I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise
2025-02-28 - 2025-03-09 | New Hazlett Center for Performing Arts, 6 Allegheny Square E, Pittsburgh, PA, 15212, United States
I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise
By Celeste Raspanti
Directed by Wayne Brinda
ARTICLE: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle – Prime Stage Theatre presents ‘I Never Saw Another Butterly and The Terezin Promise’
In the Terezin concentration camp, Austrian artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis teaches Jewish children to make poems and drawings in secret art classes. Witness her passion, the children’s creativity, and the irrepressible power of Art to bring hope and healing into the darkest hours of the Holocaust.
Feb. 28 – March 9, 2025
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Special Dates:
Preview: Friday, February 28th at 7:30pm – Pay What You Can
Opening Night: Saturday, March 1st at 7:30pm
Sensory Inclusive: Saturday, March 8th at 2:30pm – Pay What You Can
Audio Describe: Sunday, March 9th at 2:30pm
ASL / Live Caption: Sunday, March 9th at 2:30pm
More Information
Summary and what you will see –
I Never Saw Another Butterfly is an uplifting and inspiring story about the use of art in times of tragedy. The story centers around Raja, a young Czech teenager who is forced into Terezin, or Theresienstadt, a Jewish ghetto that was used as a stopping point for transport to the death camps in the east, Auschwitz in particular. While many Jewish artists, filmmakers, and other people of cultural or political prominence were sent there, the ghetto itself was still a miserable place to live. Disease was everywhere, and starvation was the norm.
We are Honoring the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the Liberation of the Concentration Camps.
Of the more than 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only 141 are known to have survived. Many drawings, poems, and other works of art that Raja and her friends smuggled out of Terezin have been shared with the world, and through them, these 15,000 children live on.
Through the eyes of the children who lived in this camp, we see how art helped them not only survive their time in the ghetto, but also how it helped them cope. The play uses poetry from the book by the same name, a collection of artwork and poetry by the children of the Terezin Concentration Camp,1942-1944

Act 70 Wellness Day for Educators
2025-03-07 08:30 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | Chatham University Shadyside Campus, 1 Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15232, United States
We all know that teaching the Holocaust is emotionally taxing, not just for your students, but also for you. The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh believes that you (the teacher) must first take care of yourself before you can take care of others (your students). With that in mind, we’re holding our first-ever “Act 70 Wellness Day” on Friday, March 7, 2025, on Chatham University’s campus in Shadyside.
The day will be centered on supporting you and giving you the tools and connections to other educators so you can continue to do the difficult work. The day will include self-care activities, networking opportunities to meet other Holocaust educators, and information about local organizations that can help you teach the Holocaust more easily. Act 48 credits will be provided.

Register here.

Edith and Kurt Leuchter: A Story of Love and Resilience
2025-03-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Cranberry Public Library, 2525 Rochester Rd., Cranberry Township, PA, 16066, United States
She was born in Bruchsal, Germany. He was born in Vienna, Austria. As hidden children, their paths crossed briefly in a French orphanage. This is just a part of their story, separately and together: surviving the Holocaust, fighting Nazis in the French Resistance, and making a new life in America. This is the true story of Kurt and Edith Leuchter, as told by their daughter Deborah Stueber. Kurt and Edith will attend virtually to answer audience questions.
Deborah Leuchter Stueber has been a volunteer for the past 30 years at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. In 2021 she was chosen as their Volunteer of the Year. Sharing her parents’ Holocaust experience with schools, universities, and various organizations for the last several years has been her passion. She feels strongly that it’s the responsibility of her generation and generations to come to carry on the survivors legacy.
Register here.

Generations Speakers Series - 80th Anniversary of Liberation: Alison Brown Karabin
2025-03-12 18:00 | Welker Room, James Laughlin Music Hall, 5798 Woodland Rd, Pittsburgh, PA, 15232, United States
Alison Brown Karabin will share the story of her grandmother Elizabeth Brown (z”l), a beloved Pittsburgh survivor originally from Hungary. Alison will recount Elizabeth’s survival in Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Volary death march, before settling in Squirrel Hill and raising her family. This event is part of a series of programs in 2025, recognizing the 80th anniversary of liberation.

