As declared by the United Nations, January 27th is designated the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the liberation of one of the most infamous of Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

The Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. One of their pivotal beliefs was that the Germans were a superior race and that Jewish people were inferior and a threat to Germans. Jewish people, men women and children alike were killed, but they were not the only target. Other groups that were include in the massacre were Gypsies, Afro-Germans, Jehovah’s Witness, lesbian and gay individuals, and people with disabilities. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of the German concentration camps. It was established in 1940 in Poland. Auschwitz housed upwards of 20,000 prisoners and Birkenau (dubbed Auschwitz II) at times had over 90,000 inhabitants. Over 1.1 million people lost their lives at Auschwitz.

The hope is that by honoring the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the loss of over 6 million Jewish lives that future genocides will be prevented. These are difficult times to remember but we must not forget these horrific events. It brings back too many memories of being a child with many of my friend’s parents having tattoos on their arms from their days in these camps, several were at Auschwitz and survived. Once tattooed their number replaced their name. 

In 2020 antisemitism, as well as discrimination against other religious groups, still persists. There is much anxiety about religious freedom amongst Jewish people, unfortunately rightfully so. Below are just a few of the antisemitic events that have occurred in 2020, every month and across the globe (from the Anti-Defamation League, global review):
  • A monument in Russia honoring Holocaust victims was desecrated with yellow paint and a cross. A Jewish community center was set on fire in an arson attack.
  • In Sweden, at a protest in Malmo, there were chants to kill Jews. A bag with a Star of David on it containing soap and antisemitic literature was left outside an exhibition about the Holocaust.
  • In London, a mayoral candidate was suspended for a campaign espousing “Don’t vote for a Jew”. 
  • In London, a Jewish man was stabbed in an antisemitic assault. A 13-year-old Jewish boy was punched in the stomach and subjected to antisemitic abuse on a city bus in the UK.
  • Ukraine – there was an assault against a Jewish man in a grocery store and 2 holocaust monuments were vandalized with swastikas. A Jewish Community center was firebombed.
  • Posters were hanging in Argentina declaring Jews were behind COVID-19.
  • The president of a Jewish community in Austria was attacked with a club. A teen was beaten in by two teenagers who saw him wearing a Star of David.
  • "Heil Hitler" was painted on a Jewish home in Lyon, France, and, in Paris, a Jewish man was called a “dirty Jew” and beaten unconscious in an elevator.
  • A mayor in Chile claimed Zionists control the media.
  • A golf course in Melbourne owned by a Jewish family was spray-painted with swastikas.
  • Antisemitic graffiti was found in Toronto over the Passover holiday.
  • A Jewish cemetery and synagogue in Finland were vandalized.
  • In the Netherlands, a kosher restaurant was repeatedly vandalized.
  • An elderly man in a care facility in Canada had a swastika drawn on his head.
  • A man wearing a yarmulke in Brazil had his teeth broken and antisemitic slurs were thrown at him by three attackers.
  • In Poland, a Jewish cemetery was vandalized. A building that houses the offices of a Jewish community group was broken into.
  • In Italy, swastikas were drawn on the entrance of a home belonging to a Jewish family that had been deported during the Holocaust. 
  • In Greece, a monument to the Holocaust was vandalized.
  • A synagogue in New Zealand was defaced with yellow swastikas.
  • In April 2019, antisemitic posters were found in Davis Library at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Pediatric Grand Rounds
Thursday, January 14 - 8:00 - 9:00a

Meeting ID: 160 361 2354
Passcode: 2BnkFPDAw35
Please Mute Your Microphone

The January 14th Grand Rounds will be led by Hadley Kifner & Stuart Gold on religious diversity. Please try to attend as we venture to explore many different avenues of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity.
ARTICLE OF THE MONTH

The United States of America has been a kaleidoscope of cultures for hundreds of years. This has never been truer than it is today, as people from every corner of the globe continue to seek out a life in the US, whether permanently or temporarily.

The multicultural makeup of the US, especially in metropolitan areas, presents special challenges for medical professionals, whose job requires relating to patients on a very personal level.

In urban areas it is not unusual for a doctor to have a diverse patient lineup-seeing a patient in the morning who recently emigrated from the Philippines, a multi-generational family of Indian descent later in the afternoon, and a tourist from China in the evening might be a typical day for some in the healthcare profession. Even doctors and nurses who work in rural areas will inevitably encounter people of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds in their careers, especially as the U.S. countryside continues to become more ethnically and racially diverse.

Sensitivity, compassion, understanding, and acceptance of patients with different values, beliefs, and behaviors are essential qualities for those who work in the medical arena.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
Underrepresented in Medicine Community List

The purpose of the Underrepresented in Medicine Community List is to allow students, staff, residents, and faculty of underrepresented identities that are affiliated with the UNC School of Medicine to find community, mentorship, and representation. Such identities include those belonging to non-dominant religions, races or ethnicities, and sexualities or gender identities.

This community is open and accessible to anyone with a UNC Onyen and password, including current staff, faculty, students, residents, and fellows.
DID YOU KNOW?
Kizzmekia S. Corbett, Ph.D. - National Institutes of Health

Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett is a research fellow and the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines & Immunopathogenesis Team at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Vaccine Research Center (VRC). She received a B.S. in Biological Sciences, with a secondary major in Sociology, in 2008 from the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, where she was a Meyerhoff Scholar and an NIH undergraduate scholar. She then enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014. A viral immunologist by training, Dr. Corbett uses her expertise to propel novel vaccine development for pandemic preparedness.

