PROFILES OF PRESENTERS Combating Antisemitism December 2020 Council of American Jewish Museums Melanie Adams, PhD, currently serves as the Director of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum. Before joining the Smithsonian, Dr. Adams served as the Deputy Director for Learning Initiatives at the Minnesota Historical Society overseeing the state’s 26 historic sites. Prior to Minnesota, she spent twelve years at the Missouri Historical Society as the Managing Director for Community Education and Events. Dr. Adams is an active member of the museum community, served on the board of the American Association for State and Local History, and is a former president of the Association of Midwest Museums. Ilana Burstein Benson joined Yeshiva University Museum in 2002, and since 2012 has served as Director of Museum Education. She is also adjunct professor of Museum Education at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. She received her MS in Museum Education and Early Adolescence Education from Bank Street College, and has presented at educational conferences, including "Capacities for Imaginative Learning in the Museum Setting" for The Leadership Institute, and "Hands-on-History: An Experiential Approach to Social Studies" for The Jewish Education Project. Jonah Boyarin is the Jewish Communities Liaison for the New York City Commission on Human Rights. He is an educator and writer on the topics of racism and antisemitism, and is a born-and-raised New Yorker, and Yiddish speaker. In 2015, Jonah co-founded the country’s first Diversity and Equity Program at a Jewish day school, at JCHS of the Bay. He was named by the Jewish Week as one of 2020’s “36 under 36.” Amanda Coven is the Director of Education at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. She leads the Education Department in developing dynamic programs for diverse audiences. Coven trains docents to engage visitors in conversation style tours and facilitates professional development opportunities for educators that encourage them to draw connections between histories. She helped draft the content for Oregon’s Holocaust and Genocide education mandate (SB664), and since it’s unanimous passing, works closely with the State Department of Education to prepare educators for its implementation. 1 Sol Davis is the outgoing Executive Director of the Jewish History Museum in Tucson, and will start as Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland in 2021. He earned a PhD in Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona in 2018. His dissertation is titled, “Teaching with Testimony: A Metalanguage.” Davis serves on the board of directors of the Council of American Jewish Museums. He has taught for the University of Arizona Honors College, College of Education, and Center for Judaic Studies. Avi Decter, a founder and past president of CAJM, has worked in and with museums since 1972. He has served in senior positions at the National Museum of American History and the Winterthur Museum, and directed both the Museum of American Jewish History and the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Decter is the editor and co-author of half a dozen book-length catalogs and author, most recently, of Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites (2016). Liz Diament is a senior educator at the National Gallery of Art of Art where she develops and implements education for docents, manages school and general public tour, and works with teachers. She received a degree in Art History from Manchester University and a Masters in Museum Education from Bank Street College. During her three-year tenure at the Yeshiva University Museum, Diament became interested in how objects tell multiple stories and can be understood through many lenses. She works with teachers through a MOOC (Massive On-line Open Course) called Teaching Critical Thinking through Art inspired by Harvard’s Project Zero. Ayala Fader received her PhD from New York University and is currently Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University. She is the author of the award-winning book Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn (Princeton 2009). Recent fellowships include the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which supported her latest book, Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age (2020). Dr. Fader is the co-founder and co-convener of the New York Working Group on Jewish Orthodoxies at Fordham’s Jewish Studies Program. Dr. Edna Friedberg is Senior Program Curator at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and host of the Museum's popular Facebook Live series. A graduate of the University of Illinois, she received her PhD from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Friedman joined the staff of the Holocaust Museum in 1999 and served as the historian for the Museum’s online Holocaust Encyclopedia. She also curated an exhibition on the legacy of the Nuremberg trials and postwar justice. Her essays connecting Holocaust history 2 with social, cultural, and political issues today have appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, Newsday, and The Forward. Sholom Friedmann is the Director of the Amud Aish Memorial