PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lisa Einstein
President, Boston 3G
Boston3G@gmail.com
USC Shoah Foundation Forms Partnership with Living Links, The First National Organization for Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors
Boston, MA, July 23, 2024 - Living Links, the first nationwide organization created to engage and empower 3G (third-generation) descendants of Holocaust survivors, has joined forces with the USC Shoah Foundation. The new partnership will expand a program that teaches 3Gs to share their family stories in classrooms and with community groups to counter antisemitism, bigotry, and hate.
At a time when the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling and antisemitism is on the rise, 3Gs are uniquely positioned to offer personal accounts about how unchecked intolerance and hate led to the Holocaust.
An estimated one million grandchildren of Holocaust survivors live in the United States.
At this critical moment in time for Jews around the world, Boston 3G is excited to announce that we are joining the Living Links network of 3G organizations. In 2023, Boston 3G joined nearly a dozen independent 3G groups that had formed over the last decade to create Living Links, a national network that offers grandchildren of Holocaust survivors social, educational, and advocacy opportunities in a supportive environment that honors and explores their common and complex legacies.
In 2023, Boston 3G participated with nearly a dozen independent 3G groups that had formed over the last decade to create Living Links, a national network that offers grandchildren of Holocaust survivors social, educational, and advocacy opportunities in a supportive environment that honors and explores their common and complex legacies. Leaders from Boston 3G participated in strategy sessions and focus groups to develop Living Links’ mission. Boston 3G is one of 14 3G affiliates, with several more in early stages of development. Each 3G organization will maintain its autonomy, while the Living Links—USC Shoah Foundation partnership will provide a professional infrastructure and networks within the field.
“My parents’ generation—the children of survivors—were often afraid to ask questions about their parents’ experience or unwilling to dredge up wartime pain,” said David Wachs, co-founder and co-president of Living Links. Sharing this unique thread of my identity is a powerful way for me to connect with others and to make a lasting impact.”
In cooperation with the USC Shoah Foundation, Living Links will increase the number of 3G affiliates nationwide, help the existing affiliates grow, and expand the speaker training program. 3GNY founded the program in 2010, and it has trained some 500 speakers and reached 60,000 students to date.
The partnership comes at a moment of urgency and peril when antisemitism is being normalized throughout society, according to Dr. Robert J. Williams, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation.
“Recent events make it clear that we need new and innovative pathways and resources for reaching the next generation,” Dr. Williams said. “This partnership is an important and necessary step in reaching the next generation.”
As it marks its 30th anniversary year, the USC Shoah Foundation aims to strengthen connections with descendants of Holocaust survivors, especially the families of the more than 55,000 survivors who recorded testimony for the Visual History Archive.
“We are thrilled to partner with the USC Shoah Foundation because we have the same goals to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to build a better future", said Jennifer Loew Mendelson, co-founder and co-president of Living Links. “Their organizational expertise, vital networking, and expert guidance will ensure Living Links' success in becoming a vibrant independent organization.”
A lead gift of $1 million has been pledged toward a program budget of $5 million over the next three years.
For more information, go to https://www.wearelivinglinks.org and www.Boston3g.org.
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About Boston 3G
Founded in 2009, Boston 3G is a Boston-based Group for the Grandchildren (and friends of) Holocaust Survivors. Boston 3G brings together the third generation of Holocaust survivors to explore their common history in order to keep their grandparents' stories alive, to address antisemitism, to educate all generations and faiths, to create a social and educational outlet in Greater Boston, and to ensure that we never forget the past.
About the USC Shoah Foundation
Founded in 1994, the USC Shoah Foundation preserves and amplifies the voices of the past to build a future that remembers. The Visual History Archive is home to more than 56,000 testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, contemporary antisemitism, the Armenian Genocide, and other historical events of genocide, crimes against humanity, and related persecution. It is the largest such collection in the world.
About Living Links
Living Links, formed in 2023 is a new organization for grandchildren (3Gs) of Holocaust survivors and all victims of Nazi persecution. 3Gs (and a growing number of 4Gs) have an essential voice in countering hate and keeping the history of the Holocaust relevant in today’s world. Living Links is partnering with the USC Shoah Foundation to empower descendants of Holocaust survivors to create enduring communities devoted to preserving and sharing
their families’ legacies.