USC Shoah Foundation recently hosted a number of eminent guests from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. They included: Jerry Coben, a member of the federation’s board of directors in addition to being an emeritus member of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Councilors; Jay Sanderson, president and chief executive officer; Andrew Cushnir, executive vice president and chief programming officer; and Shira Rosenblatt, vice president of Jewish education and engagement.

Karen Jungblut, USC Shoah Foundation director of research and documentation, participated in the “Digital Testimonies on War and Trauma” conference in June. Held at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the symposium brought together scholars from all over the world to address the use and impact of digitized narrative collections in relating the horrors of warfare.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes may not be a familiar name, but several people, along with their descendants, who owe their lives to him, are working to change that.

Echoes and Reflections, a professional teacher development program on the Holocaust, has now expanded to Alaska. In April, middle and high school educators from across the state journeyed to Kodiak High School on Kodiak Island to participate. In addition to those attending in person, others in remote locations joined via video conferencing.

Crispin Brooks, curator of USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, will deliver a presentation at the Teaching and Working with Holocaust Testimonies Summer 2013 Workshop, to be held July 15–19 at the University of Michigan–Flint. Geared toward high school teachers, college faculty, and graduate students, the conference focuses on information literacy and critical skills in education and research involving online Holocaust survivor video testimonies. The Visual History Archive is a special focus of the event.

USC Shoah Foundation educator workshops continue increasing in number and reach. This summer, the program Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century convened new seminars in Budapest and Prague. In addition, another workshop in Poland is scheduled for November. The program’s offerings draw participants from all across their respective nations.

Professor Andrea Pető of Central European University in Budapest has written an article about how to use USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive in teaching students at the graduate level. The piece appears as a chapter in the seventh volume of Jewish Studies at the Central European University edited by András Kovács and Michael Laurence Miller.

Four applied mathematics undergraduate students are dedicating their summer to a major research project for the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education.

Június 3O-a és július 5-e között rendezte a USC Soá Alapítvány a Videóinterjúk a 21. század oktatásában című, magyarországi tanárképzési programjának második évfolyamát. A program segítségével a résztvevő tanárok megismerhetik a videóinterjúkkal való tanítás lehetőségét, és megtanulhatják, hogyan illeszthetik be az interjúkat eredményesen pedagógiai munkájukba.

2O13. július 5-7-g tartottuk a Videóinterjúk a 21. század oktatásában című tanárképzés első évfolyamának (2O12) programzáró találkozóját a budapesti Közép-európai Egyetemen.A program részeként a kollégák meghallgathatták ruandai vendégünk, Appolon Gahungayire előadását arról, hogyan használhatók a Vizuális Törtnelmi Archívum interjúi az oktatásban Ruandában, illetve Kovács András professzor, antiszemitizmus-kutató előadásában a mai magyarországi antiszemitizmus jelenségéről beszélgettek.

Teachers from all over Hungary gathered in Budapest this month for the six-day introductory seminar to the USC Shoah Foundation’s 2013 Teaching with Testimony for the 21st Century program. But there was one educator among them who didn’t just travel across the country – he came from the other side of the world.

USC Shoah Foundation is currently fundraising for New Dimensions in Testimony, a new project being developed in concert with USC Institute for Creative Technologies and Conscience Display. The project is to capture three-dimensional interviews with a number of survivors so that in the future people will enable to engage with them conversationally.

By Nora Snyder

Claudia Ramirez Wiedeman, PhD, has joined USC Shoah Foundation as Associate Director for Educational Technologies and Training. Her duties include strategic, content, and professional development related to the Institute’s flagship web-based educational tool, IWitness, which is designed to make the Visual History Archive accessible to educators and students around the world.

Screenings Will Debut In Philadelphia, Highlighting The Re-Opening Of City’s Iconic Prince Music TheaterPhiladelphia, PA – July 25, 2013 - The 20th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s epic film Schindler’s List (meticulously restored under his personal supervision) will be marked with a series of special screenings to benefit the USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education welcomed Eyal Kaminka, the newly-appointed director of the International School for Holocaust Studies (ISHS) of Yad Vashem, to its offices on July 26 for a discussion about the ways that the two organizations cooperate and partner in a variety of educational programs.