Kristallnacht Commemorative Program

Dangerous Speech: How Attacking Other Groups Becomes Attractive” with Dr. Susan Benesch

Kristallnacht, also known as the “November Pogrom,” owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that lined German streets in the wake of violence directed at Jews and Jewish-owned businesses. The shards were broken from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the violence. The Holocaust Center helps lead this community-wide commemoration because it is regarded by some historians as the tipping point into which the Holocaust turned physically violent.
Dr. Benesch founded and directs the Dangerous Speech Project, to study speech that can inspire violence – and to find ways to prevent this, without infringing on freedom of expression. She conducts research on methods to diminish harmful speech online, or the harm itself. She also critiques, and sometimes advises, social media companies on policies for diminishing harm online. Trained as a human rights lawyer at Yale, Susan is also Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.