The Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University is pleased to present "Economic Racism in Perspective: Past and Present in the US and Germany," a series of events scheduled for November 2014 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the passage of 1964 Civil Rights Act and consider more broadly the dangers of economic discrimination. By considering both the American and German examples, the Center aims at encouraging a wide-ranging discussion of the consequences of racism in commercial life.

To explore the connection between economic racism and political violence, an international scholarly conference, entitled "Dispossession. The Plundering of German Jewry, 1933-1945 and Beyond," will take place from November 9-11, 2014. "Dispossession" brings together twenty-five scholars from different countries working on the financial history and cultural meanings of the Nazi theft of assets belonging to Jews. The panels will engage with the legal, financial, and cultural techniques used to exclude and expropriate German Jews as well as transitional justice in the immediate postwar period.