Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez has been announced as the new director of the Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University. Moreno-Rodriguez is the first Hispanic to head one of the 30 Holocaust centers in New Jersey
“The way to a better future is through education. Holocaust education can really show students that in a tough, sometimes bleak world where everyone is shouting at each other and no one is getting along, they can be solutions,” Moreno-Rodriguez said.
Moreno-Rodriguez, 30, of Pleasantville, has been the center’s assistant director and a member of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education since 2021. In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Stockton, he also has his master’s in Holocaust and genocide studies from the university.
“The Executive Committee of the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center is extremely proud to have Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez succeed the late Gail Rosenthal as the executive director of the center. Irvin, as a Stockton graduate and assistant to Gail, brings years of experience and great continuity to his position,” Leo Schoffer, a member of the HRC Executive Committee and son of Sara and Sam Schoffer, said. “As a scholar and teacher in the field, Irvin possesses a special understanding of Holocaust and genocide studies that he transmits to his students and the many people who attend the center’s programs and seminars.”
Moreno-Rodriguez said that special understanding comes from his life as a first-generation student whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. The story of Holocaust survivors escaping to the United States and to Latin America countries resonates with him.
“The Holocaust serves as a warning of what happens when you don’t treat people with respect. What happens when you really start spreading lies and rumors and misinformation about people and creating fear and xenophobia about others, of immigrants,” he said. “It’s very much a warning about what can happen, but it’s also a reminder that in the darkest point in history, you still had streams of light that were willing to go out and save and rescue lives.”
Both Schoffer and Moreno-Rodriguez know it’s very difficult to replace Rosenthal, who joined the Holocaust Resource Center in 1991 and was its director until her death Oct. 13, 2023. She was a huge mentor and influence on Moreno-Rodriguez’s life — even helping him obtain scholarships to attend Stockton.
Moreno-Rodriguez worked with Rosenthal at the center since 2018 and was a frequent volunteer there while a Stockton student from 2011 to 2015, acting as an informal tour guide for outside groups. Schoffer is confident in Moreno-Rodriguez’s ability to lead the Holocaust Resource Center into the future.