Register here.

Americans and the Holocaust Exhibit
2025-03-17 - 2025-04-28 | Carnegie Free Library of Beaver Falls, 1301 7th Ave, Beaver Falls, PA, 15010, United States
The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust history raises important questions about what the international community, including the United States, could have done to stop the rise of Nazism in Germany and its assault on Europe’s Jews. Questions include: What did Americans know? How did Americans respond? What more could have been done?
Americans and the Holocaust looks closely at America’s role in this history. The United States alone could not have prevented the Holocaust, but more could have been done to save some of the six million Jews that were killed. This exhibition examines the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide.
Learn more here.

Spaces of Treblinka: Guest Speaker Jacob Flaws
2025-03-20 17:00 - 18:30 | Carnegie Mellon University

A Holocaust Story: Love and Resilience During World War II
2025-03-24 19:00 | Monroeville Public Library, 4000 Gateway Campus Blvd., Monroeville, PA, 15146, United States
RSVP here.

Generations Speaker - Lee Goldman Kikel
2025-03-27 17:30 - 18:30 | C.C. Mellor Memorial Library – Edgewood, 1 Pennwood Ave, Edgewood, PA, 15218, United States
“Generations Speakers are the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. They have all been recruited, vetted, and coached by the Holocaust Center staff and veteran Generations Speakers to develop presentations about their survivor relative’s story. The Generations Speakers are all extremely passionate about what they do: preserving their family legacy; making sure that future generations hear a factual, well-researched, personal account of a Holocaust survivor; and most importantly, never forget what their parents and/ or grandparents experienced.” ~https://hcofpgh.org/resources/speakers/
Book sale and discussion will take place after the presentation. Learn more here.
Speaker Bio:
Lee Goldman Kikel grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where she spent many of her early years in her family’s jewelry business, both as a child and an employee.
Lee’s father, Melvin Goldman, did not talk much about his childhood in Poland, or his family. In the 1970s, he began recording details of his experiences on cassette tapes, which lay dormant until 2015, when Lee found them and finally listened to his testimony. Lee honored his wishes to transcribe his story as a book, published in 2019 as Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey From Poland to America. In April 2023, Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theatre debuted a theatrical adaptation of her book, entitled Perseverance, written by playwright L. E. McCullough and generously supported by a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Over the years, she has told her family’s story to many audiences, and she has also become a generations speaker as part of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. She has discussed the Holocaust and anti-semitism with diverse audiences around the region and beyond. These engagements have fostered multidisciplinary ways to reach audiences of all ages and in a variety of subject areas, and have taught her both the importance of sharing Holocaust education and the value of presenting the content in engaging ways.
Goldman Kikel is a lifelong Pittsburgh resident, having earned both a BS in psychology and a master’s degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh. She also worked in the mental health field as a rehabilitation counselor.

