Kicking off this week, the challenge, which will award $10,000 in prizes overall, invites students to positively contribute to their communities, and submit short videos explaining the inspiration behind their actions and extraordinary impact. The IWitness Video Challenge is open to all secondary school students in the United States and Canada (except for Quebec) who attend public, private or home schools. Participants can access resources and submit entries at iwitness.usc.edu.

Los Angeles, January 21, 2016 – To meet growing demand for access to the world’s largest archive of genocide testimony, USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education announces its Visual History Archive Program, which will reimagine how users connect to the testimonies.Made possible by an initial transformative donation from Lee Liberman, a member of the Institute’s Board of Councilors Executive Committee, the wide-ranging, five-year plan will look to:

In the first step of an ambitious multiyear plan to significantly broaden access and meet growing demand for the world's largest archive of genocide testimony, USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education announces a landmark partnership with ProQuest, a technology company that empowers researchers at universities, libraries, schools and knowledge-driven organizations around the world.

More than 900 Holocaust testimonies recorded over four decades by the Jewish Family and Children Services Holocaust Center of San Francisco (JFCS) are now fully integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive as part of the Preserving the Legacy initiative – an ambitious plan to save recorded eyewitness testimony and bring voices of genocide survivors to a wider audience.

New Dimensions in Testimony from USC Shoah Foundation captured two top honors this week at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, the third-largest documentary festival in the world.

Twenty years after a civil war and genocide in Guatemala, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research will host an international conference that will shed light on this little-known atrocity.

Initial evaluations from the pilot exhibition of USC Shoah Foundation's New Dimensions in Testimony – a groundbreaking project that enables audiences to have a "virtual conversation" with projected images of Holocaust survivors – is proving the new technology is a valuable tool to ensure future generations will be able to have personal interactive experiences with Holocaust survivors long into the future.

A trio of eighth-graders from New Jersey who created a poetry group that has enabled students at their school to express their hardships and appreciation for one another has won the 2016 IWitness Video Challenge sponsored by USC Shoah Foundation.

May 16, 2015 – More than 900 Holocaust testimonies recorded over four decades by the Jewish Family and Children Services Holocaust Center of San Francisco (JFCS) are now fully integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive as part of the Preserving the Legacy initiative – an ambitious plan to save recorded eyewitness testimony and bring voices of genocide survivors to a wider audience.  

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12, 2016 – The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research has established a new endowed academic research fellowship with a gift from four longtime supporters of the Institute.

The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research will host a symposium to honor the work of leading Holocaust scholar David Cesarani from Great Britain, who died last year just weeks after being named the Center’s inaugural Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence.

LOS ANGELES – Sept. 6, 2016 – USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research is gearing up to host an international conference on the genocide that ravaged Guatemala at the height of the Cold War in the early 1980s. It will be the first gathering of its kind ever held.

LOS ÁNGELES – 6 Septembre, 2016 – El Centro para la Investigación Avanzada sobre el Genocidio de la Fundación USC Shoah se prepara para celebrar una conferencia internacional sobre el genocidio que devastó a Guatemala durante el apogeo de la Guerra Fría a principios de la década de 1980. Será la primera reunión de este tipo que jamás se haya celebrado.

Los Angeles, November 3, 2016 – Steven Spielberg, founder of USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education, will present Mellody Hobson and George Lucas with the Institute’s 2016 Ambassador for Humanity Award at the organization’s annual gala, to be held this year in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2016. Actor Harrison Ford will be one of the evening’s special guests, with additional guests to be announced. The gala presenting sponsor is The Walt Disney Company, a dedicated supporter of the organization.

In light of the heated rhetoric that has come to characterize this historically polarized presidential campaign, USC Shoah Foundation has released a new activity on IWitness – its free online education platform for secondary students – called “Skittles, Deplorables and ‘All Lives Matter’: Leadership and Media Literacy.”

Los Angeles, Nov. 15, 2016 – USC Shoah Foundation is offering one member of the public and a guest the chance to attend its Ambassadors for Humanity Gala in December. The gala is a crucial part of the Institute’s efforts helping to forge partnerships that sustain the organization into the future. The gala raises much-needed general funds to support its educational programs including expansion of the Institute’s award-winning IWitness website, professional development for educators globally, the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, academic conferences, expanding access to the Visual History Archive and testimony preservation, to name a few.

LOS ANGELES – Dec. 1, 2016 – USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research issues a call for applications for a fellowship opportunity that enables an advanced-standing Ph.D. candidate to spend a month in residence at the University of Southern California to further the field of genocide prevention.

LOS ANGELES – Aug. 31, 2016 – In preparation for the new school year, USC Shoah Foundation unveils its annual update of IWitness, a free online resource that is among the world’s foremost education tools for teaching compassion.

Borrowing from a tradition set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he assumed office in 1933 and announced an aggressive agenda for his first 100 days, USC Shoah Foundation will offer 100 Days to Inspire Respect starting Jan. 20, 2017, when America swears in its 45th president.

Middle and high school students have the chance to win scholarships of up to $5,000 – and additional money for their educators and schools – by entering the fourth annual IWitness Video Challenge hosted by USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education.

Los Angeles, Dec. 27, 2016 – As the United States prepares to inaugurate a new president, USC Shoah Foundation has announced the first 10 testimony-based educational resources for its “100 Days to Inspire Respect,” an IWitness educational program modeled after the aggressive 100-day agenda initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933.