Museum in Brooklyn. He has overseen the development of Holocaust exhibits in America and Europe, and developed Holocaust educational training and materials. He previously directed the Zechor Yemos Olam division of Torah Umesorah. Friedman’s education includes a Masters degree in Talmudic Law, a Bachelor’s degree in Hebrew Letters, Qualified Teachers Status from the Teaching Regulation Agency, and a Diploma in Emotional Factors in Learning from The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. He was a Fellow in Holocaust Education at the Imperial War Museum, London. Friedmann is also an ordained Rabbi. Jordanna Gessler is the VP of Education and Exhibits at Holocaust Museum LA where she provides strategic leadership for the education and archive departments. She is active in several public service fellowships where she works with elected, civic, and community leaders to address critical challenges facing LA. Gessler earned a BA from University of Vermont and an MA from University of Haifa. She worked at Yad Vashem and received the 2014 Yad Vashem Award for Research. She has written articles and presented at conferences internationally on topics including contemporary antisemitism, fiction and the Holocaust, art and resistance, and teaching empathy. Luna Goldberg is a Miami-based curator who currently serves as the Education Manager at the Jewish Museum of Florida – FIU. Goldberg’s research focuses on global contemporary art and identity politics with an emphasis on Israeli art. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Israel and served as the Curatorial Research Assistant for the Israeli Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. Goldberg has curated exhibitions and programs in partnership with the Association for Israel Studies, Detroit Art Week, and the College Art Association, and has held positions at Artis, the Museum at Eldridge Street, and the Norton Museum of Art. Ari Goldstein is Senior Public Programs Producer at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City, where he previously served as Manager of Special Projects for two years. An emerging museum professional, Ari studied Jewish Civilization with a focus on the Holocaust at Georgetown University and has been involved with Yahad-In Unum and with New York’s Stonewall 50 Consortium. At the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Ari worked on the opening of the exhibition "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away." Gabriel Goldstein is an independent curator, museum consultant and adjunct professor, working with institutions including the National Archives, Israel Antiquities 3 Authority, Claims Conference, and Wesleyan University. Goldstein worked at Yeshiva University Museum for over 20 years in curatorial and senior leadership roles, and has been the Consulting Curator of Judaic Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art since 2002. He previously worked at The Jewish Museum, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Goldstein served as the Chair of CAJM, and has led several professional development initiatives including CAJM's first mission to Israel in 2015. Elaine Heumann Gurian is a consultant/advisor to museums and visitor centers that are beginning, building, or reinventing themselves. Gurian writes, speaks, and teaches about museums and inclusion around the world. She is the author of Civilizing the Museum (2006) and editor of Institutional Trauma: The Effect of Major Change on Museum Staff (1995). She was awarded the Distinguished Service to Museums Award in 2004. Bryant Heinzelman is a veteran of the US Army, and a graduate of the Military Intelligence Cryptologic College of Corry Station, Pensacola. After a particularly difficult deployment to Iraq he shifted his focus from intelligence analysis to Jewish community building, interfaith outreach, and inclusion initiatives. Heinzelman is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant working primarily with North American Jewish organizations, a Jewish Educator, a Teen Engagement Mentor, a 2018 Union for Reform Judaism Jew V’ Nation Fellow, and a bluegrass hobbyist. He currently resides in Bellingham, Washington. Judith Joseph is a Chicago-based artist, curator, and educator. Her projects include exhibits across the United States, as well as Vancouver, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Douro, Portugal. Her paintings, woodcuts, and ketubot are in hundreds of private and public collections. She is an Illinois Arts Council Artists’ Fellowship Awardee and a 3Arts Grant recipient. Joseph is on the faculty of the Chicago Botanic Garden, where she teaches watercolor painting and calligraphy. She teaches an Artists’ Beit Midrash through Orot Center for New Jewish Learning. She is co-curator of the Open Studios Programs for the Jewish Art Salon, an international organization. Sean Kelley manages public programming at Eastern State Penitentiary. He produced the site’s award-winning audio tour, curated more than 100 site-specific artist installations at the site, and curated the exhibit "Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration," which won the 2017 Award for Excellence from the American Alliance of Museums.