Esther Herzog is head of the Department of Anthropology at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba, Israel. She is a prolific writer on women’s issues and the Holocaust. Esther believes in the power of discourse. She’s trying to break the glass wall that figuratively separates Jews and Palestinians through her participation in a number of organizations that encourage dialog between women of different backgrounds.

Esther Herzog was born in a refugee camp in 1946 to a Hungarian father and a Czech mother. In 1948 the family immigrated to the new state of Israeli. Her parents never discussed their experiences in concentration camps, and Esther didn’t discuss such things with her mother until 2000 after she’d been to Oxford University where she became interested in the effect of the Holocaust on women. Dr. Herzog said that little had been written about the impact of the Holocaust on women, because it was thought that women shouldn’t be judged based on whether or not they chose to abandon their children.

Esther isn’t disturbed when images of the Holocaust are used to promote political agendas. She thinks anything that promotes a discussion about the Holocaust is valuable.

“It makes sure that it is part of our lives and not just in history books,” Dr. Herzog said. “The more examples or implications we can relate to in our daily lives is excellent.”