1. religion and spirituality
2. judaism

Opening
Ceremony
Monday, July
7, 2014
i
Monday, July 7, 2014
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau
Rabbi Lau was born on 1 June 1937, in the Polish town of Piotrków Trybunalski.
His father, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lau, was the last Chief Rabbi of the town; he was
murdered in the Treblinka death camp. Yisrael Meir is the 38th generation in an
unbroken family chain of rabbis.
Lau was freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. Lau has
credited a teen prisoner with protecting him in the camp (later determined by
historian Kenneth Waltzer to be Fyodor Michajlitschenko). His entire family was
murdered, with the exception of his older brother, Naphtali Lau-Lavie, his half
brother, Yehoshua Lau-Hager, and his uncle already living in Mandate Palestine.
Lau immigrated to Mandatory Palestine with his brother Naphtali in July 1945,
where he studied in the famous yeshiva Kol Torah under Rabbi Shlomo Zalman
Auerbach as well as in Ponevezh and Knesses Chizkiyahu. He was ordained as a
rabbi in 1961. He married the daughter of Rabbi Yitzchok Yedidya Frankel, the
Rabbi of South Tel Aviv. He served as Chief Rabbi in Netanya (1978–1988), and at
that time developed his reputation as a popular orator.
Lau is the father of three sons and five daughters. In 2008, Lau was appointed
Chairman of Yad Vashem, succeeding Tommy Lapid.
On 9 June 2005, Lau was reinstalled as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv after serving in this
position from 1985 until 1993, when he was appointed Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of
Israel, a position he held until 2003.
2
Monday, July 7, 2014
Yasmin Levy
Yasmin Levy grew up in Jerusalem, which she describes as a true melting pot of
peoples and cultures, listening to Turkish versions of Moroccan music, classical,
chanson, jazz, Jewish and Muslim music, and church music. Her taste in singers
gives some idea of the importance of passion in Yasmin's music: Pavarotti, Billie
Holiday, Julio Iglesias, Piaf, Turkish and Greek music – big, dramatic voices. As
Yasmin says: "I like sad songs.
It's important to note that Yasmin's father, Yitzhak Levy, was appointed head
of the Ladino department at Israel's national radio station. His life's work was
devoted to the collection and preservation of the songs of Sephardic Jews.
The release of "Libertad” in 2012 was Yasmin Levy’s fifth studio disc and comes
exactly three years after the release of "Sentir”, which took Yasmin on a two year
journey around the globe including multiple tours of the USA, Europe, and Israel.
Yasmin published a book of songs in 2010. She is the winner of the International
Songwriting Competition for her composition "Me Voy”, and has also won the
Anna Lindh Award for cross-cultural collaboration. She has been nominated
for numerous other awards including the BBC World Music Award as well as
Holland's Edison Award.
3
i
The First an
d Second
Generation
Telling the
Story
Tuesday, Ju
ly 8, 2014
5
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Dorit Novak
Dorit Novak became the Director-General of Yad Vashem in 2013 after 6 years
as the Director of Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies.
Prior to that, she served as Program Director of Mehalev (Wisconsin Plan) at
the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor as well as the Head of Development
and Employment Promotion, a combined program of the Ministry and the Joint
Distribution Committee (JDC).
Novak also launched and directed the educational non-governmental
organization Heznek and managed the company Onyx Technologies. During her
Army service in the IDF, she served in various positions including Head of the PR
Branch and Head of the Culture Division reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel.
6
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
MK Rabbi Shai Piron
Rabbi Shai Piron is the current Minister of Education. Up until recently Rabbi Shai
Piron served in several positions simultaneously: He was the director of the Petach
Tikvah Yeshiva Institutions; he was the director-general of the “It’s All Education”
(Hakol Hinuch) Movement for the Advancement of Education in Israel, established
by business leaders and Israel’s leading foundations to engage in formulating
educational policy; and was also the local rabbi for the religious neighborhood
in Oranit. He is a co-founder of the “Tzohar” Organization, which works to bring
together religious and secular Jews, and is still part of its leadership.
Piron has a great deal of experience in education as a rabbi, teacher and principal.
Among other things, he taught at the Himmelfarb High School in Jerusalem, and
at only 26 years old he was appointed the rabbi of Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv in the Beit
She’an Valley. He was the first rabbi of the joint school for the Beit She’an Valley
kibbutzim and served as the rabbi of the girls’ religious high school in Tiberias.
In 1995 Rabbi Piron was principal of the Yeshurun religious girls’ high school in
Petach Tikvah, and under his leadership the school placed charitable work by the
pupils at the center of its activities. To achieve this, the school set up the “Power
to Give” center to provide assistance to the needy, and a kindergarten for children
with autism under the auspices of ALUT – The Israeli Society for Autistic Children.
Under Piron’s leadership the high school won all the educational awards possible:
the District Education Prize, Education Prize from the State-Religious Education
Department, the President’s Prize for Education, and more. In 2002 the school
was ranked one of the ten best high schools in Israel.
Rabbi Piron was among the initiators of the “Teach for Israel” Program, has
worked to integrate children of Ethiopian origin into the education system, and
as a member of the Dovrat Commission for Educational Reform he headed the
Committee on Special Education.
Rabbi Piron is very active in bringing together religious and secular Jews. He was
a member of the Yahad Forum, the Kinneret Covenant, and the Israel Democracy
7
Institute. Rabbi Piron founded Midreshet Beit She’an, which teaches Jewish
studies at secular kibbutzim, and to Beit She’an residents and kibbutzim in the
Beit She’an valley. The rabbi’s extensive activity, and that of other rabbis, with
secular populations in the area was one of the factors supporting the founding of
the “Tzohar” rabbis organization.
Rabbi Shai Piron has a degree in law and is working on his doctorate on the topic
of the law and its attitude towards people with disabilities.
Rabbi Piron, from the “Yesh Atid” party, became the Minister of Education of
Israel’s 33rd government in March 2013.
8
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Dr. Eyal Kaminka
Dr. Eyal Kaminka is the Lily Safra Chair of Holocaust Education and the Director
of the International School for Holocaust Studies. He is also a published author,
lecturer (graduate level), educator, and a former manager in organizations and
leading ventures. He holds a PhD in Education from Bar Ilan University, and
received his MBA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Former CEO of The Center of Breakthrough Thinking (Israel), Dr. Kaminka brings
a wealth of experience in management and in the Israeli education system to his
position at the International School for Holocaust Studies. Former Director of the
Authority for the Promotion of Employment, Higher Education, and Community.
Kaminka also served as a BT management consultant and initiated and managed
the program to introduce Outcome-Oriented Thinking in the Israeli school
system. Kaminka previously served as the Chairman of an educational NGO, as
a professional mentor to school principals and as the Director of Education in
Joytunes, an Israeli start-up that focuses on education technologies.
Father of four, Kaminka resides in Tzur Hadassah, Israel.
9
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Avner Shalev
Avner Shalev is the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate. Born in Jerusalem,
Shalev served in the Israel Defense Forces between 1956 and 1980, reaching the
rank of brigadier general. He was wounded in action on the Egyptian front during
the Six-Day War. Between 1972 and 1974 he served as bureau chief for IDF Chief
of Staff, David Elazar. Among his other military positions: head of the education
corps and senior lecturer at the IDF National Security College.
After retiring from military service, Shalev served as Director General of the
Education Ministry’s Culture Authority and chairman of the National Culture and
Art Council. He has also served on the directorates of various Israeli museums and
cultural institutions. In these positions, he was instrumental in formulating and
directing national culture policy.
Avner Shalev has been Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate since 1993.
Upon becoming chairman, Shalev initiated a multi-year development plan aimed
at equipping Yad Vashem with the tools to address the challenges of Holocaust
remembrance in the 21st century. Accordingly, he prioritized education at Yad
Vashem, spearheading the establishment of its International School for Holocaust
Studies, and creating a new Museum Complex. Shalev is the chief curator of the
new Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, which opened in 2005. He has
harnessed modern technology in the service of Holocaust remembrance and
education, such as uploading Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’
Names onto the Internet.
In 2003, Shalev accepted the Israel Prize on behalf of Yad Vashem, in recognition
of its contribution to the State of Israel. In 2007, he was awarded the Legion of
Honor by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his efforts on behalf of Holocaust
awareness worldwide, and also accepted Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for
Concord on behalf of Yad Vashem. In June 2011 he received the Worthy of
Jerusalem Award from the City of Jerusalem. In January 2014, Shalev received the
Presidential Medal of Distinction for his service as chairman of Yad Vashem over
the past two decades.
10
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Photo courtesy of USHMM
Professor Steven T. Katz
Prof. Steven T. Katz holds the Slater Chair in Jewish and Holocaust Studies at
Boston University and is the former Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish
Studies. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1972. He is the
Academic Advisor to the Chair of the 31 countries that belong to the International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a member and former co-chair of the
Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and
Chair of the Holocaust Commission of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish
Culture.
