Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) announced that the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft has received a $16,000 grant from The Big Read, a program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and designed to revitalize the role of reading in American culture.

    “As a longtime supporter and advocate on issues of human rights and trafficking of women, I am pleased that through this program the Center of Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide has chosen to shine a light on the tragic abuses against women around the globe,” said Smith. “Though based on events from 50 years ago, the issues raised in the reading are not dissimilar to those happening around the world today where women are deprived education and trafficked as property.”

    Freeholder John P. Curley, the Monmouth County liaison to Brookdale said the grant was an opportunity to promote education and enlightenment.

    “The Holocaust Center at Brookdale is truly remarkable and seeks to educate and enlighten our society through their exhibits and programs,” said Curley. “Receiving a grant from The Big Read will allow the Holocaust Center to expand their programming and help spread their important messages.”

    Through The Big Read, The Holocaust Center has developed unique programming that will provide participants with the opportunity to read, discuss, and celebrate world literature. The bulk of the activities will center around the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, which transports readers to the Dominican Republic in the mid-20^th century when the country struggled under the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. A work of historical fiction, the novel honors the lives of Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal, who became icons of freedom and women’s rights when they were assassinated in the autumn of 1960 for their role in the underground movement against Trujillo’s regime. The murders of the three women inspired many in the Dominican Republic to denounce the regime publicly and marked the beginning of the end for Trujillo’s reign. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated the date of the Mirabal sisters’ deaths, Nov. 25, as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

    Smith a long time human rights advocate in Congress, authored America’s landmark anti-human trafficking laws, which Smith wrote and steered through Congress in2000, 2003 and 2005.

    He is the author of the provisions of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 that created the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism within the U.S. State Department.

    The Holocaust Center will partner with a variety of agencies on The Big Read events, including New Jersey City University, the Monmouth County Library System, Monmouth County Arts Council (MCAC), Two River Theater Company, Lunch Break, words! Bookstore, Monmouth County Human Relations Commission, 180 Turning Lives Around, and numerous high schools and middle schools from across Monmouth County.

    Activities over the nine-month event include film showings, book discussions, speakers, an art exhibit, dramatic programming and more.  In addition, the program will provide an opportunity for outreach into the Latino community with Latino music, book discussions and Spanish-language materials.

    Smith has long been active with anti-Semitism issues. He chaired Congress’s first hearings on anti-Semitism in the 1990s, and his first trip abroad as a member of Congress was in 1982 to the former Soviet Union, where he fought for the release of Jewish “refuseniks.”

    In 2012, Smith was honored for his work on anti-Semitism and human rights around the world by Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham H. Foxman. He was also recognized by the American Jewish Committee with its2011 Leadership Award for his work on anti-Semitism and other humanitarian issues. He was additionally honored by the New Jersey Jewish Federation as its 2011 ‘Man of Distinction’ for his work on combating anti-Semitism and human trafficking.

    Smith, who is Chairman of U.S. Helsinki Commission and an Executive Member of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, chaired the landmark2002 hearing, “Escalating Anti-Semitic Violence in Europe.” He has worked to put the issue of anti-Semitism at the top of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agenda, which resulted in the OSCE adopting new norms for its 56 member states on fighting anti-Semitism in 2004, and a series of high-level conferences on combating anti-Semitism.

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