Respect for one another: Lesson 1
Kicking off the Ambassadors for Humanity gala with a moment of silence for those who died in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, Oprah Winfrey said from the podium, “We are never going to let hate triumph over love.”
The event
The gala dinner, chaired by Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, honored Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks for their commitment to tolerance, understanding and respect for others. Raising nearly $4 million for the USC Shoah Foundation — the Institute for Visual History and Education, the Nov. 5 affair at the Beverly Hilton also bestowed an inaugural Stronger Than Hate Educator Award on Parkland, Fla., teacher Ivy Schamis as part of an initiative to address a rising tide of hatred, both in America and abroad.
The program
Short speeches, videos and musical entertainment offered a message of hope to the audience, which included — along with the superstar chairs and honorees — 12 survivors of the Parkland shooting and veterans of World War II, including liberation witnesses of the Holocaust.
The quotes
“‘Stronger than hate’ is a message that resonates deeply with me,” said Schamis, speaking of Shoah’s initiative to help educators warn against hatred and violence. “In Pittsburgh and in Parkland and everywhere else, becoming stronger than hate is what all of us need … [Hate] is never OK. Being a bystander is not OK. We must be upstanders and stand for what is right.” Of Schamis and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, Hanks said, “We all wish they were not here … but the fact that they are here … sharing a story — their story — by way of, and through, the Shoah Foundation, is just another testament to two things: one is the work of Shoah, and two is the extraordinary spirit and responsibility of those high schoolers and that teacher.”
The numbers
The gala in Beverly Hills saw more than 700 people buying tickets that started at $1,500. Proceeds will help fund the new Stronger Than Hate initiative at Shoah, an organization created to collect video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and now testimonies from genocides in Asia, Africa and Central America.