Making his 17th visit to the Los Angeles area since moving into the White House in 2009, Pres. Barack Obama returns to the City in May to speak at a gala at the University of Southern California.
Traffic near downtown Los Angeles will come to a crawl May 7 as Pres. Obama will be speaking at the Ambassadors For Humanity gala hosted by USC’s Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education.
In addition to speaking at the gala, Pres. Obama will be recognized by filmmaker Steven Spielberg with the Ambassador For Humanity Award. According to the Shoah Foundation, the President will be given the award for “his global efforts to protect human rights, his commitment to education and expanding educational technology, and his work advancing opportunities for all people.”
“President Obama’s commitment to democracy and human rights has long been felt. As a constitutional scholar and as president, his interest in expanding justice and opportunity for all is remarkably evident. The president’s recent appointment of the first special envoy for Holocaust Survivor Services in United States history demonstrates his staunch commitment to honoring the past while building a better future,” Spielberg stated.
The Shoah Foundation joined USC in 2006 and produces audiovisual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. The interviews aim to provide education and inspire action.
Spielberg established the foundation after he directed Schindler’s List.
The archive of the Institute of Visual History and Education currently has a collection of 52,000 eyewitness testimonies in 34 languages and 58 countries.
USC’s Shoah Foundation is part of the school’s Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
For more information about the USC Shoah Foundation, please go to sfi.usc.edu.
It was not reported whether President Obama would make any other visits to the area during this particular stay in Los Angeles, though he will be returning to Southern California to speak at the U.C. Irvine commencement at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on June 14.
