NO HEREDITARY ENEMIES

Remembering the horrors her father faced as a survivor of the Holocaust, Leah Pisar reflects on his eternal optimism and how his belief in humanity influenced her life and work with The Aladdin Foundation.

Leah Pisar

President
The Aladdin Project, France
Culture and Social Cohesion

Dr Leah Pisar chairs the Aladdin Project, which combats extremism by teaching the universal lessons of the Holocaust and building bridges of knowledge among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. An expert on transatlantic relations, she writes, teaches and is a frequent news commentator. Currently writing a family memoir, she regularly narrates, with her mother, the text written by her late father Samuel Pisar, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, for Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony with leading world orchestras. She served on the staff of President Clinton’s National Security Council, at the State Department and at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. She holds a BA from Harvard, a Masters from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, and a PhD from the University of Paris. Dr Pisar serves on the boards of the Franco-American Fulbright Commission, the French Institute, and the Harriman Foreign Service Fellowship. She was awarded the Global Hope Coalition’s Hero Award in 2019.