on campus - Article - Manhattan College

18 manhattan.edu
ROTC Takes on the NYSE
Manhattan College’s Air Force ROTC cadets participated in
Veterans Day activities throughout the city. In addition to
marching in the parade and visiting the Bronx Veterans
Hospital, the group rang the bell at the New York Stock
Exchange on Nov. 11 to commemorate the 87th anniversary
of Veterans Day.
Among the members of the armed forces gathered at the
bell are Air Force Assistant Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Arthur
J. Lichte ’71 (center), Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force
Gerald R. Murray (center left), and Manhattan College’s
AFROTC Detachment 560 Cadet Wing Commander Marie
Tracy (third from the right).
A Sculpture Says a Thousand Words
The Manhattan Holocaust Resource
Center works with students, professors
and the surrounding community to
study the phenomena and prevention
of genocide. Under the direction of
Dr. Frederick Schweitzer, the Center
brings noted historians, who often
present groundbreaking research, to
speak on campus.
These lectures are distinguished by
the audience response, and comments
frequently come from people who have
firsthand knowledge of the events
described. In November, a presentation
by Dr. Claudia Koonz on How Racism
Became Respectable: An Exploration
of Nazi Public Culture was applauded
and critiqued by former diplomats,
German-Jewish refugees and World War
II veterans, as well as Riverdale religious
leaders and members of the College.
Koonz detailed how Nazi propaganda
was shaped toward winning over the
professional classes of Germany and how
When asked why Kalb chose to depict
such disturbing graphic images in this
collection, he says that in the world we
live in, where visual imagery dominates,
“people believe what they see more
readily than what they read.”
“I want the viewer to have no doubts
regarding the factual aspects of what
is depicted,” Kalb adds. “I want the
shocking quality of these works to raise
a question as to why the full facts of
these atrocities have been glossed over.
I want people to ask what is happening
now that we do not see.”
the advent of the latest technology at the
time, radio, was used to build first the
illusion and then the reality of consensus.
The Rosenthal family — Leslie, a
psychotherapist, Renee, an artist, and
Alice, their daughter — are long-standing
residents of the Riverdale/Kingsbridge
area and regularly attend such lectures
at the College. In appreciation, they
presented to Manhattan one of Renee’s
sculptures commemorating the victims
of the Holocaust. Entitled We Remember,
it depicts the flame of life and memory
in a set of six clay candles. A motherdaughter
effort, as Alice fashioned the
fragile stained glass flames atop each
candle, Renee chose the motif of candles
because they are spiritual artifacts
common to many religions. The proportions
and grouping of the candles suggest the
different generations of the victims, an
evocative abstract of the human family. For
Renee, the cylindrical shapes also recall
the chimneys of the Nazi death camps.
Through creative and aesthetic means,
Kalb’s artwork compels the viewer to
consider actual historical events in hopes
of increasing an intellectual and emotional
awareness. He hopes that viewers,
particularly students who may have visited
the exhibit, take away with them a
personal connection to the images and
not solely the historical significance.
Kalb joined the Ohio Wesleyan faculty
in 1967 after earning his Master of
Arts from the University of California at
Berkeley. Previously, he taught art at the
University of Kentucky. His paintings
We Remember
Continued from pg. 17 – Art Series Depicts Images from Holocaust
Schweitzer spoke of the power of the
art to give expression to the overwhelming
horror of genocide.
“Words are limiting, but art can convey
some sense of the suffering and loss that
verbalizing cannot,” he says.
The piece is on permanent display in
the Rodriguez Room of Miguel Hall.
and drawings are included in many
public and private collections in the
United States and abroad.
Kalb’s exhibit at the College ran from
November 2 to November 24 and kicked
off the Holocaust Resource Center’s
visiting scholar program.
The Center was established in 1996
to promote Catholic-Jewish dialogue and
to educate people about the Holocaust
and its significance in the present.