USC Shoah Foundation Outreach in Michigan Ahead of Detroit Gala

("Spotlight on the News" host Chuck Stokes and Stephen Smith)

With the 2015 Ambassadors for Humanity Gala in Detroit less than three months away, USC Shoah Foundation is busy leading educational programs and outreach in Michigan.

The gala will be held Sept. 10 and will honor William Clay Ford, Jr., Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company.

This week, Executive Director Stephen Smith and Detroit-based Board of Councilors member Mickey Shapiro met with local media to discuss the Institute, its work in Michigan and the upcoming gala. Smith and Shapiro were interviewed by ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV’s “Spotlight on the News,” Detroit Jewish News, HOUR Detroit magazine, and NPR affiliate WDET-FM’s “All Things Considered.” Smith and Director of Education Kori Street were also interviewed by WWJ-AM radio station and Detroit Free Press to discuss USC Shoah Foundation’s educational outreach in the region.

University of Michigan at Flint will host a workshop July 13-17 for high school educators and graduate students to learn information literacy and critical skills to aid in teaching and conducting research utilizing testimonies of Holocaust and Rwandan Tutsi Genocide survivors and witnesses. USC Shoah Foundation education and ITS staff Claudia Wiedeman and Douglas Ballman, respectively, will give presentations at the workshop.

Educators can also attend Echoes and Reflections workshops in Livonia, Farmington Hills, Battle Creek and Ann Arbor throughout the month of July. These workshops introduce educators to the Echoes and Reflections Teacher’s Resource Guide, which includes lesson guides and primary-source materials, including testimony from IWitness, to help educators teach about the Holocaust. To date, more than 250 educators in Michigan have attended Echoes and Reflections workshops and 110 teachers are using IWitness.

USC Shoah Foundation has a long history in Michigan and with Ford Motor Company, which was the sole sponsor of the 1997 NBC broadcast of the Academy Award® winning “Schindler's List,”' the film that inspired the establishment of the Institute. USC Shoah Foundation collected 335 testimonies in the Detroit area with local interviewers and videographers. Detroit is mentioned in 387 testimonies while Michigan is mentioned in 454. University of Michigan (at Ann Arbor and Flint) became the first Visual History Archive access site after USC in 2004.

For more information about the gala call the Event Office at 248-593-9743, the USC Shoah Foundation Benefit at 818-777-7876 or email ambassadorsgala2015@usc.edu. Donations are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by law.