Mass Violence and Jewish Responses: The Holocaust as a Local History in Eastern Europe

Monday, June 29 - Friday, July 3, 2026

Iași, Romania

Application Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2026

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in cooperation with the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, and the Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași are pleased to invite applications for a research workshop, Mass Violence and Jewish Responses: The Holocaust as a Local History in Eastern Europe, scheduled for June 29 – July 3, 2026 in Iași, Romania. 

The workshop will take place during the week marking the 85th commemoration of the Iași pogrom, a decisive turning point in the Holocaust in Romania. On June 28, 1941, Romanian and German soldiers, together with the local police, carried out violent anti-Jewish attacks in broad daylight. Many Jews were killed in the streets of their native city, in their homes, and at the city’s police headquarters. Survivors were later forced into overcrowded, sealed cargo trains, where they were held without food or water for days, resulting in thousands of deaths from suffocation and dehydration. The pogrom was planned and initiated by state authorities and triggered wider violence across the region. 

The workshop addresses the Holocaust in Romania and in territories under Romanian and German occupation in Ukraine. It will engage in comparative analysis of how mass violence unfolded in these regions as a locally embedded process and focus on the actors who played key roles in initiating, organizing and carrying out violence at the local level. Particular attention will be given to the involvement of state and local authorities, police forces, military units, religious leaders and civilian participants, as well as to the ways in which violence unfolded within specific political, social and institutional settings. Jewish responses to mass violence, both individual and organizational, including strategies of survival, adaptation, and resistance, will constitute an important focus of the program. 

We invite applications that address, but are not limited to, the following topics: antisemitism, pogroms, deportations, ghettoization, Jewish and non-Jewish responses to the genocidal violence, persecution of Roma, collaboration, economic history of the Holocaust, and postwar justice. 

Applications Details

Applications will be accepted from scholars at all career levels, working in any relevant academic discipline, including, but not limited to, anthropology, archaeology, art history, geography, film studies, history, Jewish studies, law, literature, museum studies, philosophy, political science, religion, and sociology.

We especially encourage early-career scholars (doctoral and postdoctoral level) based in Romania and Ukraine to apply. Applicants based outside these two countries who research the Holocaust in Romania and in territories under Romanian and German occupation in Ukraine may apply. The workshop will be conducted in English. No translation will be offered. 

Applications must be received electronically by Friday, March 27, 2026. Incomplete applications will not be considered after this date, and late applications will not be accepted. The selected participants will be notified by April 30, 2026. Participants must commit to attending the entire program. The application consists of:

• A CV

• An abstract of your proposed paper (no more than 500 words)

Please apply via the online application form.

Travel

The organizers will cover the costs of economy-class travel from participants’ home institutions to Iași, as well as lodging and meals for the duration of the workshop. Participants must obtain their visas and health insurance, if relevant. 

Please direct any questions about the program to Natalya Lazar, Program Officer, International Academic Programs at nlazar@ushmm.org.

This program is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Piotr and Basheva Polsky Memorial Initiative for the Study of Ukrainian Jewry.