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Against Forgetting: Historical Memory & Just Reconciliation

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Session Description

There is no universal consensus on the “just recovery” of traumatic experiences from the Holocaust, the “Dirty War” in Argentina, the genocide in Rwanda, the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia and other massacres. This session will explore the fundamental necessity of preserving historical memory and truth as means to not only address collective trauma, but also engage in processes of transitional justice and transformation world-wide, and in the United States as it nears a period of authentic racial reckoning.

Time & Location

Time:
9:00 PM - 10:00 PM, Tuesday, April 13, 2021 BST
Location:
Virtual
Speakers
  • Speaker
    Holocaust Survivor, Individual
    Jeanette Spiegel was born October 17, 1923 in Vienna, Austria to the Jewish couple Ossie and Etta Koenigsberg, and had an older sister Irma. Her father owned a furniture store and they lived in an assimilated borough of Vienna. She remembers the Nazis marching into Vienna March 15,1938 as the Austrians cheered them on with open arms. Jeanette was sent on a Child Transport to Belgium in January 1939 and hid in plain sight keeping a step ahead of the Gestapo until April 1944 when she was arrested for being a Jew and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In January 1945 Jeanette escaped a Death March and made her way back to Vienna in hopes of finding family. She was the only Survivor. Jeanette Spiegel lives in NYC with her husband of 65 years, Herbert Spiegel. She has three children, six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren with a third on the way, and one rather large British Blue Shorthair cat named Clementine.
  • Speaker
    Fernando Travesí is the Executive Director of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). He has over 20 years of international experience in transitional justice, human rights, and rule of law, working for both international organizations and NGOs. Prior to joining ICTJ in 2014, he was the Director of the UNDP Transitional Justice Basket Fund in Colombia. He also served as UNDP Senior Justice Advisor in Tunisia after the Jasmine Revolution. In Nepal and Colombia, Travesí held regional responsibilities with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to protect civilian populations affected by the armed conflict, including documenting violations of international humanitarian law, detention visits and managing the dossier of missing and disappeared. He also worked in Sierra Leone, as Country Director of the Spanish Red Cross, where he led Red Cross’ projects on rehabilitation of child combatants and children affected by the war. Prior to that, he worked for the NGO
  • Speaker
    Co-Founder, Hope and Peace Foundation Rwanda
    Emmanuel Rutikanga from Kigali, Rwanda, is holder of bachelors degree in Economics and business studies majored in Finance at Kigali Independent University he is also a holder of diploma in community driven social changes from Goldin Institute based in Chicago Illinois, he is a co-author of an article called “Of Milk Pots and Cattle Keepers.” in African Arts, Winter 2018, Volume 51, No. 4: 70-85. Emmanuel is a board member in HCH (House of culture heritage), an organization which serves the community through vocational service-based activities via cultural art, Emmanuel also volunteers at the Streets Ahead Children's Centre Association (SACCA), a local NGO registered in Rwanda which works to protect and rehabilitate children at risk of homelessness in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Secretary of the Hope and Peace Foundation Rwanda, which is dedicated to: 1. Fostering unity and reconciliation among youth survivors, youths whose parents participated in the Genocide and Youth born from rape in 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi. 2. women still haunted from suffering rape of 1994 genocide against Tutsi, 3. To take care of the ladies and girls who were raped during the Genocide. 4. To take care of elderly widows without children and he started the Hope and Peace Foundation to unite and reconcile youths whose families were on different sides of the Genocide.
  • Speaker
    Managing Partner, New Profit
    Tulaine Montgomery is an entrepreneur, educator, writer and organizer. She has played leadership roles in the launch and expansion of social enterprises across the U.S., the Caribbean, East Africa, Indonesia and South Africa. Tulaine is a Managing Partner at New Profit, a venture philanthropy organization that backs visionary leaders who are scaling innovations and transforming our nation’s broken and inequitable systems. She is also a trusted advisor to nonprofit organizations and socially responsible companies providing strategic and financial support to many of our nation’s most powerful and promising social innovations. Tulaine leads New Profit’s Inclusive Impact, a $100 million social impact fund providing growth capital and capacity support for Black, Latino/a/x and Indigenous social impact leaders. Tulaine serves on several boards including GirlTrek, YouthBuild and College for Social Innovation. She has a master’s in public policy from Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. Tulaine’s writing has been featured in Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Root, Worth Media, and more. She is featured in “Portraits of Purpose: A Tribute to Leadership” - a visual chronicle and historic narrative of community leaders. In 2020, Tulaine co-authored a research report on equity in philanthropy in partnership with Next Street, Transforming the Social Sector: The Opportunity and Need for Action. Tulaine is the Host and Executive Producer of "Say More: Live conversations with Tulaine”, an Instagram Live virtual ‘salon’ where people of different identities and experiences explore what it would take to build a world that works for everyone. Tulaine is a cellist and has written and produced several original plays.
  • Moderator
    President, Samueli Family Philanthropies and COO, H&S Ventures, Samueli Foundation
    Lindsey Spindle serves as President of the Samueli Family Philanthropies and Chief Operating Officer of H&S Ventures which oversees all the Samueli Family’s for-profit and not-for-profit activities. The philanthropic entities operating under the oversight of H&S Ventures include the Samueli Foundation, the Anaheim Ducks Foundation, the San Diego Gulls Foundation, the Irvine Ice Foundation, and The Rinks Foundation. Spindle was President of The Jeff Skoll Group, where she connected and advised Mr. Skoll’s entrepreneurial portfolio of philanthropic and commercial organizations that include the impact entertainment company Participant, Capricorn Investment Group, and the Skoll Foundation. The Skoll Foundation’s mission is centered on social entrepreneurship and innovation, with a focus on five main, interrelated areas: climate change, inclusive economies, protection of democracy, pandemics prevention and health systems strengthening, and racial justice. Participant has produced more than