AJC, USC Shoah Foundation Partner to Document and Map Global Antisemitism
American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the USC Shoah Foundation announced today at AJC Global Forum their newly formed partnership to give voice to, document, and map modern-day antisemitism around the world.
Antisemitism has reached a tipping point in the United States and around the globe. Research has shown how personal storytelling changes hearts and minds. One of the most effective ways to confront antisemitism and change people’s perceptions about Jews is through the power of personal testimony, and hearing firsthand accounts can profoundly shift perceptions and increase understanding.
Harnessing AJC’s global reach and the USC Shoah Foundation’s expertise in testimony collection, AJC will contribute to the USC Shoah Foundation’s ambitious and visionary goal of collecting 10,000 testimonies from across the United States and around the world to document incidents of antisemitism post-1945, and bring voice to the worldwide persistence of antisemitism and its many manifestations. This multi-year, international testimony collection is part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Contemporary Antisemitism Collection.
“We must clearly show to the world - and preserve for the future - what antisemitism is, what it looks like, and the personal toll it takes on Jews around the world. AJC has seen, firsthand, the way antisemitism has morphed and manifested itself in different ways since the end of the Holocaust,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “Through AJC’s work all over the globe combating antisemitism, we have also seen the power of personal testimonies in not only changing hearts and minds but also in winning support for policies that protect Jewish communities. The USC Shoah Foundation’s collection of testimonies will forever capture the personal experiences of thousands of Jewish people, enabling us to tell our story, and share it with generations to come.”
“Our partnership with AJC will enable us to reach survivors of antisemitic violence from all over the globe. In turn, this is a powerful statement that bringing the world’s attention to antisemitism requires partnerships built on a shared commitment to giving voice to the personal histories of those who have and continue to experience one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring forms of hatred. This ambitious project, namely building a Contemporary Antisemitism Collection at the USC Shoah Foundation, will add tremendous value to the study of antisemitism and hate and help Jewish and non-Jewish communities become more resilient against these forces, both now and into the future,” said Dr. Robert J. Williams, CEO and Finci-Viterbi Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation.
Joining Deutch and Williams to announce this new effort were three individuals whose testimony will be captured: Daniel Pomerantz, Susan Stern, and Antoine Haguenauer.
Daniel Pomerantz, now executive director of AMIA, is a survivor of the July 18, 1994 terror attack. As he explained, “the [Hezbollah] terrorists killed 85 and injured 300. These were my friends and colleagues. They were Argentinian Jews and Argentinians of all backgrounds. Thirty-one years later, those responsible for orchestrating that horrible day – for attacking my place of work, my community’s gathering place, and for murdering and maiming dozens – have still not been brought to justice or held accountable for their crimes.”
Susan Stern campaigned for local public office in Connecticut in the 1980s and was met with “[a] wide-scale phone campaign telling people ‘don’t vote for the Jewish slate.’” She was the only Jewish candidate. She recalled, “The whisper campaign became so widespread that a minister in the local church courageously preached against it in his Sunday sermon. After the election, I could no longer ignore and brush off the undercurrents of antisemitism – including a swastika drawn in front of our home. Hoping to shield our young son, my husband and I made the difficult decision to pick up our lives and move.”
Antoine Haguenauer was attacked on the streets of Paris this past February while he was attending a peaceful, public memorial for Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas. He shared, “I was berated, told I supported genocide. I was threatened – they told me they would follow me home, leak my address, kill me and my family. I was assaulted – punched in the head from behind. When I reported the attack to a police officer, he told me: ‘You could press charges, but what would be the point?’”
The Contemporary Antisemitism Collection focuses on five categories, including:
- Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Yemenite Jewish communities, many of which were displaced or left the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, and the Middle East in the 1940s and 1950s;
- Ethiopian Jewish communities, including those which made Aliyah and those that entered the diaspora in Europe and North America;
- North American Jewish experiences since 1945;
- The experiences of Jewish communities under communist rule, including Jewish life in the Soviet Union, in Warsaw Pact states, and in the former Yugoslavia;
- Victims of antisemitic terror attacks, beginning with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), which killed 85 people and injured 300, the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust until October 7, 2023.
Once completed, this collection will be the largest archive ever assembled of testimonies on contemporary antisemitism.
AJC, the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, has long utilized research, policy, and advocacy to address this hatred. The USC Shoah Foundation, the Institute for Visual History and Education, is home to more than 61,000 testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, contemporary antisemitism, the Armenian Genocide, and other mass atrocities and genocidal crimes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is the largest such collection in the world.
About American Jewish Committee
AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 regional offices across the United States, 15 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.