A prolific author, Steven Katz has published numerous works on the Holocaust
and Jewish philosophy, including Post-Holocaust Dialogues: (1983), which won
the 1984 Jewish Book Award in Jewish thought; Historicism, the Holocaust and
Zionism (1993); and The Holocaust in Historical Context, vol. 1 (1994), which
was selected as the “Outstanding book of 1994 in the category of philosophy
and religion” by the American Association of Publishers. He has also edited five
important books on comparative mysticism, and he founded and continues to
edit the prize-winning journal Modern Judaism, now in its 34th year of publication.
Prof. Katz has published over 120 articles in the fields of Jewish Studies, Holocaust
studies, philosophy of religion, and comparative mysticism and has lectured at
universities around the world including India, China, and recently Iran. He just
submitted volume 2 of The Holocaust in Historical Context, to the publisher,
and is now hard at work on volume 3. In 1999 he was awarded the University
of Tübingen’s Lucas Prize for Holocaust studies. He was awarded an Honorary
Doctorate in Hebrew Letters by Gratz College in 1987, and will be awarded an
honorary doctorate by the University of Warwick, UK, in July 2014.
11
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Serge Klarsfeld
Serge Klarsfeld was born in Bucharest in 1935. He graduated from the Political
Institute of Paris and became a member of the Paris Bar. In France, he brought to
trial Klaus Barbie, Head of the Gestapo in Lyon; the militiaman Paul Touvier, and
the high civil servant Maurice Papon who was among those responsible for the
deportation of the Jews from Bordeaux. He led the cases against René Bousquet,
head of the Vichy Police, and the Leguay (his assistant) to trial. In Germany, he
brought Kurt Lischka, Herbert Hagen and Ernst Heinrichsohn, the organizers
of the Final Solution in France, to trial. He has also been involved in numerous
campaigns internationally, including campaigning against the impunity of Mladic
and Karadzic in the Serb Republic of Bosnia, against the execution of Eghanian in
Teheran in 1979, and against Aloïs Brunner in Syria.
He is the author of numerous books including The Memorial of the Jews Deported
from France, The Children of Izieu, and The Memorial of the Jews Children
Deported from France.
His father was deported on October 28, 1943 from Drancy to Birkenau where he
perished. Klarsfeld is now the President of the Sons and Daughters of the Jews
Deported from France and is a High Officer of the Legion of Honor.
12
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Arno Klarsfeld
Arno Klarsfeld is the son of Serge Klarsfeld. He received his Bachelors degree
from Panthéon-Assas University and Paris- Sorbonne University. He went on to
attain his Master’s degree in International Law from New York University. He is a
member of the Paris, New York, and California Bars. He is also a member of the
State Counsel of France. In 2007, he was awarded the National Order of Merit.
13
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Professor Yehuda Bauer
Prof. Yehuda Bauer was born in Prague and immigrated to Palestine in 1939. He
served in the Palmach from 1944 to1945. Prof. Bauer received his B.A. from the
University of Wales and his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He
began teaching about the Holocaust at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at
Hebrew University in 1964. Presently, Prof. Bauer serves as the chief academic
advisor at Yad Vashem.
His books in English include: From Diplomacy to Resistance, JPS Philadelphia,
1970: My Brother’s Keeper, JPS Philadelphia, 1974: The Holocaust in Historical
Perspective, Seattle, Washington UP, 1978; The Jewish Emergence from
Powerlessness, Toronto UP, 1979; The Holocaust as a Historical Experience, Holmes
and Meier, New York, 1981; American Jewry and the Holocaust, Detroit, Wayne
State UP, 1982; Out of the Ashes, Pergamon Press, Oxford 1989. Jews for Sale,
Nazi-Jewish Negotiations 1933-1945-Yale UP, 1991. Rethinking the Holocaust,
Yale UP, Dec. 2000. The Death of the Shtetl, Yale UP, 2010.
14
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Klaus Dönecke
Klaus Dönecke is a German police chief inspector, police historian, and author. For
many years, he has been carrying out research on the history of the Düsseldorf
Police Force during the Nazi rule. From this, he, along with several colleagues
and students, has founded the society Geschichte am Jürgensplatz e.V. Among
other things, the society has developed Transparenz und Schatten: Dusseldorfer
Polizisten zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur (Transparency and Shadow: Police
Officers from Düsseldorf between Democracy and Dictatorship), a permanent
exhibition about local police history between 1919 and 1949, which has been
on display since 2007. In 2009, the society presented Zwischen Gehorsam und
Gewissen (Between Obedience and Conscience), an exhibition on Kristallnacht.
Dönecke is in close contact with the German Desk of the International School for
Holocaust Studies. He is the initiator and organizer of the professional training
seminars in Yad Vashem for police officers from Düsseldorf.
In 2010, Klaus Dönecke was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (Order
of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), the only federal decoration of
Germany, for his continuous efforts to expose the history of Düsseldorf’s Police
Force in the “Third Reich.”
Currently, Klaus Dönecke is working on a book about the Reserve-Polizeibataillon
6, which was complicit in the deportation and shooting of thousands of people
in Poland.
15
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Dr. Noa Mkayton
Dr. Noa Mkayton was born in Munich, Germany, and completed her studies in
German Literature and Music in Munich. She taught at a high school in Munich
and eventually wrote her doctorate about the creativity of children and youth
during the Shoah. In 1999, she and her family moved to Israel.
Noa Mkayton is the Head of the Desk for German Speaking Countries at the
International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem.
16
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Daniel Rozenga
Daniel Rozenga was born in Groningen, The Netherlands. He studied in a
teacher’s academy and later began studying ancient Greek and Latin. He then
moved to Amsterdam to study Semitic languages at Amsterdam University and
also worked in Amsterdam as a school teacher.
In 1991 he made Aliyah to Israel and worked as an English teacher in high schools.
Several years ago he became a tour guide for the Holocaust History Museum
of Yad Vashem for both non-Hebrew speaking groups and Hebrew speaking
groups. He is currently a team member of the German Desk in the European
Department of Yad Vashem and is also the head of the Dutch desk. He works
primarily with German-speaking and Dutch-speaking educators.
17
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Justice Gabriel Bach (Ret.)
Gabriel Bach is an Israeli lawyer who served as an Attorney General and as a
Supreme Court judge for 15 years. After his retirement he served as a chairman of
a committee that advised senior citizens. Born in Germany, he later emmigrated to
Holland, and in 1940 came with his family to Israel. He studied law at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. After capturing Adolf Eichmann in May 1960, Bach was
asked to become the legal advisor to a unit called “06” - which was a police unit
that was established especially for the preparations of Eichmann’s Trial.
18
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Professor Aviad Hacohen
Prof. Aviad Hacohen is Dean of the Academic Center of Law and Science, and
Senior Lecturer in Constitutional Law and Jewish Law at the Center and at the
Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing his
BA and MA (cum laude) in Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he was
awarded his PhD in Law from the Hebrew University in 2003 (magna cum laude).
Prof. Hacohen’s current research interests include: Constitutional Law,
Administrative Law, Communication Law, Religion and State, Human Rights, and
Jewish Law.
Prof. Hacohen has published scores of articles and research studies, and serves
as the editor of a number of periodicals. He was the Chief Editor of The Official
Supreme Court Judgments of the State of Israel, and sat on the editorial boards of
the Yearbook of Jewish Law, Machanayim, Sha’arei Mishpat, and others.
He is the author of, “The Tears of the Oppressed – an examination of the
Agunah problem: background and Halakhic sources”, published in 2004 (by
Ktav, New York); Torah and Law (2011); Rabbi Jeseph Caro: A Biography” (2014).
Prof. Hacohen served as a consultant to the Codification Commission of the
Ministry of Justice in Israel and is currently a member of the committee on legal
terms at the Academy of the Hebrew Language. He founded and heads Mosaica
– the Institute for the Study of Religion, Society and State.
Among the steering committees on which he has served are the Center for the
Rights of the Child and the Family, and the Committee of the Center for Women’s
Justice. He is the chairperson of the inspection committee of the Israeli Public
Law Association and a director and chairman of the Logistics Committee of TaglitBirthright Israel. He has also been a consultant for the Prime Minister’s Office, the
Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for the Jewish Communities and Israeli Society.
19
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Yael Richler-Friedman
Yael Richler-Friedman holds a master's degree in Jewish History, and taught for
many years in high schools throughout Israel. She works in the Teacher Training
Department of the International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem and
is involved in planning teacher enrichment programs throughout the country.
Yael is also involved in developing educational materials for a wide range of
populations and age groups.
20
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Professor Rabbi David Halivni
Prof. David Weiss Halivni was born in the small town of Kobyletska Poliana (in
Carpathian Ruthenia, then in Czechoslovakia but now in Rakhivski district, in
Ukraine). He grew up in the home of his grandfather, a Talmud scholar in Sziget,
Romania. During the Holocaust, at the age of 16, he was deported to Auschwitz.
After a week he was transferred to a forced labor camp, Gross-Rosen, then to AL
Wolfsberg, and later to Mauthausen camp and was the only member of his family
to survive.