Appointed to the VRC in 2014, her work focuses on developing novel coronavirus vaccines, including mRNA-1273, a leading candidate vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19. In response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine concept incorporated in mRNA-1273 was designed by Dr. Corbett’s team from viral sequence data and rapidly deployed to industry partner, Moderna, Inc., for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Phase 1 clinical trial, which unprecedently began only 66 days from the viral sequence release.

Following promising results in animal models and humans, mRNA-1273 is currently in Phase 3 clinical trial. Alongside mRNA-1273, Dr. Corbett’s team boasts a portfolio that also includes universal coronavirus vaccine concepts and novel therapeutic antibodies. Additionally, Dr. Corbett spent several years working on a universal influenza vaccine, which is slated for Phase 1 clinical trial.

In all, she has 15 years of expertise studying dengue virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, and coronaviruses. Along with her research activities, Dr. Corbett is an active member of the NIH Fellows Committee and an avid advocator of STEM education and vaccine awareness in the community. Combining her research goals with her knack for mentoring, Dr. Corbett aims to become an independent principal investigator.
LET’S GET EDUCATED ABOUT DIVERSITY
Paul Kivel has been a social justice activist, a nationally and internationally recognized anti-racism educator, and an innovative leader in violence prevention for over 40 years. He is an award-winning author and an accomplished trainer and speaker and has conducted thousands of talks, trainings, and workshops on diversity, men's issues, the challenges of youth, and the impact of class and power on daily life.

Completely revised and updated, this fourth edition of Uprooting Racism offers a framework around neoliberalism and interpersonal, institutional, and cultural racism, along with stories of resistance and white solidarity. It provides practical tools and advice on how white people can work as allies for racial justice, engaging the reader through questions, exercises, and suggestions for action, and includes a wealth of information about specific cultural groups such as Muslims, people with mixed heritage, Native Americans, Jews, recent immigrants, Asian Americans, and Latino/as.
Inequalities in education, housing, health care, and the job market continue to prevail, while increased insecurity and fear have led to an epidemic of scapegoating and harassment of people of color. Yet, recent polls show that only thirty-one percent of white people in the United States believe racism is a major societal problem; at the same time, resistance is strong, as highlighted by Indigenous struggles for land and sovereignty and the Movement for Black Lives.
January Dates to Note
Other important dates can be found on the
January 1: Feast Day of St. Basil
On January 1 the Greek Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Saint Basil was born in the year 330 in Caesarea, to a family renowned for their learning and holiness
January 3: Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus
The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus has been celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, at least at local levels, since the end of the fifteenth century. The celebration has been held on different dates, usually in January, because 1 January, eight days after Christmas, commemorates the naming of the child Jesus.
January 4: World Braille Day
Observed to raise awareness of the importance of braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people. Celebrated on Louis Braille’s birthday, the inventor of braille.
January 5: Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Birthday
Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs, initiated the Sikhs as the Khalsa (the pure ones) and is known as the Father of the Khalsa.
January 6: Epiphany
Epiphany or Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day), a holiday observed by Eastern and Western Christians that recognizes the visit of the three wise men to the baby Jesus 12 days after his birth.

For Armenian Orthodox Christians, January 6 is when they celebrate Christmas.
January 7: Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Christians)
Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas 13 days later than other Christian churches because they follow the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian version of the Western calendar.
January 13: Lohri-Maghi
Lohri, a Punjabi festival, is celebrated on January 13 each year.
Though popular belief has it that Lohri is celebrated to mark the end of peak winter, this festival is traditionally associated with the harvest of the rabi crops. The traditional time to harvest sugarcane crops is January, therefore, Lohri is seen by some to be a harvest festival. And thus, Punjabi farmers see the day after Lohri (Maghi) as the financial New Year.
January 14-April 27: Kumbh Mela
Kumbh Mela, a mass pilgrimage event that takes place every 12 years and is of deep religious significance to Hindus. Millions of devotees and pilgrims congregate on the banks of the Ganges River to take part in ritual bathing on various dates through April 27. It is believed that taking a dip in the holy water cleanses devotees of their sins. It is known as the world's largest religious and cultural human gathering.
January 7: World Religion Day
World Religion Day, observed by those of the Bahá’í faith to promote interfaith harmony and understanding.
January 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorates the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., the recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and an activist for nonviolent social change until his assassination in 1968.
January 18-25: The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, during which Christians pray for unity between all churches of the Christian faith.
January 19: Timkat
Timkat is the Orthodox Tewahedo celebration of Epiphany. It is celebrated on January 19th, corresponding to the 11th day of Terr in the Ethiopian calendar. Timkat celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. This festival is best known for its ritual reenactment of baptism.
January 27: International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The International Day of Commemoration to remember the victims of the Holocaust. The anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945 and U.N. Holocaust Memorial Day.
January 28: Tu B’shevat or or Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot
From sundown on the 27th until sundown on the 28th, this Jewish holiday recognizing “The New Year of the Trees.” It is celebrated on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. In Israel, the flowering of the almond tree usually coincides with this holiday, which is observed by planting trees and eating dried fruits and nuts.
January 28: Mahayana New Year
Mahayana New Year, a holiday celebrated by the Mahayana Buddhist branch, on the first full-moon day in January.
Dates to Note is a compilation intended to include, but is not all-inclusive, notable information from the internet, Diversity Best Practices, 2021 Diversity Holiday Calendar, and other sources).
Stuart Gold, Committee Chair
Christian Lawrence
Robin Howard
Jennifer McElroy
Martha Perry
Nina Jain
Hadley Kifner
Zachary Pettigrew
Kenya McNeal-Trice
Benny Joyner
Jennifer Gutierrez-Wu