This April, an esteemed group of university presidents from across the US will gather in Poland for the 2025 University Presidents’ Mission to Poland, an intensive and emotionally powerful journey held in conjunction with the March of the Living. Taking place from April 22 to April 27, this special delegation will bring academic leaders face-to-face with the enduring lessons of the Holocaust—lessons urgently needed in today’s complex world.
The urgency of this mission has only grown in light of escalating antisemitism on college campuses across North America and Europe. In the past year, Jewish students and faculty have reported a surge in antisemitic rhetoric, harassment, and social exclusion — often masked as political discourse. In response, the University Presidents’ Mission to Poland was designed not only to deepen participants’ understanding of the Holocaust but to empower them to confront antisemitism and all forms of hate with clarity, courage, and historical perspective.
This year’s mission offers participants a profoundly immersive experience. Through lectures, walking tours, and commemorative ceremonies, the presidents will engage with Holocaust history not just as scholars, but as witnesses. The itinerary spans Poland’s historical and memorial landscape, providing a comprehensive encounter with Jewish life, loss, and resilience.
This delegation will take part in educational seminars and historical reflections that explore both prewar Jewish life and the devastating impact of Nazi persecution by Dr. Sharon Kangisser-Cohen — Director of the Echoes & Reflections program at Yad Vashem, Israel’s National Holocaust Museum. These sessions ground the journey in context and offer tools for applying its lessons in the higher education sphere. Renowned Jewish educator Michael Soberman will lead walking tours, taking participants on a pathway backward in time, visiting historical sites and landmarks in Poland, such as:
The journey begins with a guided walking tour through Kazimierz, Krakow’s historic Jewish quarter, once a vibrant center of Jewish life and culture, the Oskar Schindler Factory, a site that powerfully illustrates acts of moral courage and resistance during the Holocaust. The delegation will continue to Warsaw for an in-depth exploration of the former Warsaw Ghetto, where they will engage in on-site discussions about the uprising and the extraordinary resilience of the Jewish community and a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, guided by scholars and enriched with survivor testimony.
The itinerary includes participation in Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed alongside Jewish and non-Jewish delegations worldwide. The delegation joins the March of the Living, a solemn three-kilometre walk from Auschwitz I to Birkenau, where university presidents will join thousands of Holocaust survivors, students, educators, and faith leaders in a powerful act of memory and solidarity.
This year’s delegation includes top educational leaders from diverse institutions, including public and private universities, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and veterinary and medical schools. Among the 2025 participants are:
- Elizabeth Puthoff – President, Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas (ICUT)
- Jenna Colvin – President, Georgia Independent College Association (GICA)
- Lori White – President, DePauw University
- Roslyn Clark Artis – President, Benedict College
- Robert Prezant – President, Farmingdale State College (SUNY)
- Zvi Szafran – President, SUNY College at Canton
- John Farmer – Senior Vice President, Rutgers University
- Professor John Eaves – United Negro College Fund
- Barbara Bockstahler – Vice Rector, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni)
- Wolfgang Fleischhacker – Rector, Medical University of Innsbruck
The University Presidents’ Mission to Poland was founded by Dr. David Machlis, an award-winning Economics Professor at Adelphi University, who has developed and led numerous innovative Holocaust education programs. His leadership and vision have helped unite academic leaders across North America and the world to experience the Holocaust through a uniquely immersive and collaborative framework.
“The Holocaust is not just a Jewish issue; it is a universal issue. Let us learn from the past so that a more tolerant and just society evolves for the betterment of all humankind.”
Dr. David Machlis
The 2025 March of the Living will be dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps from Nazi-occupied Europe. Merrill Eisenhower Atwater will be part of a special delegation to the 2025 March of the Living. His great-grandfather, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War II.
This year, approximately 80 Holocaust survivors – half from Israel and half from the Diaspora – will join the 2025 March of the Living, where they will share their moving stories of love and loss. This will be one of the largest gatherings of Holocaust survivors in Auschwitz-Birkenau in recent years.
🎓 Reflections from Past Participants
The University Presidents’ Mission to Poland is more than a journey — it’s a transformative encounter that stays with participants long after they return home. Below are reflections from three presidents who took part in the 2024 mission, offering insight into the depth and lasting impact of the experience:
“We are overwhelmed with gratitude for a transformative experience that will be with us forever. Magnificent in every way. The impact of this program already has been, and will continue to be, monumental.
It is critical, essential, that this program continue to provide an opportunity for higher education leaders to learn about and directly experience the lessons of history. I cannot overestimate its significance and importance.”
— Mark R. Ginsberg, Ph.D., President, Towson University
“I will always be grateful for the opportunity to participate in this life-changing experience. The components of the program are intentionally blended together, including walking the remains of Auschwitz, absorbing world-class lectures, experiencing testimonials from Holocaust survivors, and joining in times of celebration and remembrance with Jewish young people and international leaders. I returned home with a greater understanding of the continuing dangers of antisemitism, but also with a sense of hope for the future because of the joy and resilience I witnessed in the lives of the youth participating in March of the Living. The opportunity to process this experience with other colleagues in higher education was most rewarding, and Dr. David Machlis and his team are incredible hosts. I highly encourage any university president to make it a priority to participate.”
“Thank you for a most profound journey through the experience of the victims and into the regrettable mindset that led to and allowed the Shoah. Most especially, I was enriched through the encounter of colleagues and friends.
Blessings to all.”
— Reynold Verret, President, Xavier University of Louisiana
These reflections echo the mission’s core purpose: to confront history, strengthen moral leadership, and build bridges across cultures and campuses.