When he arrived in the United States at the age of 18, he was placed in a Jewish
orphanage. A social worker introduced him to Saul Lieberman, a leading Talmudist
at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York, who recognized
his brilliance and took him under his wing. Weiss studied with Lieberman for
many years at the JTS.
Initially, he studied in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and was allowed to miss lectures
because of his advanced standing. Over the next decade, he completed his
elementary and high school education and earned a Bachelor’s Degree at
Brooklyn College a Master’s Degree in philosophy, and a Doctorate in Talmud.
He married Zipporah Hager, a descendant of the Vizhnitzer Rebbes. They have
3 children. Weiss later changed his name to “Halivni,” a Hebrew translation for
“weiss” or “white.”
He is the author of Mekorot u’Mesorot, a projected ten volume commentary on
the Talmud. He is also the author of the English language volumes Peshat and
Derash, Revelation Restored, his memoirs The Book and the Sword and others.
Halivni also served as the Littauer Professor of Talmud and Classical Rabbinics in
the Department of Religion at Columbia University.
He has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Columbia University, the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, and Harvard Law School.
21
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Rabbi Jeremy Stavisky
Rabbi Jeremy Stavisky earned his B.A degree in Modern Russian History from
Columbia University, New York. He then went on to receive his M.A degree in
Religion from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was ordained as a Rabbi
by the Chief Rabbinate in Israel. He has worked in Jerusalem as the principal of
Himmelfarb High School for the last 17 years.
22
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Shani Lourie
Shani Lourie has a BA in Education and Jewish Studies from Empire State College
(S.U.N.Y.) and an MA in Jewish History from Touro College. She has been teaching
history at the Ohr Torah Stone Girls High School in Jerusalem since 2000. She
has been working at Yad Vashem since 2002 in several different capacities; as
the Director of Teacher Training Programs Division, responsible for the design
and development of training programs and seminars for teachers, educators, and
members of the Education Ministry; and as the Director of Curriculum Planning
Division, responsible for the design and development of educational programs
on the Holocaust for varied age groups. She was the educational director of the
Jewish World Department at Yad Vashem until from 2010-2013. She is currently
working in the Department for International Seminars and is the educational
consultant for the Echoes and Reflections project together with the ADL and the
USC Shoah Foundation.
In 2002, Lourie completed a 6 month intensive course at Yad Vashem to become
a certified guide for Youth and Army Groups travelling to Poland. She has led over
20 trips to Poland for both youth groups and Israeli Army groups.
Lourie was involved in the planning and execution of conferences for Israeli
school teachers at Yad Vashem in 2009 and in 2011. She has traveled to the UK
and the USA and presented Yad Vashem educational materials to teachers and
students in different cities throughout the USA.
23
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Dr.Yitzhak Arad
Dr.Yitzhak Arad is an Israeli historian and retired IDF brigadier general. A veteran
of the Nazi-era Jewish resistance movement, he has researched, lectured, and
published extensively on the Holocaust. Dr. Arad served as the Chairman of the
Directorate of Yad Vashem for 21 years (1972-1993), and he remains associated
with Yad Vashem and serves as Deputy Chairman of the International Council of
Yad Vashem.
Dr. Arad was born Yitzhak Rudnicki in Święciany - Poland (now Svencionys Lithuania) on November 11, 1926. In his youth, he belonged to the Zionist youth
movement and was educated in Hebrew schools.
During the war, he was active in the ghetto underground movement. In February
1943, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Soviet partisans in Markov Brigade
and later in the Vilnius Battalion of the pro-Soviet Lithuanian Zalgiris Brigade.
Apart from a foray infiltrating the Vilna Ghetto in April of that year to meet with
underground leader Abba Kovner, he stayed with the partisans until the end of
the war, fighting the Germans and their collaborators in the Narocz Forest of
Belarus and in eastern Lithuania. He participated in mining sixteen German trains
leading to and from the Leningrad front.
In December 1945, Dr. Arad immigrated illegally to Mandatory Palestine. He
served in the IDF, most of the time in the armored forces. His last appointment
was Chief Education Officer of the Israeli Defense Forces. Arad retired in 1972 as
a brigadier general.
In his academic career he lectured on Jewish history at Tel Aviv University and
as guest professor in Yeshiva University in New York. He has researched World
War II and the Holocaust, and has published extensively as an author and editor,
primarily in Hebrew, English, and Russian. Recently Nebraska University Press
and Yad Vashem published his research “The Holocaust in the Soviet Union” a
book that got the Jewish Book Council's “National Jewish Book Award”. His last
research was the book “In the Shadow of the Red Banner – Soviet Jews in the
War against Nazi Germany.” Most of the books published in English were also
published in Hebrew.
Dr. Arad is married to Michal. They have three children, eleven grandchildren and
five great-grandchildren.
24
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Dr. Robert Rozett
Dr. Robert Rozett has been Director of the Yad Vashem Libraries since 1993
and has worked at Yad Vashem in various capacities since 1981. Dr. Rozett is a
graduate of the Hebrew University Institute for Contemporary Jewry, where he
wrote his PhD. Dissertation, The Relationship Between Revolt and Rescue: Jewish
Rescue and Revolt in Slovakia and Hungary during the Holocaust (1987) under
Professor Yehuda Bauer. He is the author of Conscripted Slaves, Hungarian Jewish Forced Laborers on
the Eastern Front, Yad Vashem 2013 and Approaching the Holocaust, Texts and
Contexts, Valentine Mitchell, 2005. He is the co-editor of The Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust, New York: Facts on File in Association with Yad Vashem, 2000, was the
associate editor of the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, New York: Macmillan, 1990,
and he is the co-editor with Avraham Milgrom of Herosim at the Inferno’s Core, An
Anthology, Yad Vashem and the Knesset, 2013 (Hebrew) and also with Milgrom,
The Holocaust: Frequently Asked Questions, Yad Vashem and the Knesset, 2005.
Dr. Rozett has published scholarly articles about the Holocaust in Hungary, rescue
and resistance during the Holocaust, and the historiography of the Holocaust, as
well as opinion pieces and book reviews in the popular press. 25
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Professor Patrick Henry
Prof. Patrick Henry is the Cushing Eells Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Literature,
and Foreign Languages at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington where
he taught French and French Literature from 1976-2002. He has published
books on Voltaire, Camus, Montaigne, and the novel, La Princesse de Clèves.
More recently, he published “We Only Know Men:” The Rescue of Jews in France
during the Holocaust (2007) which has been translated and published in France
as La Montagne des Justes. He is the editor of the forthcoming volume, Jewish
Resistance Against the Nazis, to be published by The Catholic University of America
Press in May 2014. He is currently the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar of
Holocaust Studies (2013-2014) at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
26
i
The Second
and Third
Generation
– Finding
Meaning in
the Story
Wednesday
, July 9, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Ephraim Kaye
Ephraim Kaye has a BA and MA degree in Modern Jewish History and the History
of the Holocaust from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. From 1978-2000 he
taught in the Israeli high school system. During this time he taught courses on
the Holocaust at several different colleges in Jerusalem. Since 1980 he has been
involved in Holocaust research and education.
In 1988, he joined the educational staff at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Since 1994,
he has been Director of the International Seminars at The International School for
Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. During this time, he has coordinated and led
over 250 international seminars from over 20 countries in 8 different languages.
Over the past 25 years, he has led and guided more than 17 trips to Poland for
high school students, graduates of the Yad Vashem seminars, and IDF Officers. In
addition to all of this, he has published the following books and articles:
An educational unit on Kristallnacht
The Response From the Kovno Ghetto
The Image of Polish Jewry in the Interwar Period
Desecrators of Memory: Combating Holocaust Denial
“One Man’s Journey - Teaching the Holocaust” published in:
Working to Make a Difference - Samuel Totten Ed.
He has also been personally responsible for the organization and management
of six international conferences at the International School for Holocaust Studies
of Yad Vashem.
The Memory of the Holocaust in the 21st Century – October 1999
The Legacy of Holocaust Survivors – April 2002
Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations- June 2006
Teaching the Shoah- Fighting Racism and Prejudice – July 2008
Telling the Story-Teaching the Core- June 2012
Through Our Own Lens: Reflecting on the Holocaust from Generation to
Generation- July 2014
28
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Liat Benhabib
Liat Benhabib has been the Director of The Visual Center of Yad Vashem since its
foundation in 2005. She attained her B.A degree in Psychology and from the faculty
of Film Television at Tel Aviv University. She has worked as a researcher, casting
director, assistant director, and film producer for Israeli documentaries, films, and
television series. She has also worked as a film instructor for adults with special
needs. She was the producer of the Video-Art installations by Michal Rovner and
Uri Tzaig, and was also the co- producer of 118 short films made for the permanent
exhibition at the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem. She was also a
founding member of the “Forum for the Preservation of the Audio-Visual Memory
in Israel” and has been a member of Israel’s Cinema Council since 2014.
29
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Shulamit Imber
Shulamit Imber is the Pedagogical Director of the International School for
Holocaust Studies and the Fred Hillman Chair in Memory of Janusz Korczak.
She is responsible for the educational programming in Israel and abroad. Shulamit
is the main author of Yad Vashem’s educational philosophy. She has more than
25 years of teaching experience, and has developed numerous Holocaustrelated teaching units in a variety of languages. She is a member of the Task
Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and
Research, and has lectured on content and pedagogy in Holocaust education
around the world.
30
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Irena Steinfeldt
Irena Steinfeldt is the Director of Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations
Department. Before joining Yad Vashem, she worked with filmmaker Claude
Lanzmann on the documentary “Shoah”. At Yad Vashem she worked at the
International School for Holocaust Studies, where she developed educational
materials and worked with educators in Israel and abroad. From 2001 to 2007
she served as the Executive Assistant to Yad Vashem’s Chairman. In March 2007
she was appointed Director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department.
She is the author of the educational unit How Was It Humanly Possible—a Study
of Perpetrators and Bystanders During the Holocaust (Yad Vashem 2002), coauthored an interactive multimedia program Into That Dark Night (Yad Vashem
2003), and is the co-editor of The Holocaust and the Christian World (Kuperard
2000, Continuum 2002) and Our Living Legacy (Yad Vashem 2003).
31
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Professor Annette Insdorf
Prof. Annette Insdorf is the Director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia
University, and a Professor in the Graduate Film Division of the School of the Arts
(for which she was Chair from 1990-95). She taught at Yale University from 197587. Dr. Insdorf is the author of “Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of
Krzysztof Kieslowski”; “Francois Truffaut,” a study of the French director’s work;
and the landmark study, “Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust” (with
a foreword by Elie Wiesel). Her most recent book is PHILIP KAUFMAN, which
Leonard Maltin called “a thoughtful, scholarly study of one of America’s most
underrated filmmakers.” Her commentaries can be heard on many DVDs, and she
has interviewed over one hundred film celebrities in her popular “Reel Pieces”
series at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y. She has been a juror at many film festivals
including Berlin, Galway, Locarno and Jerusalem, and is the panel moderator at
the annual Telluride Film Festival.
32
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni received her University Diploma from the University
of Nice, France in 1975. She then went on to receive her B.A degree in foreign
languages and literature from the University of Venice in 1976. She began
working for the Council of Europe in 1976 as an educational adviser. She is now
the Director Secretary General. She has written many publications most recently
Speaking across Borders: The Role of Higher Education in Furthering Intercultural
Dialogue. Her publications focus heavily on intercultural dialogue, current social
challenges, and human rights and equality.
33
Courtesy of Sarah Williams Goldhagen
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Professor Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
Prof. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is a prizewinning and #1 internationally bestselling
author, and former Harvard professor. He is the author of the The Devil That Never
Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism. His books, which have altogether
appeared in sixteen languages, have been published to wide acclaim (“Landmark,”
“Masterful,” “The most important book ever published about the Holocaust”) and
produced vigorous public debates in the United States, Germany, Israel, and
around the world. They include Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and
the Ongoing Assault on Humanity (2009), A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the
Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (2002), and
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (1996), for
which he won Germany’s triennial Democracy Prize. Worse Than War is the basis
for a PBS documentary of the same name. Goldhagen received a B.A. summa cum
laude, M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University where he taught political science
until he decided to devote himself to writing. For more information, visit http://
goldhagen.com/.
34
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Alexandra Zapruder
Alexandra Zapruder began her career as a member of the founding staff of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A graduate of
Smith College, she served as the researcher for the museum’s exhibition for
young visitors, Remember The Children, Daniel’s Story. She earned her Master’s
Degree in Education at Harvard University in 1995 and returned to the Holocaust
Museum in 1996. In 2002, Zapruder completed her first book, Salvaged Pages:
Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, which was published by Yale University
Press and won the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category. She
also curated an exhibition of young writers’ diaries, entitled Private Writings,
Public Records, at Holocaust Museum Houston. She wrote and co-produced I’m
Still Here, a documentary film for young audiences based on her book, which
aired on MTV in May 2005. The film was awarded the Jewish Image Award for
Best Television Special by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and was
nominated for two Emmy awards.
Since 2005, she has worked as a freelance editor and writer on projects for young
readers, teachers, and the general public. These include Nazi Ideology and The
Holocaust, published by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005, and a
biography of Anne Frank, published by National Geographic in August 2013. She
wrote an introduction and edited the forthcoming Diary of Rywka Lypcyc [Rivka
Lipshitz], written by a teenage girl coming of age in the Lodz ghetto during the
Holocaust and contributed an essay to The Day Kennedy Died, published by
Life Books in 2013. Her current projects include overseeing the creation of an
enhanced digital edition of Salvaged Pages with educational materials for history,
literature, and writing teachers and writing a narrative history of the Zapruder
film, her grandfather’s home movie of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Zapruder and her family live in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
35
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Michel Kichka
Michel Kichka was born in Liege, Belgium to a family of Holocaust survivors. He
immigrated to Israel in 1974 and in 1978 he completed his program in Graphic
Design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Since then, he has worked
as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist. His cartoons and books have been
published worldwide.
From 2003 until 2010, he was Chairman of the Israeli Cartoonists Association. In
2009, he was awarded the “Dosh Award” for best achievement. In 2013 he became
a Senior Lecturer in cartoon, comics, and illustration at the Bezalel Academy of
Design, Jerusalem.
He has been a jury member in various cartoon contests and attended numerous
solo and group exhibitions. He is a member and active participant of “Cartooning
for Peace” and has attended numerous exhibitions and seminars globally.
Some of his most recent books include “Second Generation” and “Dessins
désarmants”
He lives in Jerusalem and has 3 children and 2 grandchildren.
36
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Alex Dancyg
Alex Dancyg was born in Warsaw, Poland, and immigrated to Israel as a child
in 1957. After his army service, he lived at Kibbutz Nir-Oz on the border with
the Gaza Strip. For many years, he was a history teacher and an educator in the
kibbutz school and youth-movement. For the last 20 years, he has worked at Yad
Vashem as a leading instructor for the guiding course to Poland and as Head of
the Polish Desk at the International School for Holocaust Studies. Along with his
work at Yad Vashem, he is the irrigation manager at the kibbutz. He is a father of
four and grandfather of seven
37
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Shulamit Imber
Shulamit Imber is the Pedagogical Director of the International School for
Holocaust Studies and the Fred Hillman Chair in Memory of Janusz Korczak.
She is responsible for the educational programming in Israel and abroad. Shulamit
is the main author of Yad Vashem’s educational philosophy. She has more than
25 years of teaching experience, and has developed numerous Holocaust-related
teaching units in a variety of languages. She is a member of the Task Force for
International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research,
and has lectured on content and pedagogy in Holocaust education around the
world.
38
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Eliraz Kraus
Eliraz Kraus was born and raised in Jerusalem. She received her BA in Sociology
and History, and her MA in Communications from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. Kraus worked as a teacher and principle of a school, and ran the
Department of Education in the Efrat Regional Council. She also served as the
CEO of "Yesodot", an educational association that deals with democracy and
Judaism. She currently manages the department of Society and Humanities in
the Ministry of Education. Additionally, she leads the national program "Paths of
Memory", the new Israeli Holocaust studies curriculum for high schools. She has
6 children and 7 grandchildren.
39
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Shani Lourie
Shani Lourie has a BA in Education and Jewish Studies from Empire State College
(S.U.N.Y.) and an MA in Jewish History from Touro College. She has been teaching
history at the Ohr Torah Stone Girls High School in Jerusalem since 2000. She
has been working at Yad Vashem since 2002 in several different capacities; as
the Director of Teacher Training Programs Division, responsible for the design
and development of training programs and seminars for teachers, educators, and
members of the Education Ministry; and as the Director of Curriculum Planning
Division, responsible for the design and development of educational programs
on the Holocaust for varied age groups. She was the educational director of the
Jewish World Department at Yad Vashem until from 2010-2013. She is currently
working in the Department for International Seminars and is the educational
consultant for the Echoes and Reflections project together with the ADL and the
USC Shoah Foundation.
In 2002, Lourie completed a 6 month intensive course at Yad Vashem to become
a certified guide for Youth and Army Groups travelling to Poland. She has led over
20 trips to Poland for both youth groups and Israeli Army groups.
Lourie was involved in the planning and execution of conferences for Israeli
school teachers at Yad Vashem in 2009 and in 2011. She has traveled to the UK
and the USA and presented Yad Vashem educational materials to teachers and
students in different cities throughout the USA.
40
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Witold Dąbrowski
Witold Dąbrowski is the Deputy Director of the “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre”
Centre. He graduated from Maria Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin. He has
been a manager, actor, singer, storyteller, organizer and a coordinator of many of
the events in the centre since it was established in 1990.
His credits as an actor include one-man shows, based on the stories by I.B. Singer
(such as “The Magician of Lublin”, “Taibele and Her Demon”, “The Last Demon”,
“Ole and Trufa”), as well as the adaptations of Jewish legends and stories of
witnesses from the rich collection of the Oral History Program Archive.
