USC Shoah Foundation is accepting applications for the highly competitive William P. Lauder Junior Internship Program that begins November 13. Since 2014, the program has provided a dynamic and unique learning opportunity for hundreds of students to engage with testimonies from survivors and witnesses of genocide.  The program is looking for 40 grade 7-11 students nationwide who are representative of diverse backgrounds and academic skills. 

Pardy Minassian’s childhood in Syria was suffused with sounds from Armenia, the result of her father’s collection of more than 500 audio and video interviews he conducted over the years with Armenian Genocide survivors. When Pardy and her family left Syria for Armenia in 2012, the then 18-year-old student focused on a range of different Armenian sounds, earning a bachelor’s degree in Music Composition and a master's degree in Guitar Performance from the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory. 

Rena Quint has worked hard to find a balance between moving beyond memory and living inside of it, between yearning to know—and have proof of—where she came from and what she lost, but of not wanting to be defined by it.

This moderated discussion features Dr. Jonathan Judaken of Rhodes College and Dr. Jeffrey Veidlinger of the University of Michigan, both the members of the Scholar Lab on Antisemitism program. As part of the discussion, Dr. Judaken and Dr. Veidlinger present on their research projects examining how major theorists of antisemitism understand its underlying causes and what prominent writers and thinkers in the historical western tradition had written about Jews, respectively, focusing on what we can learn about antisemitism from these writings. The discussion is moderated by Dr.

When Lee Liberman first viewed testimonies from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive (VHA) almost 25 years ago, she was immediately moved to action. “We have a commitment and duty to humanity to combat hate, and we must work diligently to bring these testimonies to communities around the globe,” she said. More than two decades later, as Lee transitions to an emeritus role after a successful term as Chair of the Institute’s Board of Councilors, she has more than delivered on her pledge.

In September 2022, the Institute launched its inaugural Scholar Lab Event Series that included three events that focused on the research conducted by the members of the Scholar Lab on Antisemitism. The first event featured professors Todd Presner (UCLA) and Josh Kun (USC), who discussed their projects on survivor narratives about antisemitism and antisemitism in music. The second event introduced the work of professors Jeffrey Veidlinger (University of Michigan) and Jonathan Judaken (Rhodes College), who explored the writings about antisemitism by major writers and theorists.

The Scholar Lab on Antisemitism gathers six scholars from different academic backgrounds, including history, digital humanities, communication, musicology, religious studies, Judaic studies, Holocaust studies, and media studies, who all examine the topic of antisemitism from their respective disciplinary and methodological perspectives. You can learn more about the scholars and their projects below.

Join us for this in-person event at the Institute for Armenian Studies on oral history and its implications. Organized in conjunction with the USC Dornsife Institute for Armenian Studies, the day will offer two panel discussions on the evolving place and role of oral history in the field of Armenian Studies.

USC Shoah Foundation today launches a series of professional development webinars that provide educators with testimony-based resources that support accelerated learning practices across the curriculum. The focus on accelerated learning comes as schools return to in-person instruction and teachers navigate the range of learning losses caused by the need for remote schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Greg Hernandez is a special projects writer for USC News who focuses on diversity. He’s been a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News and The Hollywood Reporter and was also writer-editor at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

USC Shoah Foundation has moved into the next chapter of its work, with noted international expert and governmental advisor on Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism Dr. Robert Williams appointed as Andrew J. and Erna Finci Viterbi Executive Director.

East Coast dance artist Rachel Linsky combines movement and testimony to create a novel form of Holocaust education.  Rachel directs and choreographs ZACHOR, an initiative that honors Holocaust survivors through dance. Her latest work in the project is Hidden, a dance film and production based on the story of Aaron Elster, a Jewish boy who from 1943 to 1945 hid from Nazi persecution in the attic of a Polish family. 

To view the entire Armenian Genocide Testimony Collection, log into the  Visual History Archive to explore the full-length eyewitness testimonies.    

Hosted by USC President Carol Folt and USC Shoah Foundation's new Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Dr. Robert Williams, this discussion and live demo event will feature: a panel discussion moderated by USC Shoah Foundation's Dr. Kori Street.

Today we remember the lives lost at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018. The Shabbat morning attack, in which 11 worshippers were killed and six wounded—including several Holocaust survivors—was the deadliest act of antisemitic violence in United States history. Synagogue member Judah Samet, a Hungarian-born survivor of the Holocaust, sat trapped in his car in the synagogue parking lot that Saturday morning as law enforcement agents engaged in a gun battle with the shooter.

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently declared that Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day—observed annually on April 24—will become a statewide holiday to be known as Genocide Awareness Day.

USC Shoah Foundation today welcomes Dr. Victoria Walden, a senior lecturer from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, who will spend the next two weeks conducting research at the Institute on digital memory and the Holocaust.

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.