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Professor Carole Fink

Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellow
"The World Jewish Congress, 1932-1939"

Professional Background

Professor Carole Fink received a Ph.D. and an M.A. in history from Yale University and a B.A. in history from Bard College in New York. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was Distinguished Humanities Professor in History at The Ohio State University in Columbus. For her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research, Professor Fink conducted research on “The World Jewish Congress, 1932-1939.”

Professor Fink is a specialist in twentieth-century international history and European historiography and has published extensively. Her book Defending the Rights of Others: The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878-1938 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), examines an early stage of international human rights diplomacy. Her other works include Marc Bloch: A Life in History (Cambridge University Press, 1989), a biography of the French historian and resistance fighter which has been translated into five languages; The Genoa Conference: European Diplomacy, 1921-1922 (University of North Carolina Press, 1984), which was awarded the 1985 George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association for the best book in European international history; and an introduction to and translation of Mark Bloch’s Memoirs of War, 1914-15 (Cambridge University Press, 1980). Professor Fink is also the editor of books on German nationalism, European reconstruction in 1922, the establishment of European frontiers after World Wars I and II, the crises of 1968 (1968: The World Transformed, Cambridge University Press, 1998), and human rights in Europe since 1945. She has also edited dozens of scholarly articles and chapters on European international history. Professor Fink has lectured extensively on her work in the U.S. and abroad, and has been elected as a member of several professional associations including the Association Internationale d’Histoire Contemporaine de l’Europe, the American Historical Association, and the Peace History Association. She has been on the board of the Journal of Modern History and Contemporary European History. The recipient of numerous highly esteemed fellowships and grants, Professor Fink received awards from the German Marshall Fund, Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, and Woodrow Wilson Center, among others.

Fellowship Research

During her tenure at the Museum, Professor Fink researched the emergence of the World Jewish Congress as a third generation of Jewish international leadership under the shadow of the threats to Jewish existence from the Third Reich. Specifically, she examined how it initiated several important projects on behalf of central and east European Jews. These initiatives included organizing and implementing a boycott movement against Berlin, publicizing the growing dangers to European Jewry, petitioning the League to enforce minority treaties, collaborating with international refugee organizations to aid fleeing Jews, working with western powers to secure help for these refugees, and negotiating with east European governments to forestall violence and expulsions.

Professor Fink was in residence at the Mandel Center from August 31 to December 31, 2004.