Addressing Antisemitsm in Schools

Stephen Smith, PhD, Moderator

Dr. Stephen D. Smith, Finci-Viterbi Endowed Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation, is committed to making the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust and of other crimes against humanity a compelling voice for education and action.

An adjunct Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California, he is a theologian by training.

Smith founded the UK Holocaust Centre in England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide. He was also the inaugural Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which runs the National Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom. Smith was the project director responsible for the creation of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda and trustee of the South Africa Holocaust and Genocide Foundation.

Smith has produced several documentary films. These include The Last Goodbye, an award-winning, virtual-reality film that transports viewers inside the Nazi death camp Majdanek, and The Girl and The Picture, an award-winning documentary that centers on a survivor of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China.

Smith, who holds the UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education, lectures widely on issues relating to his expertise. His publications include Never Again! Yet Again!: A Personal Struggle with the Holocaust and Genocide. In recognition of his work, Smith has become a member of the Order of the British Empire and received the Interfaith Gold Medallion. He also holds two honorary doctorates, Honorary Doctor of Letters from Nottingham Trent University and Honorary Doctor of Laws from University of Leicester.

Stuart Foster

Professor Stuart Foster is Executive Director of the University College London (UCL) Centre for Holocaust Education. He has provided strategic leadership for the Centre since its inception in 2008. He co-authored the Centre’s two landmark national studies, Teaching About the Holocaust in English Secondary Schools (2009) and What Do Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust? (2016). He has recently co-authored a secondary school history textbook, Understanding the Holocaust, distributed to more than 1,000 schools across England. As a central figure in the field of history education nationally and internationally he is regularly invited to give keynote lectures to international audiences, and has addressed teachers and academics in Canada, China, France, Germany, Malaysia, Portugal, Ireland, Israel, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Sweden and the USA. Stuart also recently served as Executive Director of the British government’s flagship First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme. He has written more than sixty scholarly articles and book chapters focused on history education and he has authored or co-authored seven books. Stuart began his career in education as a history teacher, head of department and senior teacher in comprehensive schools in England; he then completed his PhD at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. From 1996-2001, he was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science Education at the University of Georgia, USA. He joined UCL’s Institute of Education in 2001.

Maram Stern

Maram Stern has been the Executive Vice President of the World Jewish Congress since October 2019, having served for three months prior as the interim CEO of the organization. Prior to that he was Deputy CEO for Diplomacy (2013-2019) and Deputy Secretary General (1996-2013). Mr. Stern is also responsible for WJC participation in inter-religious dialogue and consultations with the Christian churches and other faiths. From 1983 to 1988 Mr. Stern served as President of the European Union of Jewish Students, the youth arm of the WJC. In 1988 he became Counsellor of the WJC and in 1989 was appointed Political Advisor to the President and to the Secretary General of the WJC.Mr. Stern heads a representative and research office located in Brussels (Belgium).Mr. Stern has extensive knowledge of and experience in Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, North America & South Africa. For over 15 years, he has nurtured relations with the government of the People's Republic of China, and with other governments in South East Asia (especially Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore & Thailand).In February 2004, Mr. Stern was decorated with the Golden Laurel Medal of the Republic of Bulgaria, and in September 2004 was appointed as Honorary Consul of Bulgaria in Belgium (Province de Liège).

Sharon Nazarian

As Senior Vice President of International Affairs, Sharon Nazarian heads ADL’s work fighting anti-Semitism and racial hatred globally, including overseeing ADL’s Israel office. Sharon joined ADL in 2017.Prior to ADL, Sharon was active in three worlds: academia, philanthropy and foreign policy. She is the President of the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation, with a regional office in Israel named the Ima Foundation. She is also the founder of the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Chair of its Advisory Board. Sharon taught as an adjunct professor at UCLA in the Department of Political Science, is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and sits on a myriad of foreign policy boards. She studied at the University of Southern California (USC), double majoring in Journalism and International Relations, and received her Masters and Ph.D. in Political Science from USC.