Coordinating Council
The current Coordinating Committee of GSI - all leaders of Second and Third Generation or other Holocaust-related organizations - bring decades of experience to this effort.
Esther Finder is Founder and President of Generations of the Shoah – Nevada and former President of The Generation After in the Washington, DC area. Esther was a member of the official US Delegation to the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague in June, 2009. She was designated to represent the Holocaust survivor community and spoke about caring for aging survivor parents from the perspective of the survivor families. She was also appointed by the Governor of Nevada to the Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust and is a member of the board of the Holocaust Survivors Group of Southern Nevada. Esther was a volunteer interviewer for both the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (Shoah Foundation). She has been a speaker on the Holocaust in schools, synagogues, churches and military installations in the DC area. Esther was on the Task Force to create a Holocaust, Genocide Studies, Human Rights and Tolerance Center in Maryland as the designee of the Secretary of Higher Education. She also served on the Jewish Community Relations Yom Hashoah Committee and the Speakers Bureau of Montgomery College. Esther is a member of the Assocation of Holocaust Organizations (AHO). She appeared on C-Span 2 Book TV at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum moderating the discussion on Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?
Klara Firestone is the founder and current President of Second Generation, Los Angeles. She also currently sits on the Board of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. She was an interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, has been involved with the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance, and was the second generation Board member of the Council of Post-War Holocaust Organizations. In addition, Klara has been a guest lecturer at various synagogues and schools. Klara is a psychotherapist working with the Second Generation and their families.
Sandy Hoffman is the President and a founding member of Generation After in Milwaukee, Operations Chairperson of the Nathan & Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center, and Chairperson of the Yom Hashoah Commemoration Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was an interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (Shoah Foundation), the Fortunoff Video Archive of Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University and the Marquette University project, European Jewish Life Before WWII.
Dina Cohen is the chair of Generations of the Shoah - New Jersey and a member of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education. She is a member of the Board of the Holocaust Council of Metrowest serving Essex, Morris, Sussex and North Union counties in New Jersey and the Holocaust Advisory Committee of Jewish Family Services of MetroWest, which sponsors Cafe Europa: the Holocaust Survivor Friendship Society. She was an interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and volunteered in the Office of Survivor Affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dina has also been active in second generation groups in other areas.
Bonnie Stein is the President of Generations After at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. She speaks about the Holocaust and tolerance at schools in the Tampa Bay area and takes her story "A Child of Survivor's Message to the World" to teacher's institutes, the Government's Council on Education, and student groups. Bonnie is also a popular speaker at community-wide Yom Hashoah commemorations.
Anat Bar-Cohen, co-president of the Generation After, Washington DC, is a founding member of CHAIM, Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota and of GSI. She has given talks about her experience as a child of survivors in many venues, and helps plan Holocaust-related programs in the Washington DC area. She is a member of the Greater Washington DC Community Yom HaShoah Planning Committee and was a member of the Twin Cities Yom Hashoah Committee, participating in the planning and implementation of numerous commemorations and programs in both cities. She was on the Steering Committee for the Chicago 2002, Living the Legacy conference. Anat has also participated in Holocaust education programs in Israel where she and her family lived for 12 years.
Ken Engel is former Chair and one of the founding members of CHAIM, Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota. He is a member of the Speakers' Bureau of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas and speaks with school, college, municipal, synagogue, educator, church, industry and private groups, clubs and organizations about the Shoah, Israel and related topics.
Barbara Wind, is the Director of the Holocaust Council of MetroWest serving Essex, Morris, Sussex and North Union counties in New Jersey. She is the founder and executive director of Global Association of Holocaust Educators (GAHGE); a founding member of the Council of Holocaust Educators (CHE) and the founder and executive director of the Sister Rose Thering-Yad Vashem Scholarship Fund. A leadership New Jersey Fellow, Barbara teaches creative writing, conducts workshops for educators on teaching the Holocaust and speaks about the Holocaust in schools and other venues. Her poems are included in the New Jersey State Holocaust Commission’s Curriculum and a book of her Holocaust poetry, Auf Asche Gehen, (Walking on Ash) was translated by Marlen Gabriel and published in March 2004 by EOS Verlag.
Pepi Joskowitz Nichols is the coordinator of the Second Generation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Houston,TX and a member of the board of Houston Council of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. She was on the steering committee of the 2001 Child Survivor Conference held in Houston, and has been co-chair of the Citywide Yom HaShoah Commemoration for several years. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Holocaust Museum Houston where as an active docent she leads school tours of the museum, and as an interviewer is involved in the museum's Oral History Project held at Rice University.
Charles Silow is a psychologist and the Director of the Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families of the Jewish Home & Aging Services of Detroit. The Program conducts counseling sessions and support groups for Holocaust survivors and families, Café Europa – monthly entertainment and refreshments for the survivor community, Yiddish/Jewish Film Series, Portraits of Honor – a photographic project that involves the photographing and taking of biographies of survivors, and Yad B’ Yad – a new friendly visitor program for the survivor community.
Daniel Brooks is founder and director of 3GNY – A NYC–based Group for Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors. He started this group because he feels that by coming together as a community and finding common ground, grandchildren of survivors would be more effective in exploring what their legacy is, how to articulate it and how to pass it on. He is the grandson of four Holocaust survivors – his maternal grandparents are from Poland and his paternal grandparents are from Latvia. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Daniel received a BS in Communications from Boston University and has worked in the fields of marketing and advertising, while also being active in raising Holocaust awareness. After returning from a Jewish youth trip to the death camps, he spoke about this experience and his personal connection to the Holocaust to fellow classmates – younger and older – at his high school. While he lived in Chicago from 2002 to 2004, he volunteered at ADSI (Association of Descendants of the Shoah-Illinois). Daniel is interested in political commentary, studying history, social issues, issues of concern for the Jewish community, raising awareness and understanding about Israel, among other issues central to the Jewish community.
Doris Schwarz-Lisenbee is the co-founder of the Second and Third Generation Program of the Silicon Valley Holocaust Survivor Association (SVHSA) located in San Jose, California. This program serves the San Francisco Bay area and Northern California. Doris has been both a member of SVHSA and Chair of the Second and Third Generation program for over ten years and also writes a column for the monthly newsletter, focusing on local, national, and international issues related to Survivor welfare. In conjunction with Santa Clara County, Doris serves as the Second Generation Holocaust Survivor Representative on the planning committee for the Annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony. She is involved with programming, youth and clergy outreach, and Survivor participation. Doris is also Chair of the United Nations Annual Holocaust Remembrance Week, co-sponsored with the City of San Jose, and the offices of the Mayor and the City Council. As a Board Member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Silicon Valley, Doris serves as Chair of the Holocaust Affairs and Education Committee. Doris is a regular speaker in schools and at public events, regarding the Holocaust and social justice issues.