34. Morgan Blum Schneider — Director of the JFCS Holocaust Center on Memory, Courage, and Confronting Hate
This week on Exceptionally Good , we're joined by Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of the JFCS Holocaust Center in San Francisco — a leader who has spent more than two decades turning the hardest chapters of history into some of the most practical tools we have for building an empathetic, morally courageous society. Morgan has helped grow the Jewish Family and Children Services Holocaust Center since 2005 into one of the leading voices in Holocaust and genocide education in California, regularly advising school districts, legislators, and civic leaders on how to teach this important history honestly so we may never repeat it — and how to recognize and confront antisemitism when it shows up close to home. Her own path into this work began at Clark University, where she focused on Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and continued in Australia, where her graduate research examined the forced removal of Aboriginal children as a case of genocide — an experience that shaped how she thinks about memory, harm, and repair across very different histories. Today, Morgan is helping to lead the Never Forget Capital Campaign — a $90 million effort to build a new home for Northern California's only dedicated Holocaust Center, a transformative, state-of-the-art facility for testimony, archives, and education designed to carry this work forward long after the generation of survivors who first gave it voice. In this conversation, we talk about what it takes to build public support for education in a deeply polarized moment, the role community organizations play as a bulwark against hate and misinformation, and how nonprofits bring donors, educators, and civic leaders together around something durable — not just a building, but a shared commitment to remembering well. This episode is about memory, courage, and what it means to use our many, many talents and skills for social good. And with that... Dive in! Donate to the JFCS' Holocaust Center Your support combats antisemitism and hate through educational programs and more... https://donate.jfcs.org/give/176103#!/donation/checkout Support the show •••••••••• About Exceptionally Good: https://www.exceptionallygood.org/about More from Exceptionally Good: 📧 ryan@exceptionallygood.org Work with Ryan on leadership development, strategic planning or Deeper Learning. https://www.exceptionallygood.org/services Exceptionally Good on Substack: https://substack.com/@exceptionallygood Producer & host: Ryan Maxwell Editor: Matt Mitchell Theme music: Ryan Raddatz Guitar music: Adeline’s Guitar Credits/Outro Read by: Adeline, Advice & Jess The views shared on this podcast are those of my guests and the host and do not necessarily reflect those of any employer or client past or present.


