Special Projects
& Collaborations
Tell, preserve, pass it on history through the voices of those who lived it
Living Memory of the Shoah
The project “Transmission of the Living Memory of the Shoah: 2nd & 3rd Generation – A Commitment Against Forgetting” aims to document the experiences, perspectives, and unique role of the second and third generations as torchbearers of Holocaust memory. It is grounded in the growing recognition of the central role of personal testimony in shaping collective memory and is being carried out at a critical historical moment, when the number of living survivors is rapidly declining.
The Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, in collaboration with the Central European Immigrants Association and the Israeli Oral History Association, is conducting this unique documentation project with members of the second and third generations of Jews from German-speaking countries. The first phase of the project included a pilot comprising ten interviews with members of the second generation. These interviews sought to explore the influence of family history, values, customs, habits, and inherited biases that were often transmitted unconsciously from the first generation to the next, and deeply shaped identity and ways of life.
The project places a special emphasis on documenting the perspective of the second and third generations, who grapple with being descendants of those who left Germany as refugees, immigrants, or Zionist pioneers following Hitler’s rise to power, and who survived the Second World War. Germany—the homeland of the “generation of the desert”—represents for them not only a geographical origin but also a complex cultural identity, language, and heritage that shaped them while also being associated with the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history.
The interviews examine core questions of cultural and moral legacy: Which principles and values have influenced, and continue to influence, the descendants of German-speaking Jews? What elements of the German language and culture have they chosen to preserve, and what to reject? How do they cope with this legacy, and how is it being transmitted—consciously or not—to future generations, in the spirit of “And you shall tell your children” and “Know from where you came”?
Although members of the second and third generations are not direct witnesses to the Holocaust, their lives have been shaped in its shadow, and their families carry its imprint.
The interviews focus on intergenerational transmission: how memory was passed from father to son, grandmother to granddaughter, and how a sense of mission, commitment, and identification emerged in response to silence, repression, and, at times, loss.
The uniqueness of this project lies in its socio-historical approach: it seeks to create a corpus of testimonies that will serve researchers, educators, artists, and educational institutions.
The interviews will be recorded on video, made publicly accessible online, and preserved in high quality in public archives. Particular attention will be given to interviewees who continue a family chain of documentation—descendants of survivors who were previously interviewed.
The corpus will be as diverse as possible, including descendants of survivors of extermination and concentration camps, partisans, refugees who fled to the Soviet Union, those who left Europe before or during the war, and others.
The insights emerging from this project will enable a deeper understanding of the long-term impact of the Holocaust on Jewish life today and will help build an applicable model for other Jewish communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Latin American countries, where many descendants of survivors reside.
Voices of Migrants and Asylum Seekers
Israel is a country shaped in part by waves of Jewish immigration (Aliyah). Yet as of 2025, more than 200,000 non-Jewish migrants reside within its borders. This diverse population includes migrant workers, refugees, and asylum seekers from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America—many of whom live without permanent legal status. Their presence is at the heart of ongoing political and social debates, as many face the threat of deportation and continue to struggle for recognition and basic rights. At the same time, they are an essential part of Israel’s social fabric, and documenting their stories is vital to understanding the country’s evolving identity.
This oral history project aims to capture this pivotal moment by providing a platform for migrant voices within Israeli society. Through open-ended interviews, migrants and asylum seekers share their life stories—in their own words and voices. These narratives begin with their lives in their countries of origin and follow their migration journeys, integration into Israeli society, and daily experiences. The process not only amplifies these voices but also contributes to a richer public understanding of their personal and collective realities.
The project also includes the testimonies of activists advocating for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers, as well as the voices of individuals who oppose their presence in Israel. By incorporating these multiple perspectives, the project seeks to present a nuanced portrait of the national conversation surrounding immigration and asylum.
Launched in 2019 by Attorney Jean-Marc Liling, in collaboration with the Israeli Oral History Association and the Oral History Division at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the project has—by February 2025—collected approximately sixty in-depth interviews with African asylum seekers and activists. In the coming year, it will expand to include the experiences of migrant workers, offering an even broader view of Israel’s non-Jewish migrant communities.
Jews and the COVID-19
The project was led by Dr. Sharon Livne and Dr. Margalit Bejarano
During the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic (Spring 2020), the Israel Oral History Association, in collaboration with the Oral History Division at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, launched an international oral history project.
Its goal was to document in real time the lived experiences of Jews aged 65 and older during the global crisis, capturing how they interpreted their personal and communal realities in a time of fear, isolation, and uncertainty.
Nearly 80 interviews were conducted remotely in nine cities worldwide—including Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv—in multiple languages. The interviews explored three thematic spheres: personal coping with the pandemic; transformations in Jewish communal life; and relations between Jewish communities and broader society.
The project offers unique insights into belonging, loneliness, solidarity, religious flexibility, digital adaptation, and collective memory. It illustrates how oral history is not only a research method but also a human encounter and a source of personal empowerment.
The collection is available at the Oral History Division Archive and forms a valuable resource for comparative studies on how communities and individuals respond to global emergencies.
Documenting Bulgarian Jewry and Collective Memory of the Holocaust
This pilot project, initiated by the Heritage Center of Bulgarian Jewry in collaboration with the Israeli Oral History Association, includes 20 filmed interviews conducted in 2023 with members of the Bulgarian Jewish community in Israel, most of whom were born in the 1930s. Supported by the Claims Conference, the project focuses on the Holocaust period—especially the 1943 deportation of Sofia’s Jews to provincial towns—but also explores broader life experiences before and after the war.
The interviews capture not only personal memories but also the evolution of historical consciousness over time. Many narrators recall events they did not witness firsthand but learned about through family stories, education, and public discourse. These layered narratives offer insight into the formation of communal memory, identity, and myth, even when the historical accuracy is limited.
The collected testimonies contribute to historical, genealogical, and sociological research, shedding light on family origins, migration within Bulgaria, wartime experiences, education, gender roles, and cultural identity. The interviews also reflect on Bulgarian patriotism and the place of Jews in Bulgarian society, economy, and national memory.
The edited interviews are available on the website of the Heritage Center of Bulgarian Jewry, and the raw materials are preserved in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People. This project serves both historical research and the growing academic interest in oral history as a method for understanding how individuals and communities remember, interpret, and transmit the past.
Collaborations
The Forum for Wartime Documentation Initiatives
Immediately following the October 7 attack, the Forum for Wartime Documentation Initiatives was established in order to unify and support civilian and institutional documentation efforts.
The Forum was founded by six documentation professionals
Ruti Frensdorff - Independent documentarian and activist.
Sharon Rapaport - Independent documentarian and interviewer specializing in Trauma and immigration experiences.
Peleg Levy & Eric Halivni - the founders of the Toldot Yisrael testimonies project.
Dr. Margalit Bejarano a historian specializing in oral history and a board member of the Israel Association for Oral History.
Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli a cultural historian specializing in oral history and Chair of the Israel Association for Oral History.
The Forum created a supportive community dedicated to comprehensive and diverse documentation of the events. Forum members include documentarians, historians, trauma experts, and legal professionals, who collaborated to make the collected materials accessible to the public while adhering to ethical standards. The Forum collaborates with the National Library of Israel to ensure the long-term preservation of the gathered materials. The Forum and its members exemplify social activism, mutual responsibility, and the capacity of civil society to organize and influence history. The Forum's initiatives range from gathering oral histories and written testimonies to video documentation and public education, all aimed at authentically capturing the multifaceted stories of the October 7 events and the war that followed.