Meet Dr. Ruth Westheimer and join her birthday celebration! Born as Karola Ruth Siegel on June 4, 1928, in Frankfurt, Germany, she grew up as the only child in a privileged Orthodox Jewish family. However, her carefree childhood was violently shattered shortly after Kristallnacht when the SS came to take away her father. In 1939, she was sent on a Kindertransport to Switzerland, where she lived in an orphanage until 1945. She then emigrated to pre-state Israel, became known as Ruth Siegel (dropping the German-sounding Karola) and became a sniper and scout for the Haganah.
Past Events
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June 2022
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free program; registration required
Daughters of the Inquisition — Retracing Long-Lost Jewish Roots
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
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This program features the breathtaking stories and genealogical sleuthwork of Doreen Carvajal and Genie Milgrom, who succeeded in reaching back centuries to find their Jewish ancestors in pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal. (more…)
tickets by donation
Morgenthau
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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This Father’s Day program pays tribute to three generations of men in the Morgenthau family — an American Jewish dynasty whose continual fight for justice has brought them to the forefront of the most dramatic events of the past hundred years. From fighting for international action against the genocide of Armenians on the cusp of WWI, through the efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust despite American political obstruction, and on to the struggle to reduce street crime and pioneer the prosecution of white collar corruption in New York City, the trajectory of the three Morgenthau generations epitomizes the American experience and the lasting value of public service.
tickets by donation
The Children of Chabannes
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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The Emmy® Award-winning The Children of Chabannes of Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell is the story of how the people in a tiny French village chose action over indifference, and risked their lives and livelihoods, to save more than 400 Jewish refugee children during World War Il. The Children of Chabannes is not only a story about the past. It’s an exploration of moral courage and goodness in the face of evil: of what motivates individuals to take a stand against injustice, bigotry and extremism. Lisa Gossels, whose father was one of the children rescued in Chabannes, will be joined on the panel by Holocaust child refugee Dr. Norman Bikales, who is featured in the film, and Dr. Mordecai Paldiel who oversaw the honoring of the Chabannes rescuers.
free program; registration required
Cartoonists Who Spoke Out
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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At a time when too many people looked away, a handful of American political cartoonists used their pens to raise the alarm about the raging Holocaust. These included some of America’s most famous cartoonists, such as the beloved Dr. Seuss, the Washington Post‘s Pulitzer Prize winning Herbert Block (“Herblock”) and many others. Holocaust historian Rafael Medoff, author of We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust, will discuss this fascinating subject together with George Gustines, who covers comics and graphic novels for The New York Times.
tickets by donation
Jan Karski — Humanitarian Hero
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Jan Karski was a member of the Polish underground during World War II whose mission was to inform the Allied powers of Nazi crimes against the Jews of Europe in order to stop the Holocaust. Karski infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi Transit Camp and carried his dreadful eyewitness report of the atrocities to Britain and the United States, hoping that it would shake the conscience of the powerful leaders or – as he would later call them – the Lords of Humanity. For his extraordinary efforts Karski was named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
free program; registration required
A New Look at Oskar and Emilie Schindler
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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Dr. Mordecai Paldiel oversaw the granting of the title of Righteous Among the Nations to Oskar and Emilie Schindler in 1993. See a documentary film on the Schindler story. Then learn behind-the-scenes stories from our distinguished panel, including Dr. Paldiel, Schindler’s biographer Dr. David Crowe, and Marie P. Knecht, the daughter of survivors of Schindler’s famous list.
free program; registration required
Safe Haven in the Philippines
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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In the 1930s, when nations of the world were closing their doors to refugee Jews fleeing the growing horror of Hitler’s Germany, one small island nation in the Pacific, the Philippines, chose to do what others would not — save those lives. This rescue, orchestrated and empowered through President Manuel Quezon, gave the refugees a new welcoming homeland as the Filipino people opened their hearts and accepted them within the fabric of Philippine society. Today a monument to this rescue action stands in Rishon Le Zion, Israel.
tickets by donation
From Swastika to Jim Crow — Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges in the American South
1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK
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The film-and-discussion program tells the little known story of German Jewish professors who, expelled from their homeland by the Nazis, found new lives and careers at all-black colleges and universities in the segregated American South. While most of these pairings between Jewish refugees and black colleges began as marriages of convenience, very often they blossomed into love matches that lasted a lifetime.
free; no registration needed
Boatlift
11 AM LOS ANGELES • 2 PM NEW YORK
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On the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Sousa Mendes Foundation pauses to remember the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives, and also to acknowledge the inspiring bravery shown by first responders and everyday citizens on that tragic day. One of the most notable acts of valor was the maritime evacuation of Lower Manhattan – the largest water evacuation in American history – in which 500,000 people were transported to safety by hundreds of vessels that answered a call from the U.S. Coast Guard to converge on New York Harbor to aid in the evacuation. This extraordinary rescue was memorialized in a short documentary film Boatlift, narrated by Tom Hanks, that tells the story of the largest sea evacuation since Dunkirk in June 1940. This short film will be sent to all of our subscribers on the morning of Sunday, September 11, 2022. Then tune in at 2 PM ET for a discussion of the two greatest boatlifts in history.