We are honored to cast a spotlight today on Gloria and Andrew Wise, who earlier this year, worked with the Holocaust Resource Center (HRC) to establish the “Wise Democracy Fund.” The Fund is supporting next week’s HRC program commemorating Kristallnacht on Wednesday, November 9 at 6 pm. at Daemen University.
Gloria and Andrew have dedicated themselves over the years to promoting the values of a pluralistic democracy as active citizens and educators. Andrew’s teaching and research on modern Europe (especially 20th century Russia and Poland) deals primarily with the challenges of building and preserving democracy in diverse societies. Their goal for the “Wise Democracy Fund” is that it will support events in the future similar to the program next week that features Dr. Michael Bryant who will speak on: Malevolent Intentions and the Play of Circumstance: the Pogrom of November 1938 and Hitler’s Plan for the Jews.
In recent years, Gloria and Andrew have redoubled their dedication to support educational efforts that focus on democracy. While there are many troubling threats to democracy in the United States and abroad, for the Wises there was one event in particular that created a tragic sense of urgency: the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. Gloria and Andrew lived in Charlottesville for several years in the 1990s while he earned his doctorate in History at the University of Virginia. It is well-known that Charlottesville and “Mr. Jefferson’s University” have a complex history in relation to democracy and pluralism, and the events of 2017 focused the world’s attention on that troubled legacy. For many Americans, the hate-filled anti-Semitic chants by white nationalists as they paraded on the Grounds of the University convinced them of the need for robust and ongoing responses in defense of our pluralistic democracy.
We are grateful to Gloria and Andrew for their generosity and inspired leadership. For more information and to register for the Kristallnacht event next Wednesday, click: HERE.
