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Dr. Judith S. Goldstein received a Bachelors degree from Cornell University in 1962 with a concentration on European and American history. As a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Columbia University, she then studied for a Masters degree in European history and wrote her thesis on the “Mouvement Republicain Populaire and the Franco Vietnamese War, 1946 1954.” In 1972, Judith completed her doctoral studies at Columbia University after writing her dissertation on “The Politics of Ethnic Pressure: The American Jewish Committee Fight Against Immigration Restriction: 1906-1917.” This work was the beginning of a sustained concentration on immigration and diversity in America and Europe. She then continued to work at Columbia University over 10 years by focusing on an oral history project on Ethnic Groups and American Foreign Policy. In the late 1980s, she began to write a book on the integration of Jewish immigrants in Maine which William Morrow published in 1992. Subsequently, she worked as the Executive Director of Thanks To Scandinavia, started by the Danish pianist Victor Borge to acknowledge Scandinavians who resisted Nazism and protected Jews during the Second World War. In 1997, Judith founded Humanity in Action and began to serve as its Executive Director. She also has an abiding interest in conservation and landscape design and history, especially as it relates to Maine and Mt. Desert Island.
Updated April 2020
More from Judith Goldstein
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Judy Goldstein featured on Aldo de Pape's "TeachPitch" podcast
Senior Fellow Aldo de Pape hosts the TeachPitch podcast, where he hosted Judith Goldstein, the Founder and Executive Director of Humanity in Action.
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Humanity in Action's Voices in the Void selected for LA Shorts International Film Festival
We are thrilled to announce that our animated short film "Voices in the Void" is an official selection for the American LA Shorts International Film Festival. This year, the program was available online, streaming on demand virtually from July 1 to July 31.
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Animated Film on Social Cohesion
Based on the Bilateral Comparative Social Cohesion Forum, held in October 2020, Humanity in Action released an animated short film.
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"Racism & Rise of Nationalism" lecture by Judith Goldstein
On May 6th, Humanity in Action Founder and Executive Director Judith Goldstein gave a lecture, titled "Racism & Rise of Nationalism," as part of the Tipping Point Lecture Series, organized by Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy.
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"Conscience and Courage" - Judith Goldstein moderated "Virtual Public Policy Forum" at Frances Perkins Center
On April 25, 2021, Executive Director of Humanity in Action Judith Goldstein moderated "Conscience and Courage: Frances Perkins and Dr. Feng Shan Ho - Little Known Heroes Who Save Lives" as part of the Frances Perkins Center's virtual Public Policy Forum: Immigration/Refugee Policy.
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"Conscience and Courage" - Judith Goldstein to moderate "Virtual Public Policy Forum" at Frances Perkins Center
On April 25, 2021, Executive Director of Humanity in Action Judith Goldstein moderated "Conscience and Courage: Frances Perkins and Dr. Feng Shan Ho - Little Known Heroes Who Save Lives" as part of the Frances Perkins Center's virtual Public Policy Forum: Immigration/Refugee Policy.
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Humanity in Action's Voices in the Void selected for AmDocs Film Festival
We are thrilled to announce that our animated short film "Voices in the Void" is an official selection for the esteemed American Documentary and Animation Film Festival. The 10th Annual AmDocs Film Fest took place from March 26-April 4th.
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Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellows Discuss Protecting Democracy After Attack on US Capitol
Landecker Fellows gathered to debrief the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and the implications this assault has had on the future of democracy--an assault fueled by conspiracy theories and former US President Donald Trump himself. From there, they deliberated on how we can depolarize our communities and call civil society into action in order to protect and strengthen democratic societies.
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What Do We Do Tomorrow? with Judith Goldstein
As Americans make their way to the polls this week, Hannah Sung speaks with HIA's Judith Goldstein. In the midst of a contentious election, Sung and Goldstein explore our attitudes towards participation and learning when it comes to voting, and give you ideas for what civic engagement can look like.
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Benefit celebrating three eminent women on Oct. 22nd, 2020, 6:30-8pm
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Reflections on COVID-19
Clarity, I believe, gives strength. Hope is energizing. Engaging in common civic pursuit is emboldening. Voting is resistance. Resisting is what will restore our health.
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Populism, Nationalism, AND Racism
I want to maintain—or even insist—that racism or conceptions based on racial attitudes and classifications are critical to understanding nationalism and populism from the 19th Century right into our bewildering and bewitched 21st Century.
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The Truth of the Future: Reflections on Antisemitism
During our Conference "Addressing Antisemitism in our Societies", in Berlin, October 24-27, 2019, Judith Goldstein shared her reflections on Antisemitism with the participants.
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Judith Goldstein speaks with Nelson-Atkins Museum Director at the Champlain Institute
Founder and Executive Director Judith Goldstein speaks at the Champlain Institute: “Art: Dissent and Democracy”
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Humanity in Action Screens New Film "On the Values of Humanity in Action"
At the 2018 conference in New York, Humanity in Action asked Senior Fellows and community members to weigh in on the values of Humanity in Action.
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How to Fix Democracy Washington Symposium
At the Bertelsmann Foundation's Washington Symposium in April, 2019, we asked leaders from business, politics, and culture to respond to the question: “How do we fix democracy?” These are their answers.
