The following is a piece of happy family news that we wanted to share on our blog and promote on our social channels. My cousin, Beth S. Dotan, PhD, was selected to receive the 2023 Sower Award in the Humanities from Humanities Nebraska. We share a little bit more about Beth and the award in today’s blog.
We are pleased to learn that Humanities Nebraska (HN) has chosen educator and historian Beth Dotan, PhD., as the recipient of the 2023 Sower Award in the Humanities in recognition of her efforts to increase understanding of the Holocaust.
Dotan is a research assistant professor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Harris Center for Judiac Studies, and she created Nebraska Stories of Humanity as part of her PhD. work. The project is a digital web portal that features stories of Holocaust survivors and servicemen who liberated Nazi camps and eventually settled in Nebraska after World War II.
She was nominated for the award by Robert Nefsky, a former chairman of the Nebraska Humanities Council Board (1995-96) and recipient of the Sower Award in 1998.
“Beth’s programs and projects have advanced scholarship in the humanities and her advocacy of this work to the greater community has been uniquely effective,” said Nefsky.
Dotan is a native Nebraskan who served as the founding executive director of the Institute for Holocaust Education in Omaha. Before that, she also served as the director for the International Department of the Ghetto Fighters House Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum in Lohamei HaGeta’ot, Isreal.
She is set to be honored on October 10, 2023 during the 28th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities at the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha. The lecture is titled “From Moscow to the Lincoln Highway: An Evening with Amor Towles,” and is a free public event. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. at the conclusion of a benefit dinner to help raise funds to support HN’s statewide programming. The event can also be viewed via live-stream on humanitiesnebraska.org/governors-lecture.
I am extremely proud of my cousin and the work she has done in the humanities and with her efforts to raise awareness and understanding of the Holocaust. I hope to make the trip to Omaha help recognize her honor in October.