An Afternoon with Author Deborah Dwork in Conversation with Emily Loeb
2025-03-30 14:00 - 15:00 | Riverstone Books, 5841 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15217, United States
“We hope you will join us to hear from Deborah Dwork about her new book, Saints and Liars. She will be joined in conversation by Emily Loeb who works at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. After the discussion, there will be a time for Q&A with the audience and book signing. Read more about the book and author below!
Want to pre-order your copy of the book? You can do so here. Please designate in the memo field if you will pick it up at the event.
Register here!
About the book:
A gripping history that plumbs the extraordinary stories of American relief and rescue workers during World War II.
Long before their country officially joined the war, American aid workers were active in rescue efforts across Europe. Two such Americans were Martha and Waitstill Sharp, who were originally sent to Prague as part of a relief effort but turned immediately to helping Jews and dissidents after the 1939 invasion by Germany.
They were not the only ones. Renowned historian Debórah Dwork follows the story of rescue workers in five major cities as the refugee crisis expanded to Vilna, Shanghai, Marseille, and Lisbon. Followed by Nazi agents, spiriting people across borders, they learned secrecy.
Others negotiated with government representatives, like Laura Margolis, who worked with the Japanese, to get enough food and warm shelter for the refugees in Shanghai. Yet, the women also often faced lack of support from their agencies; if part of a couple, they fought to get paid even at a low salary despite working as long and hard as their husbands.
Moving and revelatory, Saints and Liars illuminates the unpredictable circumstances and often fast-changing historical events with which these aid workers contended, while revealing the moral questions they encountered and the devastating decisions they had to make.
Drawing on a multitude of archival documents, from letters to diaries and memos, Dwork offers us a rare glimpse into the lives of individuals who—at times with their organizations’ backing, but sometimes against their directives—sought to help people find safe haven from persecution.
About the author:
Debórah Dwork is director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at the Graduate Center—CUNY. Author (with Robert Jan van Pelt) of Flight from the Reich, Holocaust, and Auschwitz, among other works, she lives in New York.
https://deborahdwork.com
About the conversation partner:
A granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Emily became involved with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh in 2018, when she started volunteering as a Generations Speaker. Since early 2023, Emily has served as the Director of Programs and Education, in which she oversees the Holocaust Center’s public and education programs, as well as fundraising and the annual budget. Prior to joining the Holocaust Center, for over a decade, Emily ran the Gendler Grapevine Project, a sunset initiative established to honor the work and vision of Rabbi Everett Gendler that funded initiatives that celebrated the deep connections between Jewish traditions, social justice, and the environment. She is currently writing a book about Rabbi Gendler’s life. Prior to that, she worked for a Native American-owned and focused consulting company, where she served as a project manager, proposal writer, and editor. With the goal of centering her professional and volunteer work around causes she believes in, in 2017, she founded Shattering Glass Ceilings Scholarship for women who are first-generation college students. Emily grew up in Kansas City, where her grandmother was a Survivor Speaker for the local Holocaust center. Emily earned her bachelor’s degree at Colgate University, studying Geography and Peace Studies, and a master’s degree in Geography from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, two teenaged kids, and two Boston Terriers. She loves being with her family, hiking, gardening, writing, and doing what she can to make the world a better place.”

Andrew Laszlo: Growing Up in Hungary, Surviving the Holocaust, and Coming to America
2025-04-03 19:00 | Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States
Join Andrew Laszlo Jr. as he shares the extraordinary journey of his father, Andrew Laszlo, from a middle-class childhood in Hungary, through the horrors of the Holocaust, to an inspiring new life in America. More than a story of survival, this presentation highlights resilience, determination, and the pursuit of dreams against all odds.
Laszlo survived Bergen-Belsen, escaped post-war Soviet-occupied Hungary, and arrived in the U.S. with only $2.36 to his name—eventually becoming a world-renowned cinematographer behind films such as Shogun and Rambo: First Blood. His story remained a secret for 50 years until a book arrived on his son’s doorstep, revealing the past he had kept hidden.
Through personal reflections and powerful storytelling, Andrew Laszlo Jr. explores themes of survival, reinvention, and the forgotten heroes who risked everything to help others. This is an unforgettable narrative of courage, loss, and the enduring human spirit.
Register here.

From Centre to Periphery and Beyond
2025-04-09 15:00 - 16:15 | Virtual
Learn more and view the stream information.

Generations Speakers Series - 80th Anniversary of Liberation: Hedda Sharapan
2025-04-09 18:00 | Eddy Theatre at Chatham University, Woodland Rd, Pittsburgh, 15232, United States
Join the Holocaust Center for a talk by Hedda Sharapan, a descendant of survivors originally from Lithuania. Hedda will share a heartwarming Holocaust story about a father and son. This program is part of a series of events in 2025, commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation, and in observance of Genocide Awareness Month in April.

Register here.