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Reflections on Social Cohesion/Social Coercion
Israel, Germany and the US are facing deeply divisive issues of national identity—and nationalism, often in its extreme incarnation—that derive from diverse populations and their leaders—issues that involve race, religion and national boundaries and histories.
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Pre-Genocide - Warnings and Readiness to Protect
An anthology of personal interpretations, by researchers and writers, about alarm bells and the readiness to protect prior to genocides. The essays in this volume focus on the 1930s before the Holocaust in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark - as well as the years before the genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Kurdistan, Rwanda and Bosnia.
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The Danish Exception
The rescue of Danish Jews in October 1943 to Sweden has served as the inspiration for the inception of Humanity in Action. Judy Glickman Lauder’s photographs in Beyond the Shadows document the horrific sites of the Holocaust, while telling the uplifting story of the Danish Rescue. Founder and CEO Judith Goldstein contributed this written piece to that book.
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Interview Ai WeiWei
Humanity in Action is pleased to share a 32 minute video of an hour-long conversation on the role of art and organizations like Humanity in Action in upholding civil democracies and humanity in our current, turbulent times with Judith Goldstein and the renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at his studio in Berlin.
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On Migration: Historical Reflections for New Perspectives
Judith Goldstein wrote “On Migration: Historical Reflections for New Perspectives” as part of the PERSPECTIVES Vol. I magazine publication.
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Shifting Paradigms: Humanity in Action Senior Fellows on Policy and Pluralism Across Borders
Shifting Paradigms is a volume of diverse articles on cross-border policy and pluralism written by Humanity in Action Senior Fellows.
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Atlanta and Berlin: The Cross Currents of Racism and Restorative Justice
Over several centuries, immigrants with few assets were driven by the vertigo of speculation in building a new American society. In the process they stripped Native Americans of their wealth and eagerly and savagely diminished that population.
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Detroit: The Grand Experiment
The tensions over diversity, integration and inclusion are felt in cities throughout the country. But Detroit is special: it is the city of the grand collapse, the grand bargain and now the grand experiment.
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Transatlantic Perspectives on Diplomacy and Diversity
Recognizing the intensification of transnational conflicts that both violently divide and intimately link our global communities, this book is a collection of diverse essays, which tackle international relations and migration.
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The Presence of the Past: Confronting the Nazi State and Jim Crow
Well into the second decade of the 21st Century, both the United States and Germany struggle with the consequences of previous state sponsored racist beliefs and behaviors
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Reflections on Humanity in Action
Almost 16 years ago, a former French Resistance fighter, a Jew and immigrant in America, posed a perplexing question when we met for the first time for a serious conversation: how do we educate young people about the need to resist oppressive, authoritarian forces?
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Introduction to Humanity in Action: Collected Essays and Talks
Published in 2014, Humanity in Action: Collected Essays and Talks is an anthology of written works by Judith Goldstein, the founder and executive director of Humanity in Action.
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Preface to Civil Society and the Holocaust: International Perspectives on Resistance and Rescue
This anthology was created as part of “Civil Society: Reactions to the Holocaust,” a series of events in Copenhagen commemorating the 70th anniversary of the flight and deportation of Danish Jews in October 1943.
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Civil Society and the Holocaust: International Perspectives on Resistance and Rescue
In 2013, Humanity in Action Denmark held a conference in Copenhagen to mark the 70th anniversary of the flight and rescue of Danish Jewry. This book was published in association with the “October 1943” conference. The anthology examines how European societies dealt with the knowledge of the Nazi persecution of Jews in very different ways before, during and after the Holocaust.
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Jan Karski and Stefan Zweig
"Jan Karski and Stefan Zweig" was a talk delivered at the Fourth Annual Humanity in Action International Conference at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, on June 27, 2013.
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Dr. Judith Goldstein's Remarks at the 2012 Humanity in Action Conference
Dr. Judith Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director of Humanity in Action, delivers remarks at the 2012 Humanity in Action International Conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Reflections on the Holocaust
The first book published by Humanity in Action, Reflections on the Holocaust is a collection of essays from Humanity in Action Fellows, Senior Fellows, Board members and lecturers from 1997 to 2010.
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Visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
If we lived in a just and honorable world, this would not be our only museum visit in Washington DC. We would also be spending time at one dedicated to the history of black/white relations in the US.
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Preempting the Violence That Comes of Intolerance
Washington Post feature on Humanity in Action's mission and the announcement of Core Program in the US.
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Religion and Human Rights in Europe
Europeans may continue to use terms like “human rights” and human dignity,” which are rooted in the Christian values of their civilization, but few of them could give a coherent account of why they continue to believe in such things.
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The Myth of Anne Frank
People know that Anne as well as her sister and mother were exterminated but for many readers Anne’s story ends with the hope that “people are really good at heart."
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Alone with Charlotte Salomon
Now when over 400 of Salomon’s works are on display at the Jewish Museum in New York, on loan from the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam, one would hope Salomon’s moment has come.
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The Journal of Helene Berr
"The Journal of Helene Berr" was a talk given to Humanity in Action Fellows in Paris in June 2010.
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Diplomacy and Diversity
“Diplomacy and Diversity” was a talk delivered to Humanity in Action Fellows in May 2014.
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The Week Before the Election
In the midst of these past months of anguish, John Robert Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Ever vigilant, they left parting words to accompany their legacies of determination and courage to make their country ever more just.