December 7, the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was called “a day that shall live in infamy” by President Franklin Roosevelt. Yesterday and today, November 9-10, bears its infamy as well. This year it marked the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht (photo), the “November Pogrom” in which Germans, spurred by Nazi propaganda, smashed the windows and looted Jewish owned shops, vandalized synagogues, and killed at least 91 Jews; a prologue to the Holocaust. This year is also the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, which claimed the lives of some 900,000 men, women, and children.

This Wednesday, November 12, at 12:45 p.m. in the Atrium Amipitheater at 300 Jay Street, the Jewish Faculty and Staff Association at New York City College of Technology (“City Tech”) will present a speech by Michael Schneider, Secretary General Emeritus of the World Jewish Congress, commemorating the anniversary of Kristallnacht. At the same program, a posthumous award will be presented to Anne Heyman, founder of the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. The event is free and open to all.