At a time when historical memory, civic education, and cultural literacy feel increasingly urgent within modern public discourse, institutions across New Jersey continue searching for meaningful ways to connect communities with history through conversation, scholarship, storytelling, and human experience. Few organizations in the state have approached that mission with the consistency, depth, and emotional intelligence of the Raritan Valley Community College Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, which has steadily emerged as one of New Jersey’s most important educational and cultural resources dedicated to remembrance, historical examination, and public engagement.
Now, the institute is preparing to continue one of its most successful and impactful public programs as the RVCC Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies officially launches its sixth annual Virtual Summer Book Series, a free public literary initiative designed to explore themes of survival, identity, resilience, family, displacement, memory, and historical trauma through contemporary literature and guided public discussion.
The annual series has quietly become one of the region’s most respected educational book programs because it does something increasingly rare in today’s fragmented digital environment: it creates sustained, thoughtful public conversations around difficult history through the intimate and emotionally accessible medium of literature. Rather than approaching Holocaust and genocide education solely through academic lectures or historical analysis, the Summer Book Series uses narrative storytelling to draw readers into deeply personal human experiences that illuminate broader historical realities.
For 2026, the institute has selected three highly regarded works — The Sisters of Book Row by Shelley Noble, The Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson, and The Last Woman of Warsaw by Judy Batalion — each offering distinct but interconnected perspectives on identity, survival, displacement, family legacy, cultural memory, and human endurance.
Hosted virtually through Zoom webinars and open free of charge to the public, the series reflects the institute’s continuing commitment to accessibility, public scholarship, and community-centered education. Registration is required, but the virtual format continues allowing audiences from across New Jersey and beyond to participate in conversations that bridge literature, history, ethics, and emotional reflection.
The growing importance of programs like the RVCC Summer Book Series cannot be separated from the broader cultural moment unfolding nationally and globally. As the number of living Holocaust survivors continues declining with time, institutions dedicated to Holocaust education increasingly face the challenge of preserving memory and historical understanding for future generations who no longer have direct access to survivor testimony in the same ways earlier generations did.
Literature has therefore become an increasingly vital bridge between history and contemporary audiences.
Books possess a unique emotional and psychological power because they allow readers to inhabit individual experiences rather than merely observe historical facts from a distance. Through narrative, characters, atmosphere, memory, and emotional perspective, literature transforms historical events into lived human experience. Programs like the RVCC series recognize that emotional engagement often becomes one of the most effective pathways toward deeper historical understanding.
That educational philosophy sits at the center of the Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies itself.
Over the years, the institute has built a strong reputation throughout New Jersey for combining academic rigor with public accessibility. Its programming consistently moves beyond narrow classroom structures and instead emphasizes civic engagement, ethical reflection, interdisciplinary conversation, and community participation. Lectures, panel discussions, educational events, survivor testimony programs, and literary initiatives all contribute to a larger mission rooted in preserving historical memory while encouraging thoughtful examination of contemporary social and moral questions.
The Summer Book Series has become one of the institute’s signature programs precisely because books create unusually intimate entry points into difficult historical material.
This year’s selections continue that tradition in compelling ways.
The Sisters of Book Row by Shelley Noble explores themes surrounding bookselling, family, survival, reinvention, and resilience against the backdrop of historical upheaval. The novel’s connection to literature itself also creates a powerful meta-layer within the context of the series, reinforcing how books often function not merely as entertainment but as repositories of identity, resistance, memory, and emotional continuity during periods of social disruption.
Books have historically played extraordinary roles during moments of persecution and displacement. Libraries, publishing networks, booksellers, educators, and underground literary circles frequently became acts of cultural preservation and quiet resistance during some of history’s darkest periods. By centering part of the series around a literary-themed narrative, the institute also indirectly highlights the enduring power of storytelling itself as a mechanism for survival and historical remembrance.
The Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson expands the conversation into broader questions surrounding family separation, identity, motherhood, social vulnerability, and emotional endurance. Johnson’s work is known for its emotionally immersive storytelling and deeply human character development, qualities that align closely with the institute’s larger educational mission of helping readers emotionally engage with themes of loss, resilience, and moral responsibility rather than simply studying them abstractly.
