Kenneth D. Wald will give the lecture "A Sort of a Ritchie Boy: A World War II Mystery" at 6:00 p.m. on April 17 in the Unity Room (212) of the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center for the Hillel Spring Lecture. The event is hosted by the UNL Hillel/Jewish Student Association and is free and open to the public.
Wald is Distinguished Professor of Political Science Emeritus and the Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professor Emeritus of American Jewish Culture and Society at the University of Florida. He has written about the relationship of religion and politics in the United States, Great Britain, and Israel.
According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, "The 'Ritchie Boys' is a term used for American soldiers who trained at Camp Ritchie during World War II. At Camp Ritchie, military instructors taught intelligence-gathering collections and analysis to approximately 20,000 soldiers. Several thousand of these soldiers were Jewish refugees who had immigrated to the United States from Europe to escape Nazi persecution."
