New Partnership Collecting Media Documenting Oct. 7 Attacks
USC Shoah Foundation, 12/05/2023
In the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, the USC Shoah Foundation and Tablet Studios announced a partnership to collect, archive, and make available testimonies of survivors, bereaved family members, and rescuers who risked their lives to save others during the assault. The initiative combines Tablet Studios’ reach and audiovisual resources with methodologies and expertise developed by the USC Shoah Foundation, a global leader with 30 years of experience collecting and preserving Holocaust survivor testimony.
A collection of October 7 interviews is now available at The Testimonies Archive, a new multimedia website where testimonies are continually being added as crews in Israel and the United States record new interviews.
“The massacre perpetrated by Hamas revealed the terrifying depths of their antisemitism and forced a reckoning for historians, practitioners, and governments,” said Dr. Robert J. Williams, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation. “Sadly, Hamas' hatred has echoed around the world, unleashing a surge in antisemitic rhetoric and violence which reminds us there is much to learn and work to be done. We must all recommit to addressing and countering antisemitism for today and future generations.”
The partnership began to take shape soon after the attacks when both the USC Shoah Foundation and Tablet Studios deployed teams on the ground to collect first-hand testimonies from survivors, rescuers, and family members.
Both organizations continue to collect testimonies and have joined forces to create The Testimonies Archive in an effort to grow, share, and amplify the reach of their October 7 testimony collections.
“Like everyone else, watching this carnage unfold left us shocked and heartbroken,” said Liel Leibovitz, Editorial Director, Tablet Studios. “The only thing we could think of doing was reaching out to as many impacted Israelis as we could find and asking them to share their story. We are honored to team up with the USC Shoah Foundation and see to it that these testimonies are collected with care and diligence and that they join the foundation’s already vast collection of painful but seminal accounts. We must make sure that these stories of savagery and of survival and of sacrifice, stories about Jewish lives lost in their prime, are never forgotten.”
Testimonies are being collected by a team of USC Shoah Foundation-trained interviewers in Israel and the United States and by Tablet Studios. A curated collection will be available at The Testimonies Archive in audio and video formats, with translations forthcoming in several languages.
“Combining our knowledge and experience with Tablet Studios' resources enhances our ability to swiftly record interview subjects and build innovative platforms where individuals can immediately engage with October 7th survivor testimonies, a transformative step towards shaping new forms of learning and public dialogue for the common good,” said Dr. Williams.
The October 7th survivor testimonies will be indexed and preserved in perpetuity within the USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive® (VHA), where they also will be available to the public, alongside the testimonies of 55,000 Holocaust survivors and witnesses.
Read the fully illustrated article at USC Shoah Foundation.