A Search For Family Leads to a ‘Bittersweet Revelation’


When Deborah Long was a teenager, she often came home to find her mother sitting with the latest issues of Life or Look magazine, quietly tearing out pages.

“You see this picture?” her mother would say. “She looks a little like my older sister Ryfka.” Or, “This movie star right here? He reminds me of my father. So handsome.”

Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Julie Gruenbaum Fax is a content strategist and writer for the USC Shoah Foundation. She was a senior writer and editor at the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and has co-authored six personal history books. She is currently writing a book about her grandmother’s Holocaust experience.

Remembering Eddie Jaku


USC Shoah Foundation mourns the passing of our friend and partner Eddie Jaku, who has passed away in Sydney, Australia, at age 101. Eddie will be remembered for his extraordinary life—which included surviving the Holocaust by escaping from four concentration camps—and for his relentless positivity and kindness to all.

USC Shoah Foundation

Confronting Antisemitism


Tuesday, June 24, 2025 - 08:18 AM PDT
Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Stephen Smith leads one of seven panels in this unprecedented, public, international gathering of cultural leaders, scholars, and experts who will offer cutting-edge analysis and strategies; identify a landscape of possible initiatives and actions; and galvanize the community.

Reckoning with Reparations


Tuesday, June 24, 2025 - 08:18 AM PDT
Join USC Shoah Foundation Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Stephen Smith as he moderates a panel discussion around the issues of reparation, memory, justice and equity.

USC Shoah Foundation Applauds Creation of California Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education


USC Shoah Foundation welcomes the creation of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education.

USC Shoah Foundation Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Stephen Smith, who in May offered expert testimony in support of the Council’s creation, said the group will play a critical role in arresting the current decline in awareness about the Holocaust and other acts of genocide among young people. 

USC Shoah Foundation