He is also a co-creator and co-organizer of the international project “Following
Isaac Bashevis Singer’s footsteps: Workshops. Meetings. Art”. This project, which
has been implemented for three years, involves local communities discovering
the multicultural tradition of pre-war shtetls, through education, animation and
artistic activities. 41
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Bartosz Gajdzik
Bartosz Gajdzik was born in 1982 in Sosnowiec, Poland. He graduated with a
degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of Lublin. During his studes, he
became interested in contemporary Jewish philosophy and Judaism. Since 2008
Gajdzik has worked as an educator, participated in seminars at Yad Vashem, and
organized seminars on Jewish heritage and the commemoration of the Jewish
community in Lublin. In 2011, he received his Ph.D. from the Catholic University
of Lublin. In 2013, he became the headmaster of the Education and Animation
Lab in “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre. He has conducted workshops for
Polish-Jewish youths about the history of Jews in Lublin and the Lublin Region.
He is constantly looking for new methods of imparting knowledge such as using
creative writing, fine arts, and theater performances.
42
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Richelle Budd Caplan
Richelle Budd Caplan is the Director of the European Department of ISHS. She
has worked at Yad Vashem since 1993. She received her B.A. from Brandeis
University in the United States and then earned her M.A. from the Institute of
Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a member
of the Israeli delegation to the International Task Force on Holocaust Education,
Remembrance and Research and has developed Holocaust-related projects with
the numerous international organizations.
43
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Marc Skvirsky
Marc Skvirsky is the Vice President and Chief Program Officer of Facing History
and Ourselves. He is a member of the senior management team, overseeing
all aspects of organizational management, growth, and strategy. He joined the
organization over 30 years ago, helping to develop it from a small educational
nonprofit with a handful of staff to an international organization with 10 offices
and partnerships around the globe. Marc directs all aspects of Facing History’s
program implementation in schools, districts, and educational networks, both
in the U.S. and internationally. He is responsible for strategic planning; the
ongoing professional development of Facing History’s program staff focused on
new scholarship, pedagogy, instructional technology, and educational trends;
and the development and implementation of online learning and community.
He develops content and outreach partnerships with filmmakers, authors,
educational leaders, and scholars. He reviews all Facing History publications and
digital content, and designs Facing History-themed international study trips for
stakeholders, including to South Africa, Eastern Europe, Northern Ireland, and the
American South. He speaks at conferences, think tanks, and conferences on topics
ranging from school reform and civic education, to Holocaust and genocide
studies, and social-emotional learning. Before joining Facing History, Skvirsky was
a classroom teacher, participating in the design team for an urban middle school
magnet program, and teaching social studies and English. He received a B.A. in
education and M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
44
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dimitry Anselme
Dimitry Anselme is the Director of Program Staff Development at Facing History
& Ourselves. He joined the staff in 1999 after teaching American & World History
courses at Doherty High School in Worcester, and at Brookline High School for
8 years. In 2004, Dimitry became the High School Principal for the Academy of
the Pacific Rim Charter Public School. He rejoined Facing History & Ourselves in
his current position in 2007. Mr. Anselme worked as an advisor for Gay/Straight
Student Alliance in schools. He worked as a consultant for the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health and Department of Education to support the needs
of high school LGBT students. He has served on the Brookline High School task
force for Black Males Student Achievement.
Dimitry graduated from Clark University and received his Master of Education at
the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is originally from Haiti and grew up
in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and has been living in the Boston
area since 1985.
45
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Professor Ilya Altman
Prof. Ilya Altman was born in Russia in 1955. He studied history at the Moscow
State Historical-Archival Institute (today the RGGU, Russian State University for
Humanities) from 1972 to 1977, and received his PhD from the Institute for the
History of the USSR in 1983. From 1985 to 1990 Dr. Altman was head of the
department of the State Archives of the Russian Federation and an assistant
professor at the Russian State Universities for Humanities, RGGU (1990-93).
In 1991, Dr. Altman founded and became co-chairman of the Russian Research and
Educational Holocaust Center. In 1992, he started teaching about the Holocaust
at the Jewish University of Moscow. He is now head of the Holocaust Department
at the State Maimonides Academy. He also works as a professor at the Center for
Jewish Civilization at the Moscow State University (MGU) and RGGU.
Since 1988 Dr. Altman has written on the Holocaust and his works has been
published internationally. He has edited about 60 books in the series “The
Russian Holocaust Library.” He is the author of the monograph “Victims of Hate:
The Holocaust in the USSR (1941-1945)” and the handbook for universities, “The
Holocaust and Jewish Resistance on the Occupied Territory of the USSR”. He was
the editor in chief of “The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in USSR.” He is currently
a member of the International Committee of the Annual Scholars’ Conference
on the Holocaust and the Churches, the Shoah Commission of the Memorial
Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Educational Commission of the Claims
conference. He is also on the Editorial Board for Holocaust and Modernit: Studies
in Ukraine and the World (published by the Ukrainian Center for the Holocaust
Studies) and “Dapim” – Studies on the Holocaust (published by the Strochlitz
Institute for the Holocaust Research, University of Haifa). 46
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Robert Rozett
Dr. Robert Rozett has been Director of the Yad Vashem Libraries since 1993
and has worked at Yad Vashem in various capacities since 1981. Dr. Rozett is a
graduate of the Hebrew University Institute for Contemporary Jewry, where he
wrote his PhD. Dissertation, The Relationship Between Revolt and Rescue: Jewish
Rescue and Revolt in Slovakia and Hungary during the Holocaust (1987) under
Professor Yehuda Bauer. He is the author of Conscripted Slaves, Hungarian Jewish Forced Laborers on
the Eastern Front, Yad Vashem 2013 and Approaching the Holocaust, Texts and
Contexts, Valentine Mitchell, 2005. He is the co-editor of The Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust, New York: Facts on File in Association with Yad Vashem, 2000, was the
associate editor of the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, New York: Macmillan, 1990,
and he is the co-editor with Avraham Milgrom of Herosim at the Inferno’s Core, An
Anthology, Yad Vashem and the Knesset, 2013 (Hebrew) and also with Milgrom,
The Holocaust: Frequently Asked Questions, Yad Vashem and the Knesset, 2005.
Dr. Rozett has published scholarly articles about the Holocaust in Hungary, rescue
and resistance during the Holocaust, and the historiography of the Holocaust, as
well as opinion pieces and book reviews in the popular press. 47
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
David Waren
David Waren is Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Education Division,
overseeing the League’s award winning anti-bias initiatives and programs
related to antisemitism and campus advocacy. He also oversees ADL’s
Holocaust education initiatives, including Echoes & Reflections, a partnership
with Yad Vashem and USC Shoah Foundation and Bearing Witness, a program
for Catholic educators. He was formerly Regional Director of ADL’s Connecticut
office, where he led efforts to monitor and expose extremists groups, promote
civil rights and build bridges of understanding among diverse groups within
the region. Prior to becoming Director of the Connecticut ADL Office in 2000,
Mr. Waren was the Regional Director of the Missouri/Southern Illinois Regional
Anti-Defamation League Office in St. Louis. He was previously in private legal
practice, specializing in corporate law and bankruptcy. Mr. Waren received his
BA, cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1985. In 1989, he received his JD, with
honors, from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he was also a
member of the Law Review. He also spent two years studying in Israel. The first
was at the Hebrew University School of Overseas Studies (1983-1984); he also
studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
Mr. Waren is the recipient of ADL’s 2004 Milton Senn Award for professional
excellence.
48
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Stephen D. Smith
Dr. Stephen D. Smith Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation - The
Institute for Visual History and Education, is committed to making the testimony
of survivors of the Holocaust and of other crimes against humanity a compelling
voice for education and action. His leadership at the Institute is focused on
finding strategies to optimize the effectiveness of the testimonies for education,
research, and advocacy purposes. He wrote his dissertation on the “Trajectory
of Memory,” examining how Holocaust survivor narrative — and in particular,
visual history — has developed over time and shapes the way in which the
implications of the Holocaust are understood. He founded the UK Holocaust
Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the
prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide. He was also the inaugural
Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which runs the National
Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom. In October 2013 Smith was
named the inaugural UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education. Smith is involved
in memorial projects around the world. He is the executive producer of Kwibuka
20, the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Rwanda Genocide to be held
in 2014. He is currently a delegate of the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance. He was the project director responsible for the creation of the Kigali
Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda and trustee of the South Africa Holocaust
and Genocide Foundation. As an international speaker, Smith lectures widely on
issues relating to the history and collective response to the Holocaust, genocide,
and crimes against humanity. His publications include Never Again! Yet Again!:
A Personal Struggle with the Holocaust and Genocide and The Holocaust and
the Christian World. In recognition of his work, Smith has become a member of
the Order of the British Empire and received the Interfaith Gold Medallion. He
also holds two honorary doctorates, Honorary Doctor of Letters from Nottingham
Trent University and Honorary Doctor of Laws from University of Leicester.
