Skiing for Oma and Opa
Monday, July 20, 2026
7:00pm ET
On Zoom
It may be summer, but we still have the Winter Olympics on our mind! Join us on Monday, July 20th at 7PM ET on Zoom as we sit down with Olympic Skier and 3G, Avital Carroll.
Born in the United States, Avital competed in the 2026 Winter Olympics as part of the Austrian Ski Team. Having received her citizenship via her grandparents through the Austrian Citizenship Act (58c), Avital honors her Oma and Opa through her sport.
During this program, Avital will discuss her grandparents' story of survival, her own experience claiming Austrian citizenship and competing in the Olympics, and what inspires her today.
We will also be joined by Bernadette Wegenstein, director of the forthcoming film The Archives. The film is a transcontinental cinematic journey into the hidden world of archivists who safeguard humanity’s most fragile records. Following descendants - including Avital - searching for traces of lost family histories, the film moves through Holocaust archives and global collections where documents become living witnesses. The Archives reveals the emotional weight of preserving memory and the human act of holding onto truth.
Register today to meet Avital and Bernadette and hear their inspiring stories!
About Avital:
Avital grew up skiing in Stratton Mountain, VT, where she fell in love with skiing at a young age. From here she climbed the ladder and made the United Stated Ski Team in 2018. She was later blessed with an opportunity to not only ski, but to honor her grandparents and represent her Jewish heritage on the world stage when Austria created the Nationality Act, granting her the ability to regain family citizenship. This was a no-brainer for Avital as her Jewish heritage means the world to her. She now gets to share her story around the world, and now has the opportunity to share it with you!
She lives by her motto: Love. Dream. Unite.—love everyone, dream big, and bring people together. Follow Avital on Instagram at @avishort and learn more at bigairsbigheart.com.
About Bernadette:
Bernadette Wegenstein is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning documentary filmmaker and Professor of Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Her film The Conductor premiered at Tribeca, won multiple Best Documentary awards, and received an Emmy nomination. Born in Vienna, with a family history directly affected by the Holocaust, she brings both personal and scholarly depth to The Archives.
As an academic Bernadette is the author of several books in the field of feminist media studies with MIT Press, Getting Under the Skin: Body and Media Theory (2006), and The Cosmetic Gaze: Body Modification and the Construction of Beauty (2012). She is currently preparing the monograph Body Modifications in the Age of Gender Anarchy. Her monograph on filmmaker Jane Campion for the Philosophical Filmmaker Series from Bloomsbury Press was published in 2025. As a tenured professor of media studies at Johns Hopkins University she directs the Center of Advanced Media Study and works with PhD students in the fields of media studies, Latin American Studies and Jewish Studies.
Learn more at bernadettewegenstein.com
Hosted by 3GNY & 3GNJ
Co-Sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum and Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum