From UB:
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of After Auschwitz, the University of Bridgeport will honor its author, President Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor of Religion Richard L. Rubenstein September 7, starting with a 5:30 p.m. reception in the Arnold Berhard Arts & Humanities Center/duPont Tower Room, 84 Iranistan Avenue. Hailed as a major figure in contemporary religious and social thought, he is renowned for his contribution to Holocaust and genocide studies. Dr. Rubenstein is credited with the creation of Holocaust theology with this book’s first edition in 1966. The event is free and open to the public.
The City Bridgeport will present a citation from Mayor Joe Ganim honoring Dr. Rubenstein on the historic anniversary of After Auschwitz.The genesis of the book “all began with a walk in Düsseldorf,” reminisced Dr. Rubenstein. “The notion that theologians lead uninteresting lives couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The evening features a conversation with Dr. Rubenstein, hosted by UB Provost Dr. Stephen Healey and scholar Dr. Judy Greenberg. “We are honored to host this commemoration of After Auschwitz, a pioneer text in Holocaust studies,” said UB President Neil Salonen.
Holocaust theology seeks a realistic basis for religious belief after the idea of God as the protector of the Jewish people lost credibility with the extermination of six million Jews of the 11- million people murdered during World War II.
“Dr. Rubenstein’s many books and articles have had a major impact on religious and social thought,” said Dean Thomas Ward of the College of Public and International Affairs (CPIA), which is hosting the event.
“I thought no one would even read the book,” said Dr. Rubenstein. “I’m deeply moved my book still has an audience and the university that is most important to me is going to commemorate its 50th anniversary.” After Auschwitz has already had two celebrations in honor of its anniversary, at Florida State University and Congregation Beth El in Fairfield, CT.
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The University of Bridgeport’s College of Public and International Affairs (CPIA) is a diverse learning community committed to preparing students for careers in public service and public affairs through the interdisciplinary study of world politics, communications, religion, human security, and the social sciences. CPIA offers six distinct undergraduate bachelor of arts and four globally-focused master’s programs. For more information, 203-576-4966.
Congratulations to Dr. Rubenstein, a long-standing member of the Rotary Club of Bridgeport! This honor is well deserved.
Dr. Rubenstein was the president of UB during the government assault on UB in the 1990s and early 2000s led by opportunist political forces (e.g., Bill Finch and various state and federal officials) seeking to exploit the histrionics of elements of the New York-metro region population who couldn’t countenance a unique, Asian-Christian religious presence at the university.
Doctor Rubenstein, known to the world as a rabbi and holocaust expert, had formed a relationship with the Unification Church and the Professor’s World Peace Academy (a Unification Church spinoff, peace advancement organization, and the organization that directly assumed control over UB as a necessary means to its financial rescue) some years prior to UB’s financial difficulties.
Dr. Rubenstein, by vouching for the righteous motives of the Unification Church and Professor’s World Peace Academy, managed to allay the hysteria of the community in regard to the presence of those organizations at UB and also managed to quell the rampant rumors of the sinister, cultish nature and motives of the Unification Church and its peace-promoting offshoot.
The rest is history. UB was saved and continues to maintain highest quality, innovative, unique, groundbreaking programs in medicine/nutrition, economics, politics, political economy, international relations, and, perhaps most impressive, computer engineering/computer science, with UB being one of the few engineering programs in the US offering PhDs in Computer Engineering and Computer Science with those programs currently making groundbreaking progress in areas such as digital face recognition software and accommodating hardware. (And note, the student body has not become a flower-selling army of proselytizing zombies waging any sort of overt or covert religious war in the name of Sun Myung Moon, as hysterical, regional residents believed inevitable.)
If not for Dr. Rubenstein’s stature and diplomatic skills, the regional religious intolerance/histrionics that he was recruited to address might have succeeded in derailing UB’s rescue and sounding the death knell of Bridgeport’s last, remaining significant asset and positive institutional presence attracting attention from the rest of the world. Without UB, this dying city might already be dead. (But we’re still too stupid, as a city/community, to use its many assets effectively toward the revival of commerce and industry in this city.)