49
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Ephraim Kaye
Ephraim Kaye has a BA and MA degree in Modern Jewish History and the History
of the Holocaust from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. From 1978-2000 he
taught in the Israeli high school system. During this time he taught courses on
the Holocaust at several different colleges in Jerusalem. Since 1980 he has been
involved in Holocaust research and education.
In 1988, he joined the educational staff at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Since 1994,
he has been Director of the International Seminars at The International School for
Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. During this time, he has coordinated and led
over 250 international seminars from over 20 countries in 8 different languages.
Over the past 25 years, he has led and guided more than 17 trips to Poland for
high school students, graduates of the Yad Vashem seminars, and IDF Officers. In
addition to all of this, he has published the following books and articles:
An educational unit on Kristallnacht
The Response From the Kovno Ghetto
The Image of Polish Jewry in the Interwar Period
Desecrators of Memory: Combating Holocaust Denial
“One Man’s Journey - Teaching the Holocaust” published in:
Working to Make a Difference - Samuel Totten Ed.
He has also been personally responsible for the organization and management
of six international conferences at the International School for Holocaust Studies
of Yad Vashem.
The Memory of the Holocaust in the 21st Century – October 1999
The Legacy of Holocaust Survivors – April 2002
Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations- June 2006
Teaching the Shoah- Fighting Racism and Prejudice – July 2008
Telling the Story-Teaching the Core- June 2012
Through Our Own Lens: Reflecting on the Holocaust from Generation to
Generation- July 2014
50
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Igor Shchupak
Dr. Igor Shchupak is the Director of “Tkuma,” the Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust
Studies, the Director of the Jewish memory and Holocaust in Ukraine Museum
in Dnipropetrovsk, and the Editor-in-Chief of PREMIER Publishing House in
Zaporizhzhya. He has almost 20 years of experience teaching history in secondary
schools and universities. His research interests include World War II, the Holocaust,
the history of Ukrainian Jews and interethnic relations in Ukraine. He has authored
over 120 articles and books which have been published globally. His most recent
works include: Ukrainian rescuers of the Jews during the Holocaust, Jewish
themes in the History textbooks: challenges and possibilities in the context of the
tolerance, Holocaust History in the textbooks of Poland, Russia and Ukraine, and
Tragedy of Ukrainian Jewry. He also wrote a textbook titled World History, which
has been recommended by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science for
use in all educational institutions in Ukraine.
51
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Yiftach Meiri
Yiftach Meiri was born in 1968, and grew up in Jerusalem. He received his B.A in
history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Yiftach began working in Yad Vashem , in the International School for Holocaust
Studies in 1999 in the Guiding Department, guiding Israeli pupils.
He currently heads the UK, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, and Scandinavia desks
in the European Department at the International School for Holocaust Studies
where he is involved in teacher training.
52
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Professor Stuart Foster
Prof. Stuart Foster is Executive Director of the IOE's Centre for Holocaust
Education (University of London).
He has provided stratgeic leadership for
the IOE’s Holocaust education programme since its inception in 2008. Under
his leadership the IOE produced the UK's first ever large scale national study:
Teaching About the Holocaust in English Secondary Schools: An empirical study
of national trends, perspectives and practice (2009). Currently, he is leading a
ground-breaking national study which examines up to 10,000 secondary school
students' knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust.
Stuart is a central figure in the field of history education nationally and
internationally. He is regularly invited to give keynote lectures to international
audiences and in recent years has addressed history teachers and academics in
Canada, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey,
Sweden and the USA. He has extensive experience of leading complex and largescale educational programmes. He also serves as the Executive Director of the
British government’s £5.3 million flagship First World War Centenary Battlefield
Tours Programme. Stuart has written more than fifty scholarly articles and books
with chapters focused on teaching and learning history and he has authored
or co-authored six books. He is also series editor of the International Review of
History Education, one of the leading journals in the field of history education.
Stuart began his career in education as a history teacher, head of department and
senior teacher in comprehensive schools in England; he then completed his PhD
in curriculum and instruction at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. From 19962001, he was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science
Education at the University of Georgia, USA before leaving to work at the Institute
of Education, University of London.
53
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Paul Salmons
Paul Salmons is responsible for the educational vision and pedagogical approach
of England’s largest programme of teacher development in Holocaust education.
He joined the IOE’s Centre for Holocaust Education from the Imperial War Museum,
where he helped create the UK’s national Holocaust Exhibition, developing the
Museum’s educational approach to this emotionally challenging and complex
subject. A consultant on numerous international projects, Paul was invited by the
UN to create materials for its International Holocaust Remembrance Day and has
served as the USHMM’s Scholar in Residence.
54
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Maria Ecker
Dr. Maria Ecker studied History at the University of Salzburg. She wrote a PhD on
Oral/Audiovisual Holocaust Testimonies in the United States. She has co-written
a history textbook for secondary schools. From 2008 to 2011 she worked at the
educational department of the Mauthausen memorial. Since 2009, Maria has
been working for erinnern.at as content developer and project manager. There
she also focuses on work with Holocaust survivors and their testimonies in the
educational field. She has contributed to several educational materials, such as
the DVD Neue Heimat Israel (2011), which is based on survivor testimonies. She
also conducts many teacher-training seminars.
55
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Nadja Danglmaier
Dr. Nadja Danglmaier studied education and communication sciences. She works
for erinnern.at where she leads courses, workshops and tours on the history of
National Socialism and Holocaust in Southern Austria for pupils, students, and
interested adults. She also guides groups through the former concentration
camps Loibl North and Loibl South at the Austrian-Slovenian border. Nadja
Danglmaier did research projects with Holocaust survivors in the USA and in
Israel, analyzing communication patterns and relations to the former home
countries of the survivors and their children and grandchildren. She teaches
commemorative culture and qualitative social research at Klagenfurt University
and heads seminars for teachers on the regional dimension of National Socialism
and Holocaust in Southern Austria.
56
57
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Susan Sandager
Susan Sandager educates Christians and Jews around the world about the
Holocaust through her portrayal of the Christian rescuer, Corrie ten Boom. Ten
Boom was one of many brave righteous gentiles motivated to act because of
her beliefs. She worked with the Dutch Resistance before suffering in a Nazi
concentration camp. Sandager shares ten Boom’s inspiring message in schools,
universities, churches, synagogues, and community centers all over the United
States, South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom and Israel. In addition to her
life work of portraying one of the most notable among the Righteous of the
Nations, Sandager co-founded YAD B’YAD (“Hand in Hand” in Hebrew), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve relations between Christians and
Jews. She has received numerous honors for her groundbreaking work, including
the New Mexico Humanitarian Award, the Anti-Defamation League Education
Award, and Hadassah’s Woman of the Year Award. Sandager is a board member
of the Holocaust Museum in New Mexico. She previously served as US Associate
Director of Education for the Jerusalem-based organization Bridges for Peace
and serves on the Speakers Bureau for the US branch of the International
Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Susan is currently working to produce her “Corrie
Remembers” performance on theatrical stage.
58
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Susanna Kokkonen
Dr. Susanna Kokkonen is originally from Finland. She is the Director of the
Christian Friends of Yad Vashem and the Country Director for Italy and
Scandinavia at the International Relations Division of Yad Vashem. Dr. Kokkonen
is responsible for many activities at Yad Vashem, including the enrollment of new
Friends and Partners in Yad Vashem’s many projects, as well as organizing an
annual International Christian Leadership Seminar. Dr. Kokkonen travels around
the world to speak about Israel, the Holocaust and antisemitism. Fluent in six
languages, she writes regularly on Jewish and Israeli issues, and her articles have
been published in various publications. Her book “Journey to the Holocaust:
Hatred of Jews in Light of the Bible and History” came out in Finland in April 2014.
Prior to Yad Vashem, Dr. Kokkonen worked at the European Parliament in Brussels
and at the Embassy of Finland in Tel Aviv. She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem in 2004 in Holocaust Studies. Her dissertation topic was
“Jewish Refugees in Post-War Italy, 1945-1951”.
59
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Susan Stein
Susan Stein is an actress, playwright and teaching artist. She appeared in
Arthur Miller’s American Clock, directed by Austin Pendleton at HB Playwrights
Foundation. She was seen at Luna Stage as the wife in Bathsheeba Doran’s, A
Parent’s Evening. For the past two years Stein has been performing her onewoman play, ‘Etty’ throughout the United States and parts of Europe. For
twelve years she was on the faculty of Princeton Day School where she taught
Shakespeare and Dramatic Literature. Stein studied acting at NYU Graduate
School and SUNY Purchase.
60
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Stephanie McMahon-Kaye
Stephanie McMahon-Kaye, is the mother of seven children. She made Aliya to
Israel in 1999. She was awarded the first BA and MA degrees in Holocaust Studies
from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Stephanie has been at Yad Vashem, in
the International School for Holocaust Studies, since arriving in Israel. She worked
in Curriculum Development Department, editing materials and teaching. She
taught a course on the Holocaust and psychology at Turo College in Jerusalem.
