Alpern Family Foundation

Education for Life

For nearly a decade, the Alpern Family Foundation has supported USC Shoah Foundation’s efforts to collect testimony and use them around the world to combat hatred and intolerance. Executive Director Rochelle Rubin says that the Alpern Family Foundation’s dedication to the Institute is motivated by its support of Holocaust education and belief that teaching tolerance and empathy is essential to counteract hatred.

“The Alpern family left Russia because of the pogroms,” Rubin says. “It really was a matter of life and death, of getting out of a world that was hateful and intolerant. And don’t we still see the need to push back against that kind of hate today?”

Rubin says that she and the rest of the Foundation board have been inspired by the Institute’s work in education for many years, as it aligns with their commitment to promote social justice and build a more peaceful, equitable world. She says that they were particularly impressed by the Institute’s “100 Days to Inspire Respect” initiative, which published one new activity for teachers to teach about tolerance and respect each day during the first 100 days of the new U.S. Presidential Administration in 2017.

“We’re so proud of initiatives like that,” she says. “It really illustrates how impactful the voices of survivors can be in revealing truths that can help us respond to current events.”