Clark University Strassler Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies Year End Report
4-color offset print with PMS substitutions / 8 x 12 inches / 48 pages
The Strassler Center is an innovative leader in the field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and is the only program to offer a Ph.D. in the subject. We used the idea of the tree as a metaphor for the Center to create a thoughtful, hopeful and serious design that reflects the philosophy of the organization.
Planted beside the building that houses the program, a graceful Japanese maple has flourished. As the program has grown and thrived, so too has the tree. Its roots are in the earth of the library, its trunk reaches past the Center’s seminar room, and its branches and leaves extend toward the offices of the graduate students. In years to come, student research will drop down as books to the library where they will educate future generations.
The Center’s tree is dedicated to the memory of Holocaust survivor Henry Tobak. A plaque relates a Talmudic tale that explains the significance of these gifts. A young girl asks an old man planting a carob tree how long it will take to bear fruit. Seventy years, he explains. Will he live to enjoy its fruit? she asks. No, he responds, but just as he has enjoyed trees planted by those before him, he hopes to do the same for those to come. And so it is with the Center's tree. Education, research, and greater human understanding, the fruits of the program, will accrue to the benefit of future generations.
