being the first recipient than Dr. Berk.”
The H. Schaffer Foundation is named for Henry
Schaffer, a Schenectady businessman and former
trustee of Union. Mr. Schaffer, who left
school at age 14 and later became an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa, was
well known for his support of higher education in the Capital District and was
the principal benefactor of Schaffer Library on the Union campus. He died in
1982.
In recent years, the H. Schaffer Foundation has
supported Union's term abroad program
and the 1998 renovation and expansion of Schaffer Library.