Community loses renowned scholar and humanitarian Stephen Feinstein
MARCH 5, 2008 —It is with great sadness that we announce Steve Feinstein, the director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and adjunct professor of history, died Tuesday, March 4. Steve was speaking at the Jewish Film Festival when he had difficulty finding words. He was taken to Abbott-Northwestern Hospital where he died of an aortic aneurism that resulted in cardiac arrest.
Steve had an amazingly generous nature and could get things accomplished that no one had ever conceived or thought possible. From its founding in 1997, he built the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies into a premier educational, research, and outreach institution, one that has international renown.
We will all miss Steve's generous personality, constant stream of jokes, and deep commitment to the issues at the heart of CHGS's mission. More than anything else, he was a great humanitarian who believed that knowledge of the past could prevent atrocities in the future.