About the Speaker:
Hedda Bluestone Sharapan grew up in McKeesport – but she and her sister Rena always felt that they grew up with one foot in Europe and the other foot in America. Because their parents, Ida and Charles Bluestone, were raised in Lithuania and didn’t immigrate until they married in 1936, their McKeesport household was embedded in the Old World Yiddishkeit. World War II connected the family back to Europe, which brings us to a unique Holocaust story of a father and son.
Hedda also has a unique Pittsburgh story, having worked with Fred Rogers and his legacy for 58 years. Currently she serves as a script consultant for the PBS highly acclaimed Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood for Fred Rogers Productions and as an advisor to the Fred Rogers Institute at St Vincent College. Over the years, she has spoken at hundreds of conferences and events across the country sharing what she’s learned from Fred Rogers. She has a master’s degree from the University in Pittsburgh in Child Development, and an honorary doctorate from St. Vincent College.
Hedda settled in Shadyside and has two daughters, Amy whose family lives in New Jersey and Laurie whose family lives in Chicago, and four grandchildren. In the past few years Hedda has been an active in the Jewish Grandparenting Network and stays in touch with old friends through the Facebook group “Growing Up Jewish in McKeesport.”

Yom HaShoah Commemoration 2025
2025-04-24 19:00 | Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States
Register for our annual program commemorating Yom HaShoah.
Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is the day set aside to remember the approximately six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust Center has been holding a community-wide commemoration every year since the establishment of the Center in 1980.
This year’s program will feature a performance by student musicians from Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, impactful poetry readings, a screening of interviews with local Holocaust survivors & the child of a liberator, a candle-lighting ceremony, and other traditional elements.

During the candle-lighting ceremony six candles are lit in memory of the six million and three additional candles are lit in honor of the Veterans, the Liberators, and the Righteous, those non-Jews who risked their lives to save the lives of their Jewish friends and neighbors. The candle-lighters are composed of Holocaust Survivors and/or descendants, community members, and lay leaders.

There are both in-person and virtual attendance options available (select the ticket reflecting your preferred attendance option when registering).

Presentation by Boaz Munro
2025-05-02 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Boaz Munro is a Squirrel Hill, PA native and web designer now living in California with his wife and two daughters. He’s the grandson of Holocaust survivors. In college and graduate school, Boaz studied Modern Middle East History, Hebrew, and Arabic, with time abroad in Israel, Egypt, and Morocco.
Boaz will be speaking about his grandparents, Moshe and Malka Baran, both of whom survived the Holocaust in Poland. Moshe and Malka’s stories embody physical and spiritual resistance respectively; Moshe was a partisan who escaped the ghetto and rescued most of his family, while Malka found herself orphaned by the Nazis and faced the task of finding renewed hope amid uncertainty and loss.

Register here.

Waldman Arts and Writing Competition Awards Ceremony
2025-05-14 19:00 | Chatham University Shadyside Campus, 1 Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15232, United States
Join us as we celebrate the participants and winners of the 2025 Waldman Arts & Writing Competition. The event is open to the public and all students are strongly encouraged to attend along with their families, friends, and teachers. Winners will be honored and receive their award certificates; the grand prize winner will be announced; and a reception with light treats will follow.

Learn more and register.

Generations Speaker Clare Drobot at Connellsville Canteen
2025-05-21 17:00 - 19:30 | Connellsville Canteen Café and Museum, 131 West Crawford Avenue, Connellsville, PA, 15425, United States

A Night of Hope and Hops with Generations Speaker Debbie Leuchter Stueber
2025-06-03 19:00 | Acrospire Brewing Company, 1702 Mt. Royal Blvd., Glenshaw, PA, 15116, United States
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“Perseverance” Screening
2025-06-04 18:30 - 19:30 | Eddy Theatre at Chatham University, Woodland Rd, Pittsburgh, 15232, United States
Join the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh for a 20 minute screening of “Perseverance,” the newest edition in PA Cyber’s Emmy-nominated Moments in History series that tells the story of local Holocaust survivor Melvin Goldman (z”l). The screening will be followed by a conversation Melvin’s daughter and author of Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America, Lee Goldman Kikel, and filmmaker Scot Rutledge. Register here.

