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School of Theology and Ministry student Robert Hyde has been chosen by Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) as one of 12 seminary/divinity school students to participate in a unique summer program that uses the history of the Holocaust as a way to engage business, journalism, law, medical and seminary students in a study of contemporary ethics in their discipline.
Hyde, a US Air Force veteran who served in Iraq, is pursuing a master of theology degree and plans to become a United Church of Christ parish minister after graduation.
“I think FASPE will provide me with important contextual learning that will help me hone my ability to distinguish between different forms of conflict and injustice and respond in a nuanced way to each situation as it arises,” he said. “These skills will be crucial for me to learn as a Christian minister serving in a church.”
Directed by the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City, FASPE is predicated upon the power of place, and in particular, the first-hand experience of visiting Auschwitz and traveling in Germany and Poland, where FASPE fellows study the devastating consequences of what happens when the moral codes governing professionals break down or become distorted.
FASPE Seminary Fellows begin the two-week program June 14 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where they will meet with Holocaust survivors. Next, they will travel to Germany to participate in educational workshops that will take place at the House of the Wannsee Conference, the site where representatives of German state and Nazi Party agencies convened in 1942 to draw up plans for the Nazis’ “Final Solution.” The group will then travel to Poland to work with the staff at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and attend sessions at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Upon return, each fellow will submit a final essay focused on a contemporary ethical issue. Select essays will be published in the annual FASPE Journal.
For more about FASPE, visit http://www.mjhnyc.org/faspe/programs.html.