Second Gentleman Pool Reports of June 8, 2022

Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff was at the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation today to learn about the organization's work in Holocaust education and its Dimensions in Testimony program that features AI interactive videos of Holocaust survivors.

The visit began at 10am PT in the lobby of the center, where the Second Gentleman was greeted by Dr. Kori Street, Interim Finci-Viterbi Executive Director at the Foundation. Street told Emhoff about the Foundation's work, which she says by next year will reach 10 million students globally. Emhoff referenced his own family's Holocaust history, and Street showed Emhoff a video testimony from a Holocaust survivor who lived in the same town as Emhoff's family in eastern Europe.

Here is further background on the event, courtesy of the Second Gentleman's team:

BACKGROUND:
USC Shoah Foundation's Dimensions in Testimony enables people to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from pre-recorded video interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide. The project integrates advanced filming techniques, specialized display technologies and next generation natural language processing to create an interactive biography. This experience allows museum-goers, students, and others to have conversational interactions with eyewitnesses and learn from those who were there. Dimensions in Testimony is currently on exhibit in 10 museums around the country and one in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education develops empathy, understanding and respect through testimony, using its Visual History Archive of more than 55,000 video testimonies, academic programs and partnerships across USC and 170 universities. USC Shoah Foundation's award-winning, interactive IWitness education program, research and materials are accessed in museums and universities, cited by government leaders and NGOs, and taught in classrooms around the world. Now in its third decade, USC Shoah Foundation reaches millions of people on six continents from its home at the University of Southern California.

Participants

• Pinchas Gutter, Holocaust Survivor
• Dr. Kori Street (they/them), Interim Finci-Viterbi Executive Director, USC Shoah Foundation
• Seline Hemilians is a high school student participating in USC Shoah Foundation's William P. Lauder Junior Internship Program
• Sam Gustman, Chief Technology Officer, USC Shoah Foundation/Associate Dean, USC Libraries
• Dr. Pedro Noguera, Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean, USC Rossier School of Education

More to follow.

After the introduction in the lobby, Emhoff and Street were joined by the Foundation's chief technology officer, Sam Gustman, and Seline Hemilians, a high school student participating in USC Shoah Foundation's William P. Lauder Junior Internship Program.

The Foundation's staff shared the Dimensions in Testimony project with Emhoff, which Hemilians said helps survivors' testimony "come to life."

The Second Gentleman spoke about the importance of personally witnessing survivors' stories, as well as other issues around the world, saying, "Until you actually see it and experience it, you just don't know or believe it's happening."

"We are experiencing an epidemic of hate in our world right now," Emhoff said, referencing the attacks in Pittsburgh and Buffalo. "People need to unify against hate."

Emhoff then asked the AI bot of Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter a series of questions, including "How did you survive?" and about his message to students today. He ended by asking Gutter to sing a song.

More to follow.

The final component of the Second Gentleman's visit to the Shoah Foundation was a live Zoom conversation with Pinchas Gutter, whose AI he had just spoken to. "I feel like I already know you!" Emhoff told Gutter when they began their conversation.

Gutter told Emhoff and Street his story, and thanked Emhoff and the Biden administration for their work combatting hate and antisemitism. "I really feel that you are able to make a difference, and you are making a difference," Gutter told Emhoff.

They were also joined by Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education, who likewise praised the administration's work and joined in the conversation about using education as a tool to fight mis- and disinformation and hate.

Gutter concluded by sharing his favorite Yiddish joke, and by again thanking Emhoff and the administration for their efforts. "I am going to see the president and vice president later today and I am going to tell them that," Emhoff replied.

The participants then broke for photos and interviews. The official visit ended shortly before 11am PT.