About the Film:

Melvin Goldman spent five years in the Jewish ghetto and concentration camps. He was 21 years old when Allied Forces liberated the concentration camps in 1945. He weighed 85 pounds and could not walk. He recovered for several years in Germany, and then a kind stranger sponsored his move to the United States where he eventually raised a family and owned a jewelry store in Squirrel Hill.
Goldman’s story is captured in the video “Perseverance,” the newest edition in PA Cyber’s Emmy-nominated Moments in History series, which captures first-hand accounts of chapters in time.
Goldman recorded his memories on cassette tapes in the late 1970s. In them, he had stated he wanted his story preserved in a book. His daughter honored his request, and she frequently tells his story at events. Her book was adapted into a play and performed at New Hazlett Theater Center for Performing Arts in Pittsburgh in 2023.
About Lee Goldman Kikel:

Lee Goldman Kikel grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where her early years revolved around school— Wightman School and Taylor Allderdice High School—and the family jewelry business.

Lee recalls her time in the store with great fondness, and she can measure her life’s progress through those happy memories. As a little girl she played jacks on the floor while her father crafted jewelry and waited on customers, and her mother handled the books, sold merchandise, and helped with day-to-day business operations. Soon she matured from playing to helping, then to a more regular job, continuing through her college years at the University of Pittsburgh. She remembers earning her father’s hard-won approval to wait on customers as an exciting milestone in her life. Even as an adult, she would help out after her day job or on weekends during the busiest times.

Lee earned a BS in psychology and a master’s degree in education, then worked in the mental health field as a rehabilitation counselor. Now retired from that career, she is involved in a variety of interests and activities. Lee is an avid traveler, gardener, and muscle car enthusiast. She is also a member of the Holocaust Center’s Generations Speakers Bureau.

Edith and Kurt Leuchter: A Holocaust Story of Love and Resilience
2025-06-17 19:00 - 20:00 | Castle Shannon Library, 3677 Myrtle Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15234, United States
As hidden children, Kurt and Edith crossed paths briefly in a French orphanage after their parents were taken by Nazis. Their daughter, Deborah Stueber, will be here to tell their amazing story, from fighting Nazis in the French Resistance to making a new life in America.

Register here.

Generations Speakers Series: Lee Goldman Kikel
2025-07-24 16:00 - 17:00 | Community Library of the Shenango Valley, 11 N Sharpsville Ave, Sharon, PA, 16146, United States
In middle age, Melvin Goldman (z”l) recorded a series of cassette tapes telling his life story, leaving them to be found decades later after his passing. His daughter, Lee Goldman Kikel, discovered the recordings—a priceless family heirloom conveying memory and the history of a Polish Jewish family which became the basis of a 2019 Holocaust memoir. Lee’s presentation focuses on her father’s recounting: his pre-war childhood, ability to survive the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz and other concentration camps, and a miraculous recovery while knowing most of his family perished.

Lee tells how hope, tenacity, and perseverance amid major losses guided her father to become a United States citizen and start a new life in Pittsburgh. Her presentation also describes his journey to becoming a well-respected Squirrel Hill jeweler who created joy for others.

For questions, please visit the library’s website: CLSV Community Library of the Shenango Valley

"Camera as Passport" Exhibit
2025-08-20 - 2026-01-30 | American Jewish Museum, JCC Squirrel Hill, 5738 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15217, United States
Register here.

Carnegie Library Family & Local History Book Club - Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America
2025-08-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 4400 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States
“Join us for a lively discussion on Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America by Melvin Goldman & Lee Goldman Kikel.

This title is available for checkout in our Catalog.

Co-author Lee Goldman Kikel will be joining us for this discussion

This discussion will take place in the Family& Local History Department (3rd floor).”
RSVP here: https://www.carnegielibrary.org/event/family-local-history-book-club-2/

Inseparable: A Presentation by Holocaust Survivor Marion Lewin
2025-09-10 18:30 - 19:30 | Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States
Marion Ein Lewin, born in Holland, survived the concentration camp Bergen Belsen together with her parents and her twin brother. One of a handful of families who survived the Holocaust intact, they arrived in New York City in 1947. Marion and Steven, then age 9, had never been to school and were placed in kindergarten. Every few weeks the twins proceeded to the next grade until they finally caught up with their proper class. Today Marion and her brother, according to all available data, are the only surviving twins of the Holocaust.
Marion Lewin’s professional career focused on health policy and health care economics. For 15 years she was Senior Staff Officer at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and headed its Office of Health Policy Programs and Fellowships. She headed several distinguished studies at IOM and has written extensively on a wide range of health care topics. Marion received her undergraduate and graduate education at Barnard College and Columbia University.
In recent years she has pursued her deep interest in theater, co-chairing the Council of Theater J, serving on its Board, and serving on the Board of Round House Theatre. In the last two years, Marion and her brother have helped Faris Cassell in the research and writing of INSEPARABLE, the book about the Hess family’s impossible odds of surviving the Holocaust.
Register here.

