Born of an idea that began in 1979, the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, founded by Israel W. Charny, the late Shamai Davidson, and Elie Wiesel, is able to look back on a record of satisfying creativity and achievement. The Institute was begun at a time when there was no formal academic study of genocide in the world and no institutions devoted to the subject. We were perhaps the first formal institution devoted to genocide scholarship, and may have been the first to link the two concepts of Holocaust and genocide, a linkage which we are very pleased to see is now being used increasingly.

The professional record of the Institute includes initiating the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide (1982), which also became a famous case study of standing up for truth against government pressures; publishing over a ten year period the first interdisciplinary and interethnic newsletter about the study of genocide and developing activities of professionals, Internet on the Holocaust and Genocide (1985-1995); producing for the United States Institute of Peace (1994) the first Holocaust and Genocide Bibliographic Database software; publishing a first series of resource volumes including critical review essays accompanied by annotated bibliographies, Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review (1988, 1991,1994, 1997, 2005, 2007); and creating the first highly acclaimed encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of Genocide (1999 USA and 2000 UK) -- which enjoyed three print editions, an electronic edition on Internet, and a partial translation into French.

Both the inaugural volume of Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review and the Encyclopedia of Genocide were awarded “Outstanding Academic Book of the Year” by Choice, the library magazine of the American Library Association, as was the recent book by Institute Director, Israel W. Charny, Fascism and Democracy In the Human Mind, 2006, paperback 2008.