2026 Conference Keynote Lecture - "Beyond Broken Glass: A Gendered Perspective on the November Pogrom"

The Cohen Institute is honored to host Prof. Marion Kaplan to deliver the keynote lecture for the inaugural New England Conference on Holocaust and Genocide Studies. In her lecture, entitled "Beyond Broken Glass: A Gendered Perspective on the November Pogrom," Kaplan will offer an overview of Nazi policy toward Jews in the years leading up to the November Pogrom (commonly known as Kristallnacht), approached from a social history perspective that focuses on events at the grassroots level. Her talk also adopts a gendered lens, exploring how men and women experienced the antisemitic onslaught in both similar and different ways. The lecture will examine the course of the pogrom itself, highlighting how violence and persecution were shaped by gender, and will consider the courage shown by women who sought to secure the release of their sons, husbands, and fathers from concentration camps.

Speaker Bio: Marion Kaplan is the Skirball Professor emerita of Modern Jewish History at NYU. She is a three-time National Jewish Book Award winner for The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family and Identity in Imperial Germany (1991), Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (1998), and Gender and Jewish History (with Deborah Dash Moore, 2011) as well as a finalist for Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosua (2008). Her other monographs include: The Jewish Feminist Movement in Germany, Jewish Daily Life in Germany, 1618-1945 (ed.). She has also edited several books on German-Jewish and women’s history and has taught courses on German-Jewish history, European women’s history, German and European history, as well as European Jewish history, and Jewish women’s history. Her newest book, Hitler’s Jewish Refugees: Hope and Anxiety in Portugal, 1940-45 was published by Yale University Press in 2020.

Registration : This event is free and open to everyone, but advanced registration is required. It will be hosted in person on the campus of Keene State College and will also be accessible via livestream. The hard deadline to register for in-person attendance is 5:00 pm ET on Thursday, October 29, 2026. We will not be able to register any additional guests for in-person attendance after that time.

REGISTER HERE FOR IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE (link coming soon!)
REGISTER HERE FOR LIVESTREAM (link coming soon!)

Guests attending this event in person are also invited to join us for a brief reception follow the lecture from 6:30-7:00 pm.

Security Protocols: Doors will open to registered attendees beginning at 5:00 pm. Photography and videography are prohibited at this event. Please note that this event will follow the Cohen Institute's standard security protocols for large events. There is a "no bags" policy in effect for this event, meaning that attendees cannot bring regular backpacks, purses, or other bags into the event. The only exceptions are totally clear bags (that do not exceed 12" x 6" x 12") as are commonly used at sports stadiums and other venues. Additional security protocols may be implemented leading up to or at the event as needed.

Additional Information : The lecture is made possible through donor funding. If you would like to make a gift to support this lecture or other Institute offerings, please visit our website.

Please note that this lecture, which is also hosted in conjunction with the inaugural New England Regional Conference on Holocaust and Genocide Studies, will serve as the Cohen Institute's major event to mark the anniversary of the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht). Speakers at this conference and at this lecture represent a wide range of scholarly research and views; our guests' perspectives should not be taken as representative of the Cohen Institute or Keene State College as a whole.

This event is part of the Cohen Institute calendar.