"Forgiving the Unforgivable" will be the timely topic presented at the Fourth Annual Seymour Riklin Memorial Lecture at Wayne State University. The lecture will be based on the Holocaust with updating references to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.

Laurence Thomas, professor of philosophy, political science and Judaic studies at Syracuse University, will be the guest lecturer on Oct. 12, 4:15 p.m., at the Bernath Auditorium, David Adamany Undergraduate Library, on the Wayne State campus. The lecture is sponsored by the department of philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts.

Prof. Thomas is the author of dozens of articles and three books and is a featured speaker at various venues both in the U.S. and abroad. Dividing his time between France and the U.S., Thomas is a member of the Ethics Philosophy Seminar sponsored by the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique.

Seymour Riklin was born in Russia in 1914 and moved to Detroit six years later. He graduated from Wayne University (later Wayne State) with a bachelor's degree in 1936. He earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan.

Riklin taught at the University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University before he came to Wayne State, where he taught humanities and was on the staff of the University Center for Adult Education.

In 1962 he was assistant director of Detroit Adventure, then the Arts Council of Metropolitan Detroit, housed in the Rackham Building. He also led a literature discussion group open to the public, as were all the programs he organized. His film series became the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

During the 1950's and 1960's Riklin produced a television series called "Conversations in Depth" for the Public Broadcasting Service and was host of many radio programs on WDET, such as "Comment" and "This I Like." The latter program was re-broadcast by 30 commercial and educational stations in 10 states and Canada.

For live radio he gave brief historical commentaries about special holidays and was an occasional guest of J.P. McCarthy on WJR. Early in his career he edited the books, "Children Who Hate" and "Controls from Within," written by Fritz Redl and David Wineman; he also edited program notes for the Detroit Symphony.

In the mid-1970s, Riklin returned to the classroom as an associate professor in the University Studies-Weekend College program. He was twice a winner of the Adult Education Association of Michigan Teacher of the Year award.

After his official retirement in 1985 he taught philosophy for Henry Ford Community College.

Called a Renaissance man by many, Professor Riklin's passion for knowledge and learning never abated. During the year before his death, he invited a tutor to his home to teach him a foreign language. He died in 1996.

The lecture series is made possible by Dolorais Riklin and friends. For more information call (313) 577-4583.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 14 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.