The history of antisemitism is strewn with the corpses of Jews who could not get out of the way when words turned to violence. The slaying of innocent Jewish lives by Pittsburgh gunman Robert Bowers, who this weekend turned his rhetoric about killing Jews into the actual killing of Jewish people, is the latest example. We need laws to allow intervention much earlier, or this will not be the last time we see Jewish people die in America because they are Jews.

Our thoughts are with the families and community of those who were murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh -- the most deadly antisemitic attack in U.S. history. We have curated a handful of resources to help educators engage students in meaningful dialogue.

The survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that antisemitism pervades everyday life across Europe.

Jewish track-and-field athlete Margaret Lambert remembers the pressure she felt when competing in the Adolf Hitler Stadium during the 1936 Olympic tryouts for a non-Jewish audience that objected to her presence. Maria Breitinger had her decathelon medal denied by her antisemitic school principal. Jules Forgacs remembers his first soccer match after liberation.

Leading up to the one-year anniversary of the deadly synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, USC Shoah Foundation staff members trained educators in that metro area last week about how to use video testimonies of Holocaust witnesses as a tool to teach empathy, understanding and respect.

We are alarmed by the recent wave of antisemitic violence targeting the Orthodox Jewish communities in the New York region, including at least ten incidents in the past week, culminating in a mass stabbing at a Chanukah celebration within the Monsey home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg. We mourn for the victims and their families. A voice of conscience calls on all of us to take action against these heinous attacks.

Hannah Lessing represents Austrian society’s desire to atone. Her unique job involves, among other things, tracking down Austrian Holocaust survivors or their kin – inside the country and out – to offer financial reparations. Lessing, the secretary general of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, came to USC Shoah Foundation this week to discuss a potential collaborative project with the Institute.

“Most leading authorities and publications use ‘anti-Semitism.’ I prefer ‘antisemitism,’ the spelling used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. But this debate obscures the core issue: whether spelled anti-Semitism or antisemitism, we should retire the term entirely and begin calling it what it really is: Jew hatred.”

All university campuses are first and foremost places of learning. As such, I believe it is our duty to use this controversy as a teaching moment, for Jewish and non-Jewish students alike.

The inaugural 2020-2021 Scholar Lab program focuses on the topic of antisemitism. A cohort of academics was invited to explore antisemitism from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and to use the collaborative meetings to guide and hone their work. The results of their research, presented in both traditional and non-traditional formats, will be accessible to the public later this year.

USC Shoah Foundation offers a robust collection of resources, events and activities to counter antisemitism for educators and students—on the USC campus and beyond—for the 2022-2023 academic year. Initiatives at USC began with the September 16-18 Stronger than Hate Leadership Summit for student leaders. The three-day event, led by USC Shoah Foundation’s Education Department, consisted of guest speakers, discussions and interactions with IWitness and testimonies from the Visual History Archive. 

With anti-Jewish violence and rhetoric on the rise around the world, the USC Shoah Foundation this fall launches a new Antisemitism Lecture Series where leading scholars will guide audiences through the latest research on this persistent and shapeshifting bigotry.

More than 300 people turned out Wednesday for a public convening at which a high-level panel discussed threats to Holocaust memory caused by growing antisemitism and revisionist campaigns that deny and distort details of the Shoah.

There are no words that can adequately convey our grief, outrage, and sorrow. The barbaric crimes committed against Israeli civilians this week have shocked us all. As we continue to uncover the brutality of the attacks perpetrated by Hamas, including more than 1,300 murders, untold numbers of those abducted and violated, and the many more who have been traumatized by these crimes, we are deeply concerned for our friends and relatives in danger. Our hearts break for the families who fear for the safety of loved ones, and we grieve alongside those who have experienced unspeakable loss.

Over the past several days, I have been in touch with many members of the Trojan Family who voiced their pain and despair in the wake of the unprecedented terrorist attacks in Israel. We mourn the shocking loss of life. We condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and their brutal threats to execute kidnapped civilians and commit other atrocities.

Dear Friends, I am writing to you with profound sorrow. The murderous attack that occurred in Israel was an act of antisemitism in its most depraved form by a genocidal regime in Gaza sponsored by Iran, a country that repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel. There can be no moral equivalence. “From the river to the sea” has only one meaning–the elimination of Israel. This was a massacre of people for only one reason—they were Jews.

The USC Shoah Foundation is recording testimonies of survivors of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel as part of a major initiative launched days after October 7, when 1,400 people were massacred and some 250 taken hostage.

In the moments before Shaylee Atary Winner escaped from her home in the early morning hours of October 7, she saw her husband fighting to close the iron window grates in their safe room over the hand of a terrorist who was reaching in. With a glance, Shaylee and her husband silently agreed she would take their baby and run.