Meanwhile, The Last Woman of Warsaw by Judy Batalion brings particularly direct Holocaust-era resonance into the program. Batalion has earned significant acclaim for her work exploring resistance, female survival, wartime courage, and Jewish historical memory. Her writing frequently centers women’s perspectives within Holocaust narratives, helping expand public understanding of the many forms resistance, survival, and identity preservation took during the Nazi era.
The inclusion of Batalion’s work also reflects a broader evolution within Holocaust education itself. Contemporary scholarship and literary exploration increasingly seek to highlight voices, perspectives, and personal histories that earlier historical narratives sometimes marginalized or overlooked. Women’s experiences, underground resistance networks, family survival dynamics, and emotional intergenerational trauma have all become increasingly important components of modern Holocaust studies.
Taken together, the three selected books create a multidimensional literary framework for examining themes that remain profoundly relevant far beyond the historical periods in which the stories are set.
Questions surrounding displacement, cultural identity, authoritarianism, moral courage, family separation, migration, memory, prejudice, resilience, and social responsibility continue shaping global conversations today. The Summer Book Series therefore functions not simply as historical reflection but also as contemporary civic dialogue about humanity itself.
The virtual structure of the program remains particularly important as well.
What initially emerged during earlier pandemic-era shifts toward online programming has now evolved into a permanent educational advantage for many institutions. Virtual public humanities programming allows broader geographic participation, increases accessibility for older adults and individuals with mobility limitations, and creates opportunities for statewide or even national audiences to engage with New Jersey-based educational initiatives.
For RVCC, the continued use of Zoom webinar discussions reflects a recognition that meaningful intellectual community can still be built effectively in digital environments when programs are thoughtfully structured around dialogue, reflection, and engagement.
The public and free nature of the series further reinforces the institute’s broader educational philosophy. By eliminating financial barriers, the program emphasizes that historical literacy, ethical conversation, and access to cultural education should remain publicly accessible rather than restricted primarily to academic institutions or specialized audiences.
That accessibility feels especially significant within New Jersey itself.
The state has long maintained strong connections to Holocaust education and remembrance through museums, memorials, survivor communities, university programs, educational commissions, and public school initiatives. New Jersey consistently ranks among the states most engaged in Holocaust and genocide education nationally, with multiple institutions committed to preserving memory and combating antisemitism, historical ignorance, and hate-driven ideology.
Programs like the RVCC Summer Book Series help sustain that educational ecosystem while making it emotionally approachable for broader audiences who may not typically participate in formal historical scholarship or academic study.
At the same time, the series arrives during a period when literature-centered public programming is experiencing renewed cultural relevance. Across the country, readers increasingly seek communal intellectual experiences through book festivals, reading groups, literary discussions, public humanities programming, and educational forums that offer deeper engagement than the rapid-consumption culture dominating much of modern digital life.
Books continue providing something uniquely valuable within that environment: sustained reflection.
Unlike fragmented social media discourse or accelerated news cycles, literature demands emotional attention, patience, interpretation, empathy, and internal engagement. Discussions built around books therefore often create richer and more nuanced public conversations than many other forms of civic discourse currently available.
For the RVCC Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Summer Book Series represents precisely that kind of intentional space — one where readers gather not simply to analyze literature but to wrestle with memory, humanity, ethics, suffering, resilience, and historical responsibility together.
As the sixth annual edition prepares to begin, the program continues reinforcing the idea that books remain among the most powerful tools available for preserving historical memory and fostering meaningful civic understanding. Long after headlines fade and generations pass, literature continues carrying human stories forward, allowing readers to encounter voices, experiences, and truths that history alone cannot fully communicate through dates and statistics.
Through this year’s Summer Book Series, the RVCC Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies once again demonstrates that remembrance is not passive. It is active, ongoing, and deeply connected to conversation, empathy, and the willingness to continue reading, listening, and learning together.