Stephanie participated in the planning and implementation of four international
conferences initiated by the ISHS since her arrival at Yad Vashem. During the
years here, she has developed materials on art in Terezin, Cultural and Spiritual
Resistance, and Righteous Among the Nations. Since 2005, she has been the Desk
Head for International Seminars in English in the Department for International
Seminars for Educators and has coordinated over 30 International seminars for
participants from North America, Canada, China, Australia and Europe. She was a
co-leader of two study seminars, one to Poland and one to Poland and Lithuania.
She is a master trainer for the Echoes and Reflections program for high school
teachers in the USA and has also taught at over 20 Holocaust Centers and other
locals throughout the USA and Canada. She has also taught in Australia, Poland,
and Romania.
61
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Tal Haim Yoffe
Tal Haim Yoffe is an Israeli independent filmmaker. He has won two awards at
the Jerusalem film festival. Through his films, Haim Yoffe has developed a unique
cinematic language, using an intensive and very personal voice-over.
62
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Liat Benhabib
Liat Benhabib has been the Director of The Visual Center at Yad Vashem since its
foundation in 2005. She attained her B.A degree in Psychology and from the faculty
of Film Television at Tel Aviv University. She has worked as a researcher, casting
director, assistant director and film producer for Israeli documentaries, films, and
television series. She has also worked as a film instructor for adults with special
needs. She was the producer of the Video-Art installations by Michal Rovner and
Uri Tzaig, and was also the co- producer of 118 short films made for the permanent
exhibition at the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem. She was also a
founding member of the “Forum for the Preservation of the Audio-Visual Memory
in Israel” and has been a member of Israel’s Cinema Council since 2014.
63
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Goran Paskaljevic
Goran Paskaljevic is one of Europe’s most respected directors. He was born in
Belgrade, Serbia and studied at the well-known Prague School of Cinema (FAMU).
He has made 30 documentaries and 16 feature films. These have been shown
and acclaimed at some of the most prestigious international film festivals (Cannes,
Berlin, Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian). The rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia
forced him to leave his country in 1992. He immigrated to France. In 1998 he
went back to Yugoslavia to make Powder Keg (aka Cabaret Balkan) which won
international critics’ prizes (FIPRESCI) at the Venice Film Festival and the European
Film Awards. In 2001, Variety International Film Guide marked him as one of the
world’s top five directors of the year. The Museum of Modern Art in New York
(MoMA) presented a full retrospective of his work in January 2008. In July 2010, the
British Film Institute – Southbank organized a full retrospective of his 16 feature
films, along with the publication of a monograph (in English) about his work.
64
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dr. Chava Baruch
Dr. Chava Baruch is the Head of the Central European Desk at the International
School for Holocaust Studies. She is originally from Hungary but moved to Israel
in 1964. Baruch received her B.A. in history from Tel Aviv University, and earned
her M.A. in Jewish Studies from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her PhD,
which concentrated on the world’s perception of the neological Jews in Budapest
between 1919 and 1943, was also earned at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Baruch works with educators from Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, the Czech
Republic, Slovenia and the Baltic States.
65
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Malte Ludin
Malte Ludin was born in Bratislava in 1942. He received his Abitur at Salem
Boarding School in Germany. He attained his B.A in Political Science from the
Free University of Berlin in 1968. From 1970-1974 he studied at the German
Film and Television Academy in Berlin. Since 1976 he has worked as a freelance
author, director and producer. He has authored, directed and produced many
documentaries such as 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him and As the Tanks Came.
66
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Deborah Hartmann
Deborah Hartmann is from Vienna, Austria. She received her M.A. in Political
Science and History from the University of Vienna. In 2006, Deborah moved to
Israel. She began working for the German Desk of Yad Vashem in January 2007.
Between February 2011 and July 2014 Deborah lived in Germany and worked as a
regional representative for the department in German speaking countries.
67
i
The Third a
nd Fourth
Generation
The Releva
nce of the S
tory
Thursday, Ju
ly 10, 2014
69
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Dr. Qian Tang
Dr. Qian Tang was born in Beijing, China. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education
from Shanxi University, Shanxi, China in 1976. He then taught at high school level
for two years before moving to Canada for graduate studies. Mr. Tang studied from
1979 to 1985 with a Chinese Government Scholarship at the University of Windsor,
Canada, where he earned a Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and became a
Doctor of Philosophy in Biology. Upon completion of his graduate studies, Dr Tang
began work at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. There he was Second and
then First Secretary for Academic/Educational Affairs from 1985 to 1989. His major
responsibility was to promote bilateral cooperation between Chinese and Canadian
universities.
After that he returned to China and worked at the Ministry of Education in Beijing
from 1989 to 1992. There he was Director of the Division of Policy, Planning and
Coordination in the Department of Vocational and Technical Education and then
Assistant Director-General of the Department. In that capacity, he was responsible for
the planning and national policy formulation of technical and vocational education
system in China. In 1992 he became Deputy Director-General, Bureau of Science and
Technology of Shaanxi Provincial Government in Xi’an, China.
Dr. Tang joined UNESCO as Senior Programme Specialist, Section for Technical and
Vocational Education, Education Sector in 1993. He became Chief of the Section
in 1996. His responsibility in this position included overall coordination of the
implementation of UNESCO’s International Project of Technical and Vocational
Education (UNEVOC) and organisation of the Second International Congress on
Technical and Vocational Education held in Seoul in April 1999. He served as Secretary-General of that event. In 2000, he was appointed as Director,
Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education. In that position, he was
responsible for the implementation of UNESCO’s programme activities in general
secondary education, science/technology education as well as technical/vocational
education. From July 2001 to June 2005, Dr. Tang was Director of Executive Office
for the Education Sector. From July 2005 until his present appointment Dr. Tang
was UNESCO’s Deputy Assistant Director-General for Education responsible for
overall coordination of the Education Sector’s strategic planning, programme
implementation, finance and budgeting as well as human resource management.
Dr. Tang was appointed Assistant Director-General for Education in April 2010. 70
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Dr. Eyal Kaminka
Dr. Eyal Kaminka is the Lily Safra Chair of Holocaust Education and the Director
of the International School for Holocaust Studies. He is also a published author,
lecturer (graduate level), educator, and a former manager in organizations and
leading ventures. He holds a PhD in Education from Bar Ilan University, and
received his MBA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Former CEO of The Center of Breakthrough Thinking (Israel), Dr. Kaminka brings
a wealth of experience in management and in the Israeli education system to his
position at the International School for Holocaust Studies. Former Director of the
Authority for the Promotion of Employment, Higher Education, and Community.
Kaminka also served as a BT management consultant and initiated and managed
the program to introduce Outcome-Oriented Thinking in the Israeli school
system. Kaminka previously served as the Chairman of an educational NGO, as
a professional mentor to school principals and as the Director of Education in
Joytunes, an Israeli start-up that focuses on education technologies.
Father of four, Kaminka resides in Tzur Hadassah, Israel.
71
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Professor Yossi Matias
Prof. Yossi Matias is a Senior Engineering Director in Google’s Search organization.
He is also the Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center that he established in
Israel. Under his leadership, the center developed core technologies in Search,
Analytics, Gmail, YouTube, Internet scale infrastructure, and pioneered an initiative
of bringing online the world’s heritage and cultural collections. He is also the
executive lead for Google’s university research program across Europe, and the
founder of Google’s Campus Tel Aviv, a hub for entrepreneurs and developers.
Prof. Matias is on the CS faculty of Tel Aviv University and formerly a research
scientist at Bell Laboratories and a visiting professor at Stanford. He is a recipient
of the 2005 Goedel prize for his pioneering work on Big Data, and was elected in
2009 as an ACM Fellow.
72
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Dr. Stephen D. Smith
Dr. Stephen D. Smith Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation - The
Institute for Visual History and Education, is committed to making the testimony
of survivors of the Holocaust and of other crimes against humanity a compelling
voice for education and action. His leadership at the Institute is focused on
finding strategies to optimize the effectiveness of the testimonies for education,
research, and advocacy purposes. He wrote his dissertation on the “Trajectory
of Memory,” examining how Holocaust survivor narrative — and in particular,
visual history — has developed over time and shapes the way in which the
implications of the Holocaust are understood. He founded the UK Holocaust
Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the
prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide. He was also the inaugural
Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which runs the National
Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom. In October 2013 Smith was
named the inaugural UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education. Smith is involved
in memorial projects around the world. He is the executive producer of Kwibuka
20, the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Rwanda Genocide to be held
in 2014. He is currently a delegate of the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance. He was the project director responsible for the creation of the Kigali
Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda and trustee of the South Africa Holocaust
and Genocide Foundation. As an international speaker, Smith lectures widely on
issues relating to the history and collective response to the Holocaust, genocide,
and crimes against humanity. His publications include Never Again! Yet Again!:
A Personal Struggle with the Holocaust and Genocide and The Holocaust and
the Christian World. In recognition of his work, Smith has become a member of
the Order of the British Empire and received the Interfaith Gold Medallion. He
also holds two honorary doctorates, Honorary Doctor of Letters from Nottingham
Trent University and Honorary Doctor of Laws from University of Leicester.
