Opening Night 2022

The Hitler Conspiracies

SOLD OUT IN PERSON

November 2 // 7:30 PM
Leah Posluns Theatre, Prosserman JCC // 4588 Bathurst Street
Free // Registration Required

Conspiratorial thinking exploded during the pandemic. Where does it come from and what does it have to do with the Holocaust? Join us to unpack and contextualize the conspiracy theory famously described as a “Warrant for Genocide” with scholar of Nazi Germany Sir Richard Evans, author of eighteen books including The Hitler Conspiracies. Nyla Ahmad, author and strategic thinker, will join Evans for a thought-provoking discussion to launch this year's Holocaust Education Week and set the stage for what is sure to be an insightful week of programs and learning.

A recording of the event will be made available online on the Virtual J's 2022 Holocaust Education Week Channel on November 3 at 9am.

Nyla Ahmad has spent decades in the media and technology industries, launching new businesses and innovations made possible from the emergence and evolution of the Internet. Nyla is former Editor-in-Chief of OWL Communications, former host of Nyla.Net on Discovery Channel, and spent two decades at Rogers Communications holding Executive-level leadership positions across Strategy, Business Innovation, Product Development, Marketing and P&L Operations.  A true champion of technology innovation and our adoption of a digital life, Nyla is equally passionate about preserving a world in which everyone truly belongs.  For seven years she led Rogers’ Inclusion & Diversity Committee as Chair, implementing new programs and policies to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion at the company – which included hosting the company’s first-ever Holocaust Education Week event, in partnership with UJA.  Nyla is the recipient of Canadian Women in Communications’ “Trailblazer Award” and sits on the Board of Governors at the University of Waterloo.

Presented in partnership with Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School, University of Toronto.

Sir Richard Evans was born in London and educated at Oxford University. He has taught at Columbia University and Birkbeck, University of London, and since 2014 has been the Regius Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Cambridge. His many publications include an acclaimed three-volume history of the Third Reich and a recent collection of essays, The Third Reich in History and Memory. A Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature, he is a past winner of the Wolfson History Prize, and was twice a History Honoree at the Los Angeles Times Book Awards. In 2012, he was appointed Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s birthday honors list, for services to scholarship. 

Kristallnacht Program

A Celebration of Rabbi Erwin Schild: From Internee to the Order of Canada

November 9 // 7:30 PM
Adath Israel Congregation // 37 Southbourne Avenue
Free // Registration Required

Rabbi Schild was just weeks away from his Bar Mitzvah when the Nazis came to power in Germany. After surviving Kristallnacht and a month in Dachau, he escaped to London only to be interned in a prison camp when Britain joined the war. Initially sent to Canada as an enemy alien, Schild went on to become one of the country’s most beloved and influential rabbis. A special film celebrating Rabbi Schild’s unique story will be screened as part of this year’s Kristallnacht commemoration.

This program is generously sponsored by the Glicksman, Glick, Altschuler, Glassberg and Herschorn families.

If you are unable to attend this program in person, there will be a livestream available on the Virtual J's  2022 Holocaust Education Week Channel on November 9 at 7:30 PM.