Roger Cohen invites you to lunch.

JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL LUNCH AND DISCUSSION

“The Combustible State
of the World”

Expect an informative and challenging conversation between The New York Times’ Paris Bureau Chief, Roger Cohen, a man with his finger on the pulse of world affairs, and Stephen D. Smith, former Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation.

3 Generations will also honor Roger with the first annual Sidney Bernstein Award.

Roger Cohen

Paris Bureau Chief & former Op-Ed columnist, The New York Times

Stephen D. Smith

Co-Founder & Immersive Storyteller, Memory Workers

Jane Wells

Founder & Creative Director, 3 Generations

3 Generations’
Sidney Bernstein Award

Inspired by the man who was responsible for documenting the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, the Sidney Bernstein Award celebrates a storyteller in any medium with the courage and integrity to chronicle our history as evidence for future generations.
 

Roger Cohen

has worked at The New York Timesfor more than three decades, as foreign editor, an Opinion columnist and a foreign correspondent, reporting from all over the world. Before that he worked at Reuters and The Wall Street Journal in Europe and South America.

He received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and a George Polk Award as part of The Times reporting team covering the war in Ukraine, and a 2024 George Polk Award as part of The Times team covering the war between Israel and Hamas. In 2021, Roger received the Légion d’Honneur from the French Republic for his work over four decades.

He is the author of five books, including a family memoir entitled, “The Girl from Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family,” and the recent, “An Affirming Flame: Meditations on Life and Politics.” He has taught journalism at Princeton and Indiana University, Bloomington, and the role of diplomacy as a fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center.

Roger grew up in England and South Africa and graduated from Oxford. He is a naturalized American citizen.

Stephen D. Smith

is a respected figure in the fields of oral history, genocide studies, and innovative memory preservation technologies. His career is marked by numerous groundbreaking initiatives and leadership roles. Smith served for twelve years as Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, the archive founded by Steven Spielberg to document the Holocaust and global genocides. He currently holds the position of USC Visiting Professor of Religion, focusing his research on genocide-related testimony.

Most recently, Smith co-founded Memory Workers and is also the co-founder of StoryFile, the world’s first AI Conversational Video platform.

Smith is an international speaker, documentary film producer, author, and oral historian specializing in immersive media. His contributions to the award-winning Dimensions in Testimony project have been particularly impactful. His expertise extends to practical applications of memory preservation. 

HOST COMMITTEE
  • Florence Buchanan
  • Ulrika Citron
  • Sophie Caruth & David Bernstein
  • Heidi Drymer
  • Catherine Ingram
  • Frances Lalas
  • Judy McGrath
  • Esther Pearlstone
  • Francesca Unsworth
  • Alexander H. Wells
  • Nadia Zilkha
  • Nina & Michael Zilkha
Sponsored By
  • The St. James’s Trust
  • Ulrika & Joel Citron
  • Heidi Drymer & Peter Graham
  • Esther Pearlstone
  • Judy McGrath & Mike Corbett
  • Nadia Zilkha & Larry Stein

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