73
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Dr. Haim Gertner
Dr. Haim Gertner has been the Director of the Yad Vashem Archives Division since
2008. In this capacity, as Director of the Yad Vashem Archives Division and the
Fred Hillman Chair of Holocaust Documentation he leads an extensive project
to collect all historical and personal Holocaust-related documentation and to
make it openly accessible to the public through an innovative amalgamation of
content and technology. He also serves as a partner and consultant on projects
aimed at providing access to Digital Humanities in Israel and around the world,
and is among the leaders of EHRI (European Holocaust Research Infrastructure),
a European Commission sponsored project comprising 20 institutions from 13
countries who are working to develop a common research infrastructure for
Holocaust documentation. Prior to assuming the position at the Yad Vashem
Archives, he held – beginning in 2001 – senior positions at Yad Vashem’s
International School for Holocaust Studies, first as Director of Programs and
Curricula Development and later as Director of the Teacher Training Department.
Haim Gertner has a Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Jewish Studies
at Harvard University. He has taught at the Department of Jewish History of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the Open University in Tel Aviv, and served
as the Director General of an academic college in Jerusalem.
74
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Avner Shalev
Avner Shalev is the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate. Born in Jerusalem,
Shalev served in the Israel Defense Forces between 1956 and 1980, reaching the
rank of brigadier general. He was wounded in action on the Egyptian front during
the Six-Day War. Between 1972 and 1974 he served as bureau chief for IDF Chief
of Staff, David Elazar. Among his other military positions: head of the education
corps and senior lecturer at the IDF National Security College.
After retiring from military service, Shalev served as Director General of the
Education Ministry’s Culture Authority and chairman of the National Culture and
Art Council. He has also served on the directorates of various Israeli museums and
cultural institutions. In these positions, he was instrumental in formulating and
directing national culture policy.
Avner Shalev has been Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate since 1993.
Upon becoming chairman, Shalev initiated a multi-year development plan aimed
at equipping Yad Vashem with the tools to address the challenges of Holocaust
remembrance in the 21st century. Accordingly, he prioritized education at Yad
Vashem, spearheading the establishment of its International School for Holocaust
Studies, and creating a new Museum Complex. Shalev is the chief curator of the
new Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, which opened in 2005. He has
harnessed modern technology in the service of Holocaust remembrance and
education, such as uploading Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’
Names onto the Internet.
In 2003, Shalev accepted the Israel Prize on behalf of Yad Vashem, in recognition
of its contribution to the State of Israel. In 2007, he was awarded the Legion of
Honor by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his efforts on behalf of Holocaust
awareness worldwide, and also accepted Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for
Concord on behalf of Yad Vashem. In June 2011 he received the Worthy of
Jerusalem Award from the City of Jerusalem. In January 2014, Shalev received the
Presidential Medal of Distinction for his service as chairman of Yad Vashem over
the past two decades.
75
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Lucy Hamwijk
Lucy Hamwijk is 18 years old and is currently at Bishop Ramsey School, Ruislip,
England. She is studying Economics, Government and Politics, and Maths at ‘A’
level and intends to study Economics at university.
She became interested in the Holocaust whilst studying History, and in November
2012 she applied for the opportunity to visit Auschwitz- Birkenau. This was a very
formative experience and marked the beginning of her association with the
Holocaust Educational Trust. Through the Holocaust Trust, she has become a
Regional Ambassador and has been given the opportunity to learn more about
the Holocaust and its effects on ordinary families. Additionally, in January 2013
she was invited to speak about her visit to Auschwitz at the London Assembly
on Holocaust Memorial Day. She was then asked to speak with The International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In July 2013, along with 22 other ambassadors,
she came to Jerusalem to study at Yad Vashem. She subsequently arranged for
students at her own school to meet a survivor and to discuss the legacy of the
Holocaust. She is currently working to make this an annual event. At the end
of July, Hamwijk will visit Washington DC, USA with other Ambassadors from
the Holocaust Trust. She is also in the process of applying to become a student
member of the Prime Ministers Holocaust Commission.
76
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Luzhen (Laura) Han
Luzhen (Laura) Han is a postgraduate student in the Department of English at
University of Macau. She completed a course of Holocaust under the supervision
of Professor Glenn Timmermans and participated in the Holocaust Education
Seminar for Chinese Educators at Yad Vashem in 2013. Her research interests
include Holocaust education, China-Israel relations, Jews and Judaism in China,
Chinese and Middle Eastern history.
77
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Iain Beaumont
Iain Beaumont is a workshop presenter and has worked with Shawntelle Nesbitt
since 2008. Beaumont started learning about the Holocaust in 2006 as a grade
six student in Shawntelle’s classroom. He is now a second year student of Brock
University’s Concurrent Education program, on his way to becoming a secondary
school teacher. He is able to evoke the values and morals he learned as a student
of the Holocaust by remaining active in his community. He states, “…my grade
six experience has taught me the importance of being in the world and my
obligation as an active citizen of that world…”
78
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Łukasz Matysiak
Łukasz Matysiak is 18 years old. He is from Poland and currently lives near Warsaw
in Maków Mazowiecki. Lukasz is a 2nd class student in Maria Curie-Skłodowska
Liceum. His interests include history, politics, geography, and music. In 2013 he
won the Izaak Wesołek Contest.
79
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Maria Gonzalez Warcalde
Maria Gonzalez Warcalde is a graduate from Michael Ham Memorial College
in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied History at UCA (Argentinean Catholic
University) and was awarded a scholarship to complete her course of studies
and pursue a Post-graduate (Licenciature) Degree in History. She is currently
working on her thesis about Catholic Press, Politics, and Ideas in Argentina: (19411948). As a member of the “Programa de Historia de la Iglesia en la Argentina
Contempornea” (PHIAC-UCA), she is intensively developing research in this area.
She also works as a History teacher in middle and high schools, where - as a
student herself- she was first exposed to Holocaust Education Programs. She now
actively works on Holocaust Education Programs with her own students through
a combination of strategies such as expository-interactive lessons, workshops,
visits to the Holocaust Museum, and oral discussions.
80
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Batya Brownstein
Batya Brownstein was born in 1996 to an observant Jewish family in Los Angeles,
California. Her father, Rich, is from Portland, Oregon, and her mother, Sara, is from
Paris, France. Batya’s brother, Yehuda, was born in 1998. Batya attended a Religious-Zionist day school until age seven, when her family
made Aliyah during the second intifada. Batya’s Religious-Zionist education
continued in Jerusalem. She graduated from Evelina de Rothschild High School
for girls in June 2014. Batya has chosen to become an Israeli soldier and has been
accepted into the prestigious Israeli Defense Force’s Speaker’s Bureau. Before
starting that part of her life, Batya will attend a 14-month pre-army preparatory
program in the Golan Heights. Batya studied Holocaust history for a portion of the Israeli matriculation exam. Last summer Batya spent a week in Poland with her class, visiting death camps,
concentration camps, and Jewish/Holocaust monuments, and focusing on
European Jewry before and during the Holocaust. Batya’s father is a professor of
Jewish and Holocaust film, and includes her in his teaching process.
Batya’s other interests and talents include learning new languages besides English,
French, and Hebrew, which she speaks fluently; playing the guitar, writing poetry,
and staying current with world culture through television and film exposure. 81
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Shai Abramson
Shai Abramson headed the Saban Family Foundation in Los Angeles before
launching Shai Abramson Strategic Consulting Ltd., Today, she continues to
manage foundations and equips non-profit organizations with the tools they
need to effectively compete in the North American and European markets. Prior
to her work in philanthropy, Shai was the Founder and Director of Presentatzia, an
Israel-based public relations/marcom firm representing investment banking firms,
NASDAQ companies, and much of the Israeli defense industry. She has served
on the Executive Board of the Jewish Funders Network and has held numerous
advisory positions for non-profits in Israel and Los Angeles. She attended both
Brandeis University and the University of California, Berkeley.
82
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Dr. Shlomo Breznitz
Dr. Shlomo Breznitz was born in Czechoslovakia. During the Holocaust, he and
his sister were rescued by Catholic nuns. His mother survived the camps, but
his father, uncles, aunts, nephews and grandparents were all killed. He moved
to Israel shortly after the state was created and lived on a kibbutz. He received
his Ph.D. in psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he then
worked as a faculty member until 1974. He then moved to the University of Haifa
where he became a full professor. He was elected to be the Rector and President
of the university and later established the Center for Stress Research, which he
directed until his retirement. His research focuses on coping with stress, with
particular emphasis on issues of denial and hope. He became an internationally
known scholar in these areas and was invited to spend significant time at leading
institutions such as: UC Berkeley, Stanford, National Institutes of Health, and
Rockefeller University.
He has published nine books, including two autobiographies: “Memory Fields”
and “The Tapestry of Life.”
83