If you would like to support the work of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, we would greatly appreciate your generosity! Even a gift of $18 helps us with our mission to preserve the stories of the Holocaust and to educate future generations. You can make your gift when you reserve your ticket or by clicking this link.

Presentation by Holocaust Survivor Howard Chandler
2025-10-09 18:30 | Community Day School, 6424 Forward Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15217, United States
Join Classrooms Without Borders, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, and Community Day School on October 9th for a presentation by Holocaust survivor Howard Chandler.
Howard Chandler was born in December 1928 in Wierzbnik, Poland (now Starachowice). Nearly eleven when the Nazis invaded, he was forced into the ghetto and later witnessed its liquidation, when his mother, sister, and youngest brother were deported to Treblinka and murdered. Howard, his father, and brother endured years of forced labor, deportation to Auschwitz, and the death march to Buchenwald before liberation at Theresienstadt in 1945; only Howard and his brother survived, while his father was killed at Stutthof. After the war, Howard lived in England before immigrating to Canada, where he married Elsa and raised four children. In the 1970s he testified at war crime trials, and since 2011 he has returned annually with Classrooms Without Borders to share his story of survival and resilience, inspiring educators and students to confront hatred and preserve memory.
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1757544696499?aff=oddtdtcreator

"Camera as Passport" Special Reception and Curator Presentation
2025-10-23 17:30 - 19:30 | American Jewish Museum, JCC Squirrel Hill, 5738 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15217, United States

Voices from the Shadows—LGBTQ+ Experiences During the Nazi Era
2025-10-29 18:00 - 19:30 | Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States
Eric Marcus introduces Making Gay History’s podcast series on the experiences of LGBTQ+ people during the rise of the Nazi regime, World War II, and the Holocaust. Drawing on extensive research conducted for this first-of-its-kind audio documentary, Eric shares archival clips during a 45-minute presentation (+ 15-minute Q&A) that brings this painful, often hidden history to life through the voices of the people who lived it.
About Eric:
Journalist and author Eric Marcus is the founder and host of the award-winning Making Gay History podcast, which brings LGBTQ+ history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. Eric is also executive director of the Making Gay History educational non-profit organization, which works in partnership with the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the United States, to provide LGBTQ+-inclusive American history lessons to middle and high school educators. In addition, Eric is co-producer of Those Who Were There, a podcast drawn from Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Eric is the author and co-author of a dozen books, including the #1 NY Times bestselling autobiography of Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, and he was a founding board member of the American LGBTQ+ Museum. (For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Marcus.)
Dr. Anika Walke, Askwith Family Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies at CMU, will join the Q&A after the program.
Register here.
Thank you to our event sponsors:
Randi Cost
Michael and Debbie Gordon
Pam and David Haber
Howard Loevner
Steve Zupcic and Mojoe Klements

If you would like to support the work of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, we would greatly appreciate your generosity! Even a gift of $18 helps us with our mission to preserve the stories of the Holocaust and to educate future generations. You can make your gift when you reserve your ticket or by clicking this link.

