1943-2008
Emeritus Professor of History

Remembering Dr. Stephen Feinstein

Dr. Feinstein retired from UWRF in 1999 after a thirty year career. For twenty-five of those years he led an annual tour of the Soviet Union and coordinated tours for all the University of Wisconsin campuses. Dr. Feinstein retired from UWRF to establish and direct the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, continuing there until his death on March 4, 2008.

On October 2, 2007, he presented "When 'Never Again' is a Cliche: The Complicated Role of Rescuers in Genocide" at the launch of The Edward N. Peterson Lecture Series.

From Dr. Feinstein (February 15, 2008) . . .

Stephen Feinstein was a plenary speaker at Northern Iowa University's Program on the Holocaust at Jagellonian University in May 2007, speaking on "Polish Artistic Responses to the Holocaust." In June he was part of a 5 member American team of scholars working with Polish scholars to teach 65 Polish teachers for a week on "Methodologies and Issues in Teaching the Holocaust," also at Jagellonian University. This was supported by a grant from the Claims Conmference. In July, he gave a paper on "From Terezin to Sarajevo: Jiri Sozansky's Artistic Confrontation with Genocide," at the International Association of Genocide Scholars in Sarajevo, Bosnia. In April 2007, he is scheduled to give a paper on "Christian Symbols in Post-Holocaust Jewish Art," at the Western Jewish Studies Association meeting in Los Angeles.

Feinstein also published the following articles at the end of 2006 and during 2007: Article: "The Holocaust and Racism," for Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, John H. Moore, Editor in Chief. Farrington Hills, Michigan. Macmillan Reference USA, 2006.

Articles: Five Articles on Jewish Architects (Robert Stern, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, Stanley Tigerman and Daniel Liebeskind in Michael Berenbaum (ed). Encyclopaedia Judaica (Macmillan: 2006).

Article/Forward for Jeff Hill (ed) Primary Sourcebook Series, The Holocaust (Detroit, Omnigraphics, 2006). Article: (It Italian) "From Reverence to Transgression: Art and the Holocaust" in Sullam, Simon Levis (ed). Storia della Shoah. Torino, Italy. Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, S.p.a. 2007. Article: "A Double Absence: Chantal Akerman's D'Est: Bordering on Fiction and Alfredo Jaar's Let There Be Light," in The International Journal of the Arts in Society, Volume 1, 2007. http://ija.cgpublisher.com/.

Feinstein was also instrumental in securing a $98,000 grant for the University of Minnesota to support a visiting scholar in History from Israel, a $725,000 gift the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies for a graduate scholarship, matched by the University of Minnesota ($225,000) and the balance for endowment in CHGS. He was also involved in securing a $1.5 million donation to support the Amos Deinard chair in the History Department for Modern Jewish History.

In terms of teaching, Feinstein is teaching a popular course at the University of Minnesota, "History of the Holocaust," with an average enrollment of 160 students. He is also team teaching an ITV Course for the Mondale School of Law at the U of M on "Holocaust, Genocide and Law," with Whittier College of Law in California.

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is the major sponsor of "DEADLY MEDICINE," a traveling exhibition from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum at the Science Museum of Minnesota, February 27-May 4, 2008. Docent led tours are available. See the web page of CHGS for more information: http://www.chgs.umn.edu/.

As far as the family is concerned: Susan Feinstein retired from audiology at Children's hospital and is busy taking free courses for those over 62 at the U of M.

Son, Jeremy Feinstein has his own business in New York City--Human resource Management surveys.

Daughter, Rebecca Feinstein is the mother of two children (Sarah 6 and Shammik 2) and is pursuing a PHD in Public Health at the University of Chicago. Her husband, Avi Winitzer, is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Near East Languages at Notre Dame University. They live in Hyde Park, Chicago and have Barak Obama as a neighbor.

Stephen Feinstein

Ph.D. - New York University

M. A . - New York University

B. A. - Villanova

Served UWRF 1969-1999

Areas of interest

• History of the Holocaust
• History of Russia
• Russian civilization
• History of the Middle East
• Arab-Israeli conflict