Ari Şekeryan received his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2018 and has since held research positions at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, California State University–Fresno, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and the University of Cambridge.
/ Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Julie Gruenbaum Fax is a content strategist and creator on our communications team, responsible for institutional storytelling, feature writing, and strategic messaging.
/ Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Dr. Robert J. Williams is the Finci-Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation. He is UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research and the Advisor to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, where he also served for four years as chair of the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial.
/ Monday, October 31, 2022
The USC Shoah Foundation mourns the August 3, 2023 passing of Nimrod “Zigi” Ariav, a Holocaust survivor who fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and Israel’s War of Independence before becoming a leader in the Israeli aeronautics industry. He was a longtime supporter of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. He was 96. 
/ Thursday, August 17, 2023
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.
antiSemitism, Oct 7 / Friday, December 1, 2023
Ben Ferencz, the last remaining prosecutor from the Nuremberg Trials who passed away in Florida earlier this month, gave countless interviews over the course of his illustrious career. But surely none was longer, or more technically challenging, than the three-day testimony he gave to USC Shoah Foundation at the height of the Covid pandemic in July 2020. The need for social distancing necessitated that filming be done remotely, with boxes of sophisticated equipment shipped to Ferencz’s modest Florida home.
/ Monday, April 17, 2023
In this November 8, 2023 talk, Dr. Matthias Becker elaborates on his interdisciplinary and transnational project Decoding Antisemitism, which aims to develop tools for recognizing and tracking down various forms of online antisemitism, including its open and covert forms that exist in and circulate both in fringe communities as well as in mainstream discourse.
antiSemitism, CATT, homepage, discussion, lecture, presentation, research, antisemitism series / Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Join Dr. Matthias Becker to learn how his interdisciplinary and transnational project, Decoding Antisemitism, aims to develop tools to track online antisemitism in both fringe communities and mainstream discourse. Part of our Antisemitism Lecture Series.
antiSemitism / Wednesday, October 18, 2023
In the face of the current alarming resurgence in antisemitism, we are expanding our efforts to record testimonies from those who have experienced anti-Jewish hate since 1945 – including those who are experiencing it today. Along with our collection of 55,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies, these new testimonies will be an invaluable resource to researchers, educators, and policymakers in the urgent effort to mitigate the deadly threat of antisemitism to Jewish and non-Jewish communities around the world today.
/ Thursday, August 1, 2019
We are grateful that so many of these survivors, partners, friends, and family members have entrusted us to share their stories for future generations, and for the passion and dedication they brought in support of our mission.
/ Friday, December 15, 2023
/ Wednesday, December 20, 2023
homepage / Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Gerald Szames is 2, maybe 3 years old. He is standing at the foot of the bed, looking at his mother. She is sick, propped up on a pile of pillows. He has other flashes of memories of life before the Nazis invaded his Polish shtetl of Trochenbrod in 1941, when he was four years old – his grandfather taking him to the mill, his father lifting him up to give him a candy and a kiss.
last chance testimony, lcti / Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Kelsey Burke oversees the USC Shoah Foundation social media channels by leading the social media strategy, curating content, and engaging with followers.
/ Thursday, January 11, 2024
/ Monday, January 22, 2024
Sedda Antekelian develops educational content, programming and community partnerships utilizing Armenian Genocide testimony collections. Sedda received her B.A. in History and Humanities from Loyola Marymount University, Master of Arts in Teaching from UC Irvine, and holds a Single-Subject teaching credential in Social-Science and Art History. Sedda has well-rounded experience working within diverse educational spheres, including the traditional classroom, museum education, online curriculum development and project-based learning.
/ Monday, June 5, 2017
In October 1942, when deportations from the Warsaw ghetto paused, more than 20 youth groups and underground units coalesced into a united front. Vladka Meed channeled her despair at losing her family into fighting the Nazis.
/ Friday, June 11, 2021
On the afternoon of January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, a complex of concentration and extermination camps. Although most of the prisoners were sent on a death march before the Soviet troops arrived, around 7,000 still remained at Auschwitz. The date of the liberation is recognized by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
/ Wednesday, January 12, 2022
/ Friday, January 26, 2024
Beginning November 1, 2022, in observance of Native American Heritage Month in the United States, the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research shared one video per day from our recent international conference "Mass Violence and Its Lasting Impact on Indigenous Peoples - The Case of the Americas and Australia/Pacific Region," which was held at the University of Southern California, on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Tongva and Kizh Nation peoples.
cagr / Friday, November 4, 2022
Los Angeles, Sept. 28, 2017 – USC Shoah Foundation is announcing the release of Lala, a virtual reality film and educational resource that tells the true story of a dog that brightened the lives of a family interned by the Nazis in a ghetto in Poland during the Holocaust.
/ Friday, September 29, 2017
More than 75 years after the end of the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jewry remains a touchpoint for modern history, international law, and numerous other fields of study. As we face the passing of the generation of the direct witnesses, and confront new challenges with rising antisemitism, the landscape of Holocaust memory is changing. How can the second and third generation - and beyond - ensure the preservation and relevance of Holocaust memory in a world without direct witnesses?
homepage / Thursday, February 1, 2024
The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research and USC Shoah Foundation present the Annual Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar Lecture by Dan Stone (Professor of Modern History and Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London), 2023-2024 Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence. Join us in person for this lecture or attend virtually on Zoom.
/ Thursday, February 2, 2023
When one works in the field of Holocaust memory, you tend to find that your colleagues are a mission driven, self-effacing, highly dedicated bunch. We work with hard subjects, care deeply and build strong bonds with one another as we cope with the challenging, yet abundantly meaningful work. We were blessed here at USC Shoah Foundation to have formed those strong bonds with the brilliant and compassionate Kia Hays.
/ Friday, February 2, 2024
The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its inaugural Azrieli Research Fellowships for PhD candidates and early-career scholars during the 2024-2025 academic year.
research, academics / Friday, February 2, 2024
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual history and Education embarked on a new chapter on Tuesday when it unveiled its new global headquarters on the USC campus. The event also marked the start of the Institute’s 25th anniversary, a time that will propel its work into new frontiers as it continues its mission of sharing the 55,000 testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides to foster empathy and respect.
/ Tuesday, November 6, 2018
NBC's Today helped commemorate USC Shoah Foundation's 20th anniversary Monday with a segment featuring founder Steven Spielberg and Maria Shriver.
Steven Spielberg, celina biniaz, Stephen Smith / Tuesday, May 6, 2014
In recognition of his efforts to protect human rights, his commitment to education and his work advancing opportunities for all people, President Barack Obama was presented May 7 with the Ambassador for Humanity Award by Steven Spielberg.
ambassadors for humanity / Wednesday, May 7, 2014

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