Harbor from the Holocaust and the Shanghai Ghetto
2025-11-10 18:30 | Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States
Join the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, a program of The Tree of Life, for our annual Kristallnacht commemoration featuring a 20 minute film screening of Harbor from the Holocaust, which tells the story of nearly 20,000 Jewish refugees who fled Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II to the Chinese port city of Shanghai. This documentary explores the extraordinary relationship of these Jews and their adopted city of Shanghai, even through the bitter years of Japanese occupation 1937-1945 and the Chinese civil war that followed.
The film will be followed by a discussion with Iris Samson, co-producer of Harbor from the Holocaust, and Cindy Berg Vayonis, a descendant of Holocaust survivors whose parents and grandparents found refuge in the Shanghai Ghetto.
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s annual Kristallnacht program is generously supported by Edgar Snyder. Co-sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University Askwith Family Chair of Holocaust, Carnegie Mellon University Jack Buncher Chair in Jewish Studies, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Chinese Cultural Center, University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Program, and WQED.
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is a program of the Tree of Life.
Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1758226174819?aff=oddtdtcreator
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More About the Film:
It was a relationship that produced some exceptional artists, statesmen and authors, as well as “ordinary” people who survived to carry on their Jewish religion and traditions that would have otherwise been consigned to oblivion.
This documentary takes a captivating look at why Shanghai was uniquely positioned, through geo-political, cultural and historical influences, to allow this remarkable influx to happen, due to those past relations with Jews predominantly from the Middle East, the Iberian Peninsula and Russia, and because of its centuries of control by and openness to foreigners as a vigorous center of trade and commerce.
This story cannot be viewed in black and white, good vs. evil, suffering vs. thriving, wealthy vs. poor. The story, much like the city itself, is nuanced and complex, incorporating many kinds of foreigners, many classes of Chinese, many kinds of Jews, and many layers. Shanghai was not a place of tolerance and openness, so much as it was a place of fractionalized, disparate forces which were sometimes competitive and sometimes complimentary, but always existed within tenuous and often difficult transactional alliances. Even the people whose stories will be shared have very different tales of how they lived in Shanghai, what their families experienced, and how they were able to function on a day-to-day basis.
Rivaling all elements and in tragic contrast to those who could not escape, this is a Holocaust story of life.
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If you would like to support the work of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, we would greatly appreciate your generosity! Even a gift of $18 helps us with our mission to preserve the stories of the Holocaust and to educate future generations. You can make your gift when you reserve your ticket or by clicking this link.

Voices for Change
2025-11-13 18:00 | August Wilson African American Cultural Center, 980 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222, United States

Teaching Jewish Life and Antisemitism in the Classroom
2025-11-20 08:30 - 15:30 | Chatham University Shadyside Campus, 1 Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15232, United States
This training will provide resources for educators to teach two key topics: Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust and in Western PA, and the history and dynamics of antisemitism.
In the morning we will learn from visiting Dr. Lauren Granite Centropa Archive, which interviewed over 1,000 European Jews between 2000-2019 about their memories of the 20th century. You’ll experience a lesson about the diversity of European Jews and leave with materials to teach it in your classroom.
In the afternoon we will provide practical resources that will help you teach the complex topic of antisemitism to students. In partnership with the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives, we’ll also offer resources to teach students about historic and present-day Jewish life in Western PA.
Featured educators include:
Dr. Lauren Granite, U.S. Education Director of the Centropa Archive
Noah Schoen, Manager of Community Outreach at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh
Eric Lidji, Director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives
Register here.

Holocaust Education Girl Scouts Patch Program Public Launch Event
2025-12-07 17:00 - 18:00 | Chatham University Shadyside Campus, 1 Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15232, United States
Join us for the launch of the Holocaust Education Girl Scout Patch, created by local Girl Scout Lily Sassani with the mentorship of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The program will feature a video documenting the development of the patch and an overview of the stories it tells, followed by a Q&A with Lily.

This program is generously funded by the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh.
Register here.
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is a program of The Tree of Life.
About the Patch:
Over the past two years, Lily Sassani has been working to develop the patch program in pursuit of The Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouts, with mentorship from Holocaust Center staff.
The mission of the patch program is to address the injustices of the Holocaust and antisemitism, as well as to empower individuals to build a more humane and respectful society. The patch program is framed by the Girl Scout’s values of courage, inclusion, and truth, with the goal of educating participants about the Holocaust and the role of Girl Guides during World War II. By the end of the program, Girl Scouts will understand these core teachings and learn the importance of opposing discrimination, as well as gain the inspiration to channel these teachings into action.
