IM 2009 -10 Speaker Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry taught French and French literature at Whitman College from 1976-2002. Since his retirement, he has taught courses on the literature and film of the Holocaust and on the literature of peace. He has published books on Voltaire, Camus, Montaigne and the novel La Princesse de Clèves and co-edited the scholarly journal, Philosophy and Literature, for twenty years. In 2007, Catholic University of America Press published his most recent book, 'We Only Know Men': The Rescue of Jews in France during the Holocaust. He was a speaker in the Inquiring Mind Program from 1996-1998 and has been a speaker for the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous since 2000.

The "Rescuers" of the Holocaust
Would you risk your life to save a stranger? During WWII, many non-Jews risked their lives to rescue Jews threatened by the Holocaust. One rescuer, Madeleine Dreyfus, rescued more than 100 Jewish children (ages 18 months to 16 years) at risk of deportation and placed them into non-Jewish homes. She did this without false papers and bearing the most readily identifiable Jewish name in the nation. Very few people today have heard of these heroes. Join Pat Henry as he explores these examples of self-transcendence even in the most desperate situations and against the most improbable odds.

Religion and Peace in the 21st Century
In our world of nuclear proliferation and long-raging generational conflicts, is it possible to have peace without peace among religions? In this presentation, Pat Henry will explore the potential of unified interfaith peace movements, which include Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. Examine recent interfaith peace initiatives and ideas in works by Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King and Thich Naht Hanh.