Second Annual Walter Sommers Lecture Series, Keynote speaker: Peter Hayes' most recent book "Why?: Explaining the Holocaust" dispels many misconceptions while answering some of the most frequent—yet vexing—questions that remain on the topic of the Holocaust.

The Spungen exhibit will be displayed for students, faculty and invited guests only.

Be the Change Series Keynote speaker: Magda Brown - On her 17th birthday, Magda and her family were crammed into a box car and forced to endure an arduous journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After two months of torture, she was selected to be sent to a work camp. In March 1945, she and her group were forced to go on a death march to Buchenwald, but she and several prisoners managed to escape and hide in a barn where they were found by American soldiers. We welcome you to hear the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of a persevering teenager.

In honor of Sophomore student Kaitlyn Fogo who has chosen the Holocaust for her school project, the Spungen Foundation has arranged for Holocaust survivor Agnes Schwartz to speak to Kaitlyn’s class and invited guests.

Suk-Young Kim is a professor in the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television and has published award-winning books, ranging in topics from theater and film to human rights in North Korea. She will be addressing her book Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor, as well as family and cultural dynamics in modern-day North Korea. This program is made possible in part by support from the Spungen Family Foundation.

A presentation and discussion sponsored by the Langholz family - guest speaker Kiel Majewski.For the past ten years, Kiel Majewski has worked with genocide survivors to record their stories, amplify their voices, and connect with students and educators worldwide. At age 33, he is part of the next generation of Holocaust education advocates. Kiel will share his perspective on the power of survivor testimony to transcend cultural boundaries and generate a transformative movement for tikkun olam.

The Spungen Family Foundation has loaned 36 artifacts for a seven year period to the Auschwitz Museum Traveling Exhibit. The organizers are a team from Musealia, a Spanish company dedicated to creating high quality travelling exhibitions for museums and cultural centers throughout the world, first in Madrid, then Sweden

In 2007, Danny Spungen, a collector and philatelist, acquired arguably one of the best known collections of Holocaust materials relaed to stamps, covers, postcards, letters, bank note forgeries, and msanuscripts from concentration camps and Jewish Ghettos. Danny, a fellow Temple Chai member, will be sharing some of the most unique items from the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation traveling exhibit.

Hosted by the Spungen Foundation for a week dedicated to hearing stories of Holocaust survivors and special guests connected to the educational field. Overall, the students met in person 12 Holocaust survivors, engaged with Aaron Elster on the NDT (Hologram), spoke with Rwanda Genocide survivor Emmanuel Habimana and were an important part of the Syrian chemical warfare Press Conference aired on WGN TV.