We hope you will join us for this special hour-long panel discussion, moderated by A Shayna Maidel dramaturg Deborah Blumenthal and featuring these special guest panelists:

Phyllis B. Lassner is Professor Emerita in The Crown Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, Gender Studies, and Writing Programs at Northwestern University. In addition to lecturing in Britain, Israel, and in Europe, she has published on inter war and wartime women writers, including British Women Writers of World War II, Colonial Strangers, Anglo-Jewish Women Writing the Holocaust, as well as essays on Holocaust representation in literature and film. Her most recent book is Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film (Edinburgh UP, 2017). She was the recipient of the International Diamond Jubilee Fellowship at Southampton University, UK. Her current research concerns Holocaust refugee art, Polish post-Holocaust film, and British Holocaust theater. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Holocaust Education Foundation at Northwestern.

Jessica Schaffer is the Director of HIAS Chicago, Jewish Child & Family Services’ Immigration Legal Services Department. She has more than a decade of experience working with refugees and immigrants, including locally with the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago and Heartland Alliance’s International Children’s Center, and abroad on the Thai-Burmese border. Jessica comes to this work inspired by the history of family members who were refugees resettled to Canada and the United States after the Holocaust.

Laura Toffenetti is the Assistant Director at the Rohingya Culture Center. In her previous life she was a teacher of 30 years, playwright and quilter. Retirement led her to the RCC in 2016 as a volunteer. It became clear that her ability to read and write was invaluable to this community and her few hours rapidly became full time. The Rohingya have made her part of their family. Her goal has been and remains to be helping RCC founder Nasir Zakaria accomplish his vision as the RCC teaches the community how to help themselves in their struggle to make the transition into life in the United States.

This Sunday Scholars discussion is FREE and open to the public. If you would like to attend but are not attending the show that day, please arrive by 4:15pm and you can enter the theatre once the performance concludes. Questions? Call the Box Office at 773.281.8463 x6.