Koret Foundation

Thanks to an extraordinary gift from the Koret Foundation, USC Shoah Foundation is partnering with the Hold On to Your Music Foundation to develop an educational program centered around The Children of Willesden Lane, a novel and musical that highlight the story of Jewish children rescued from central Europe and sent unaccompanied to Great Britain by the Kindertransport at the start of World War II. The $10 million gift from the Koret Foundation will support a vast educational initiative that aims to use the power of music and story to reach young people across the globe and contribute to their development as empathetic, knowledgeable and resilient individuals. “USC Shoah Foundation is a global leader in Holocaust education with proven impact throughout the world. Hold On To Your Music and The Children of Willesden Lane offer resilience and hope, something we can all learn. We are proud to help fund this interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional program that will greatly contribute to global Holocaust education, something even more critical today as identity-based hate continues to rise,” said Anita Friedman, Koret Foundation Board President. These newly developed and innovative assets—including virtual reality experiences, IWalks based on the geography of the story, and the Institute’s first Dimensions in Testimony interactive biography featuring a second-generation survivor—will scale and sustain the impact of a powerful narrative, and captivate and engage audiences now and well into the future with the message that we hold within ourselves the power to overcome hatred.