Book Launch: It Always Seems Impossible
2025-11-27 17:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Issy’s Coffee & Gift Shop, 1 Duncombe Road, Forest Town, 2193, South Africa
Join us for an inspiring book launch with James Urdang, Founder and CEO of Education Africa, of his new memoir, It Always Seems Impossible: My fight to build and save Education Africa. With a foreword from the Nelson Mandela Foundation and a cover endorsement from Sir Bob Geldof, who calls it “a powerful account from a genuine African hero. Inspiring, urgent, and true”, the book tells the story of how one man’s determination to use education as a tool for social justice transformed thousands of lives – and how that work was nearly destroyed by corporate misconduct.

Urdang traces his journey from being a school underachiever diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia to founding Education Africa, a grassroots organisation that has opened educational opportunities for disadvantaged South Africans. Mentored by Walter Sisulu, entrusted by Nelson Mandela, and supported by figures such as Helen Suzman and Dr Aggrey Klaaste, he built ambitious programmes ranging from the world’s largest national Model UN initiative to large-scale marimba training and early childhood development projects. The memoir also exposes a shocking battle with a global bank that brought Education Africa to its knees, and the role anti-corruption campaigner Lord Peter Hain played in challenging this injustice. At its heart, the book is a testament to resilience, accountability, and the power of education to change lives.

About James UrdangJames Urdang is an award-winning humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and sought-after motivational speaker. For more than three decades he has worked to create meaningful educational opportunities for disadvantaged communities across Africa. He has collaborated closely with Nelson Mandela, spoken at the funeral of Chris Hani, and continues to advocate for equity, dignity, and transformation through education.

A Contrarian’s Tale: Reflecting on Henry Greenspan’s REMNANTS and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors
2025-11-30 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
The Ghetto Fighters’ House invites you to a special Talking Memory book launch event

A Contrarian’s Tale: Reflecting on Henry Greenspan’s REMNANTS and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors

Sunday, 30 November 2025

Opening Remarks:Prof. Debórah Dwork

Guest Author:Prof. Henry Greenspan

You are warmly invited to a special Talking Memory webinar marking the launch of Henry Greenspan’s new book, REMNANTS and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors. The programme will begin with opening remarks by Prof. Debórah Dwork, followed by a conversation with Prof. Greenspan about his decades of work and his reflections on Holocaust testimony as sustained, evolving dialogues. Greenspan will also present a short live performance of an excerpt from REMNANTS.

This event opens the new series, Conversations that Endure: In the Footsteps of Henry Greenspan and Dori Laub.

For more than fifty years, Henry Greenspan—psychologist, playwright, and pioneering oral historian—has been listening to, learning from, and engaging in deep conversation with Holocaust survivors. His work has reshaped understandings of survivor accounts, highlighting how testimony emerges through collaboration, trust, and survivors’ own active choices shaped by the contexts in which they speak.

In REMNANTS and What Remains, Greenspan brings together powerful moments from a lifetime of encounters, illuminating both survivors’ lived experiences and the complex ethical and emotional questions that arise in the work of remembrance. The book also explores the question of what remains after profound loss: survivors’ loss of a world; Greenspan’s loss of his survivor-partners; and, as survivors near the end of their lives, their own diverse and often unexpected views of their “legacies”.

This webinar offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from Henry Greenspan as he reflects on the evolution of his work, the individuals who shaped it, and the continued relevance of these conversations in a world marked by both past and present catastrophes.

You are invited to watch REMNANTS (45-minute performance video) prior to the event:https://youtu.be/Vty8b_euk-k

Register here:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZlO3XmsJTCyFH79Jj4PNNQ

Time:2 PM EST | 8 PM CET | 9 PM SAST | 9 PM Israel Time

This programme is co-sponsored by the Jean and Shimuel Frankel Centre for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University, the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre.

12th South Africa-Poland Heritage Conference
2025-12-07 14:30 - 16:30 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Polish Association of Siberian Deportees in Southeast Africa is collaborating with the Sybir Memorial Museum and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre. Join us for the 12th conference to launch a series of posters depicting the lived experiences of Polish Siberian Deportees – Sybir – Prison of Nations. The recent unveiling of the memorial to the Oudtshoorn Polish WWII refugees and the Oudtshoorn Polish Heritage Trail will also be discussed.

Opening statements will be made by Mr Jacek Chorodowicz, head of the Polish Mission in Pretoria. Recorded presentations will be from Mr Wojciech Śleszyński, Director of the Sybir Memorial Museum, Museum historian Mr Tomas Danilecki and Ms Julita Waś, Museum’s international business development manager. Stefan Szewczuk will launch the posters on behalf of the Sybir Memorial Museum.

Listening as Witnessing: Dori Laub and the Creation of the Fortunoff Archive
2025-12-14 21:00 - 22:00 | Online
The Ghetto Fighters’ House invites you to the Talking Memory series

Conversations that Endure: In the Footsteps of Henry Greenspan and Dori Laub

Listening as Witnessing: Dori Laub and the Creation of the Fortunoff Archive

Sunday, 14 December 2025

Opening Remarks:Stephen Naron, Director, Fortunoff Archive

Guest Filmmaker:Ohad Ufaz

You are warmly invited to the second programme in the Talking Memory series, honouring the legacy of Dori Laub — psychoanalyst, Holocaust survivor, and co-founder of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. The event will open with remarks by Stephen Naron, who will reflect on Laub’s pioneering contributions and lasting influence on testimony and trauma studies. Following these remarks, filmmaker Ohad Ufaz will present and discuss the documentary The Listener, co-directed by Ufaz and Micha Livne, which offers a moving exploration of Laub’s life and his profound commitment to listening — conceived as an act of empathy and a bridge between past and present, memory and witness.

A pre-screening of The Listener will be made available to all registrants.

Register here:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/9V1GcaeFRZqp8GFd3RWIWw

Time:2 PM EST | 8 PM CET | 9 PM SAST | 9 PM Israel Time

This programme is presented in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University, the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and Classrooms Without Borders.
