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Inspired by her history adviser’s research, Sara Jay ’06 (Oceanside, N.Y.) is working on a yearlong honors thesis that analyzes how the Jewish community in Dijon, France has coped with their experiences and memories of the Holocaust.
The double major in history and French, will share her findings at the 20th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in April. She is among 40 Lafayette students whose research has been accepted for presentation there.
Much of the information Jay used to construct her thesis was gathered from Dijon newspapers and oral research conducted by one of her thesis advisers Robert Weiner, Jones Professor of History. Christian Reyns-Chikuma, assistant professor of foreign languages and literature, is guiding her toward appropriate French sources.
“Both professors have been so wonderful in steering me in different directions, and helping me make this project as extensive and detailed as it can be,” says Jay. “Lafayette is an excellent environment for projects like these. For example, I will be using a lot of documents given to me by Professor Weiner from work he has done previously on the Jewish community in Dijon. He has also given me access to his private journals and to interviews he conducted with Holocaust survivors from the Dijon community.”
Jay’s thesis focuses on French anti-Semitic policies prior to World War II. France collaborated with Nazi Germany by turning over French Jews, leading to nearly 75,000 deaths. French resistance fighters protected Jews in their country, enabling three-quarters of the French Jewish population to survive the war.
Even long after the war, the French government denied that it had been a Nazi collaborator. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that things began to change.
“The Jews had to deal with the impact of the Holocaust on their community, deal with the memories of the Holocaust, react to the constant changing scholarship and opinion on the Holocaust, as well as find a place for themselves as French Jewish citizens in post-WWII society,” explains Jay.
Jay’s thesis has led to some valuable discoveries.
“This project was a perfect opportunity for me to combine many areas that are of interest to me,” she says.
When she began, it was the cultural impacts of WWII that most intrigued her. Exploring the Jewish community was less interesting, but “has become the most fascinating part of the study,” she says.
“It has helped me understand and learn what it means to be a Jewish individual living two generations after the Holocaust,” she continues. “For this reason, my thesis has personal meaning and has made me reexamine many of the lessons I was taught when I was younger.”
Jay is grateful to both her advisers for making it possible to explore her topic adequately.
“I am specifically amazed at how much my French has improved in the past four years, due to the French department,” she says.
Jay plans to attend graduate school and become a college history professor. The honors thesis and NCUR presentation will prepare her well for graduate school.
“The senior honors thesis is the single most difficult thing most students undertake,” stresses Weiner. “It’s a sign you’ve accomplished something major with a lot of self-discipline and tenacity.”
The thesis allows top students like Jay to “really learn how to think, organize, write, and edit,” he notes. “And they learn that there’s no substitute for effort. Sara is an extremely hardworking and focused student.”
To prepare students for NCUR, the foreign languages and literature department organized an event that challenged them to defend their work.
“It was wonderful to have the support of the entire department for all of our projects,” Jay says.
Reyns-Chikuma knows how important it is for students to have opportunities to share their research with the larger academic community.
“It’s interesting for them to train themselves as speakers,” he says. “Sara is very motivated and does a wonderful job. Working with students like that is the best part of my job. And, in Sara’s case, she brings a different perspective on France to an audience.”
Jay is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, America’s oldest and most distinguished undergraduate honors organization; Phi Alpha Theta, history honor society; and Order of Omega, an honor society that recognizes outstanding students who are members of fraternities and sororities. She is a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, where she has served as vice president of administration and secretary. This past fall, she presented her paper that examined how Marguerite de Navarre creates the four-part woman in her play La Comédie des Quatre Femmes at Muhlenberg College’s student language symposium. She completed the work for a seminar course under the guidance of Olga Anna Duhl, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures. Jay is a graduate of Oceanside High School.
Honors theses are among several major programs that have made Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. The College sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year.