Tablet Studios and The USC Shoah Foundation Join Forces to Launch Multimedia Collection of Testimonies from the October 7 Terrorist Attacks in Israel

NEW YORK, Dec. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 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."

"We are honored to team up with the USC Shoah Foundation to ensure that these testimonies are collected with care and diligence," said Liel Leibovitz, Editorial Director, Tablet Studios, "and that they join the foundation's already vast collection of painful but seminal accounts in Jewish history."

Testimonies are being collected by a team of USC Shoah Foundation-trained interviewers in Israel and the United States and by Tablet Studios. They 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.

About Tablet Studios
Tablet Studios is the premier destination for smart and entertaining Jewish audio content. Our podcasts include Unorthodox, What Really Matters, Take One, and the limited-run series Gatecrashers, Adventures with Dead Jews, Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story, The Franchise, Hebrew School, and 49 Days to Stretch My Soul.

About the USC Shoah Foundation
An invaluable resource for humanity, the USC Shoah Foundation's collection contains more than 56,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, other genocides, and related forms of persecution. The USC Shoah Foundation is currently building its collection focused on Jewish experiences of antisemitism since 1945, with a goal of adding 10,000 testimonies, including accounts from victims of antisemitic terror attacks.