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Jackie Berke

DR. ANN SALTZMAN, Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of Drew's Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study, received her doctorate in social Psychology from City University Graduate Center where she studied with the late Stanley Milgram, designer of the famous obedience experiments.

She has pursued various venues for bridging the disciplines of Psychology and Holocaust Studies, presenting papers on the subject at both the Eastern Psychological Association conference (1996) and the Annual Scholars' Conference (1997); as the Yom HaShoah Scholar at the County College of Morris (2000) and as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at Raritan Valley Community College (2001). In 1997, she designed an all-day conference on "The Psychology of the Third Reich: Factors Influencing the Decision to Join Up? to Rescue? to Remain 'Neutral'?" co-sponsored by Drew's Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Her publications in Holocaust Studies include a chapter co-authored with co-director, Jacqueline Berke, in New Perspectives on the Holocaust: A Guide for Teachers and Scholars(NYU Press, edited by R. Millen, 1996); an essay, also co-authored with co-director Berke, on "The Implications for the Holocaust in our Quest for World Peace" in The Living Pulpit,a journal for clergy of all denominations (1998); and an invited chapter on "The role of the obedience experiments in Holocaust Studies: the case for renewed visibility," in the text Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm(Lawrence Erlbaum Press, edited by T. Blass, 2000).

Dr. Saltzman has been teaching Holocaust courses since 1990 when she first taught the seminar on "Obedience to Authority: The Holocaust and Beyond." Since then she and co-director Berke have experimented with interdisciplinary teaching of the Holocaust including "paired seminars" (Psychology of the Holocaust/Literature of the Holocaust), a seminar on Claude Lanzmann's epic film, "SHOAH: A Literary and Psychological Exploration of the Holocaust," a Drew International Seminar on the Holocaust conducted in Germany and Poland in May-June 1997; and most recently a multidisciplinary course entitled "Perspectives on the Holocaust." Saltzman also teaches a Seminar in the Psychology of the Holocaust and includes Holocaust material in her Social Psychology courses. She also participated in the inaugural March of Remembrance and Hope,an international and interfaith Holocaust program conducted in Poland (May 2001).

Saltzman is currently developing a research study on Sosua, a Jewish colony founded in the Dominican Republic in 1940 which, at its peak, had a population of five hundred Jewish refugees mainly from Germany and Austria. Working with a Dominican student, she is trying to understand the ways in which both Jews and Dominicans view Sosua as well as its ongoing impact upon Dominican society.

In addition to Holocaust Studies, Dr. Saltzman's research and teaching interests include Psychology of Women and social issues psychology. In 1991, she received a Grant-in-Aid from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues to study identity issues among the homeless. In 1994, she received Drew's Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching as well as the Honey and Maurice Axelrod Public Education Recognition Award for ongoing and outstanding efforts in Holocaust Studies and Prejudice Reduction. In 1999, she and co-director Berke were recipients of the Drew University Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Fannie Lou Hamer Spirituality and Social Justice Award.

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About Co-Director Jackie Berke