Isabella Sayyah joined USC Shoah Foundation as a writing intern in January 2016. She graduated from USC, where she was editor-in-chief of the Daily Trojan, in December 2015 with a B.A. in International Relations and Print and Digital Journalism. She will begin attending Stanford Law School in September 2016.

#BeginsWithMe - Why I Support Teaching with Testimony

By: Freddie Kotek

As the son of two survivors of the Shoah and the husband of a daughter of two survivors, identifying as the Next Generation has been the essence of who I am. It is the prism through which I see and evaluate all worldly events. It was particularly my father’s life that affected me the most. He truly was a “survivor." He survived the war running for his life through Russia, Siberian labor camps and other lands in Asia. He survived losing his parents, five of his sisters their husbands and children. He escaped from his hometown in the Russian sector to a displaced person camp in in the American sector. He survived as a refugee in Belgium and then as an immigrant in the United States. He survived the loss of his wife at a young age raising three children as a single parent in a foreign land.
Freddie Kotek

Freddie Kotek is the Senior Vice President of Investment Partnership Division at Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. Kotek is the son and son-in-law of four survivors of the Holocaust and currently sits on USC Shoah Foundation’s Next Generation Council. Kotek is actively involved at Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, where his three daughters graduated, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees. Through a fund set up in memory of his parents, SSDS Bergen is provided with funding for all aspects of Holocaust and genocide education.

Gina Jin

For public policy student Ge (Gina) Jin, coming all the way to Los Angeles from China for graduate school meant a lot of changes. Luckily, she found a community of like-minded people at USC Shoah Foundation.

“As an international student, we always have a rough time getting used to life here in the United States,” she said. “So I think this is a really nice home.”

What allowed Jin to feel so at home was the diverse group of people working at the Institute.

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