Tight up against the Chinese border in northern Vietnam is a mountainous, tribal area from which, almost daily, Hmong girls are tricked, drugged, kidnapped and smuggled deep inside China. There, they’re sold into coercive marriages and domestic, agricultural or sexual slavery. Disoriented, most lack the language, means and skills to escape. Most disappear forever. Long-time OZ member Sue Schein will describe how she worked with partners to design and launch workshops aimed at interrupting this practice, by teaching girls how to…

Germany is today home to about 120,000 people who identify as Jews: less than one percent of the world's Jews and to less than two-tenths of one percent of Germany's... Read More

Janie Cohen, past Director of UVM’s Fleming Museum, will provide an illustrated talk about the work of several artists who experienced the Holocaust directly or indirectly. Cohen will also focus... Read More

In this talk with music, composer, writer, and pianist Michael Schachter will explore his forthcoming music-theatrical project based on the history of the Terezín Ghetto, a WWII concentration camp outside Prague where the Jewish inmates resisted the Nazis through musical, dramatic, and artistic expression. In particular, he’ll focus on the musical activities of Eric Vogel, a trumpeter who founded a jazz band in Terezín called the Ghetto Swingers, and Rafael Schächter, a pianist and conductor who led the inmates in…

The dying process is daunting and brings forth a plethora of emotions that are felt by all. While there are signs that indicate when someone has reached the end stages of the dying process, the most moving indicator is called “abstract speech.” Often overlooked, abstract speech offers an opportunity for a final connection with the... Read More