Summer 2007 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE USC SHOAH FOUNDATION INSTITUTE FOR VISUAL HISTORY AND EDUCATIONTM F OUNDATION N EWS New Challenges, New Opportunities Summer 2007 growing access to the entire archive at insti- Dear Friends, tutions near and far; most recently, Monash The USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s University in Melbourne, Australia, gained archive holds nearly 52,000 testimonies— access to the full archive of testimonies (see almost 120,000 hours of ordinary human page 7). Such projects are possible only with faces and voices describing survival in the your support. We are also conscious of how much more work lies ahead in pursuit of our mission to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. We each have a moral responsibility to all those who have suffered the violence and racism of the modern world, whether they are Jews, Armenians, Cambodians, Rwandans, or Darfuris who survived geno- cides, or South Africans still living in the aftermath of apartheid and the struggle to destroy it, or African Americans who remember life in a viciously segregated society that called itself a democracy. To that end, the Institute is initiating an most extraordinary and inhuman of circum- important new phase in its work. Our work stances. Yet, memory that is recorded but on the Holocaust will continue, but we plan unrevealed is not memory at all; it is forget- to join it to our effort to collaborate with ting. To ensure that the voices of survivors others around the world to record and to “We know we have an opportunity that no other generation in human history has had.”— Douglas Greenberg and witnesses are heard, the Institute creates disseminate the memories of other people educational products utilizing the testi- who have been the target of genocide and monies, and trains teachers in their use in oppression. We have begun very promising classrooms all over the world. You will read conversations with colleagues in South about some of these resources in the pages of Africa, Rwanda, and Cambodia, and in this newsletter. You will also read about the future issues of PastForward we will report (L to R) Eric Kabera, Director, Rwanda Film Festival; Douglas Greenberg, Institute Executive Director; Francois Ngarambe, former president, Ibuka; Donald Miller, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Southern California. Ibuka, which means ‘remember,’ is an umbrella organization for the survivor organizations in Rwanda, created in 1995 in order to address issues of justice, memory, and social and economic problems faced by survivors of the Rwandan genocide. USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and EducationTM www.usc.edu/vhi On the Cover s Summer 2007 he cover photograph is of a sign on a church in T Nyamata, Rwanda, which was the site of a massacre of more than 10,000 people during the genocide in 1994. on them in detail. I recently made my sec- Institute Executive Director Douglas Greenberg took the ond trip to Rwanda to meet with colleagues photo during a trip to Rwanda in May 2006. The words from survivor organizations to discuss a “Never Again” appear on signs throughout Rwanda, project of recording testimonies of survivors reminders of the genocide and a call to action for an end to violence, racism, of the Rwandan genocide. I was also invited and intolerance, not only in Rwanda but throughout the world. to speak at the third annual Rwanda Film Festival, where two of the Institute’s films— Volevo solo vivere (I Only Wanted to Live), and Nazvy svoie im’ia (Spell Your Name)— were screened. We know we have an opportunity that no other generation in human history has had: to record the testimonies of men and women for whom racism and violence are not vague or abstract historical shadows but dark and BOARD OF COUNCILORS FOUNDING EXECUTIVE painfully lived experiences; men and women pastforward Steven Spielberg DIRECTORS OF THE SHOAH FOUNDATION EDITOR whose life stories, if seen and heard, could Honorary Chair Talia Cohen change the world. This is the work to which Edgar M. Bronfman June Beallor [email protected] Honorary Co-chair James Moll we are dedicated, and it is the work in which MANAGING EDITOR Renée Crown Kim Simon we hope to enlist your encouragement and Honorary Co-chair FOUNDING ADVISORY DESIGN Leslie Baker Graphic Design your support. Lew Wasserman COMMITTEE OF THE Honorary Co-chair SHOAH FOUNDATION PHOTOS Karen Kushell Mark Berndt, Steve Cohn, In Memoriam Douglas Greenberg, Brenda Branko Lustig Haggard, Adam Kenner, Jeff Wallis Annenberg Gerald R. Molen Kravitz, Jason Merritt, Michael Russel Bernard Sugarman, Jay Weiss Gerald Breslauer EXECUTIVE STAFF © 2007 USC Shoah Foundation Jerome Coben Institute; University of Southern Executive Director California Stephen Cozen Douglas Greenberg Susan Crown David Eisman Sherry Bard, Director of Phyllis Epstein Education Emanuel Gerard g Sam Gustman, Chief Andrea Gordon Technology Officer Douglas Greenberg Eric Greenberg Karen Jungblut, Director Yossie Hollander of Archival Access and Robert Katz Special Projects William Lauder Lee Liberman Steven Klappholz, Skip Paul Executive Director of Bruce Ramer Development Douglas Greenberg Harry Robinson Kim Simon, Director of Executive Director Michael Rutman International Programs Jerry Speyer and Communications Professor of History Erna Viterbi Casey Wasserman Ari Zev, Director of Harold Williams Administration pastforward, Summer 2007 1 V ISUAL H ISTORY IN THE C LASSROOM Echoes and Reflections National Teacher Training Program ince launching in 2005, Echoes and colleagues Shulamit Imber and Stephanie Reflections—A Multimedia McMahon-Kaye from Yad Vashem, and Curriculum On The Holocaust, Deborah Batiste and Dan Tarplin from ADL, to created in partnership with the train more than 100 educators representing 42 Anti-Defamation League (ADL), schools. During the daylong training, instructors SYad Vashem, and the USC Shoah Foundation modeled lessons from the Echoes and Reflections Institute, the partners have conducted more curriculum, giving educators the opportunity to than 90 training programs and trained more absorb the curriculum and to learn best prac- than 3000 educators on the curriculum’s use in tices and methodologies for teaching it. the classroom. to highlight the depth and adaptability of the The American Society for Yad Vashem host- In March, the partners launched a curriculum so that teachers of different grade ed the New York seminar. Several weeks later, National Teacher Training program as part of levels and subject areas understand how best the second training took place in Scranton, a nationwide initiative to train educators in to mine its resources,” said Sherry Bard, the Pennsylvania; additional trainings are planned using Echoes and Reflections. The training Institute’s Director of Education. for 2007 in cities across the United States. The team includes experienced trainers from each At the first National Teacher Training Echoes and Reflections program is funded by partner organization. “The team provides seminar in New York, the Institute’s Training Dana and Yossie Hollander with additional educators with hands-on exercises designed Specialist, Chaim Singer-Frankes, joined funding from the Braun Holocaust Institute - Glick Center for Holocaust Studies. To learn more about Echoes and Reflections and teacher Above Center: Project Director Dan Tarplin of training sessions, please visit www.echoesandreflections.org. the ADL presents to educators in New York. Educators in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Receive Training on Visual History In February, the Institute’s incorporate into lessons. The testimonies will engage students. Director of Education, Students will hear and see someone who lived through events Sherry Bard, and Training they have, until now, only read about. It brings a new dimension Specialist, Chaim Singer- into the classroom.” Frankes, traveled to the Funding for the workshop came from the Anne and Henry Zarrow Sherwin Miller Museum Foundation, and the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation. of Jewish Art in Tulsa, “We are proud to support this important work in Tulsa. By introduc- Oklahoma, to conduct ing to our teachers and students testimonies of Holocaust survivors a training session for and other witnesses, we are certain that it willˆ have a positive area educators. impact on the entire community,” Henry Zarrow explained. The participants—30 middle school, high school, and community college teachers—worked with 14 testimonies from the Institute’s Above Left: (L to R) Educators Olin Holmes, Debbie Givens, and Aimee archive that comprise a collection held by the Museum. Roulac view testimony in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “This workshop was valuable because it taught us how to build lessons around audio-visual testimony clips,” said participant Cathy Luccock. “Many students If you are interested in funding workshops like these, please today lose interest in a lecture after 20 minutes; it is helpful to have springboard activities to contact Steven Klappholz, at [email protected] or 213-740-6051. USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and EducationTM www.usc.edu/vhi Testimony to Tolerance Initiative Comes to Little Rock n April, the Institute launched its “The Testimony to Tolerance Initiative Testimony to Tolerance Initiative in is designed to equip diverse communi- Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock is ties throughout the United States with a the third city—after Jackson, tool to nurture responsible and commit- Mississippi, and Des Moines, Iowa— ted citizens dedicated to a society free of Iin which the Institute has launched the prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry,” said Initiative, a community-based and intergener- Douglas Greenberg, Professor of ational outreach and education program. History and Executive Director of the The Testimony to Tolerance Initiative will reach USC Shoah Foundation Institute. middle and high schools in Little Rock and the “The Central Arkansas Library surrounding areas. First, the Institute provided a System has a long history of promoting set of 28 testimonies to the Central Arkansas mutual understanding,” said CALS Library System (CALS). The collection includes Director Bobby Roberts.