Originally from Queens, NY, Gemma holds a Bachelors in History and Judaic Studies from New York University and a Master’s Degree in the History of Twentieth Century Labor and Civil Rights from Tulane University. Currently the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City, she previously spent 10 years at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, where she oversaw media production and mission-driven web content, distance learning, K-12 and community engagement programs, and interpretation, also serving as administrator of the Museum’s online Master’s Degree in World War II Studies with Arizona State University and creator/executive producer of the podcast “To the Best of My Ability.” Prior to her time at the Museum, Gemma worked as an experiential educator at Heifer International and was a Lipper Intern at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, where she first got her start in museums and archives.

Jonathan Brent is a historian, publisher, translator, writer and teacher.  For eighteen years (1991-2009) he was Humanities Senior Editor then Editorial Director at Yale University Press where he established the Annals of Communism series.  His books include Stalin’s Last Crime (2003); and Inside the Stalin Archives (2008). Brent has translated poems of Joseph Brodsky and Vladimir Mayakovsky and teaches history and literature at Bard College. He is currently writing a study of Stalin’s seizure of power, and finishing a novel.

In 2009, Brent became Executive Director and CEO of The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research where he initiated The YIVO Vilna Collection Project in 2014, an international project to conserve and digitize all of YIVO’s pre-WW II collections in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2018, Brent initiated development of the YIVO Digital Museum of East European and Russian Jewish Life. In 2019 Jonathan Brent received the Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania by H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania. The award was given to Mr. Brent in recognition of his work in promoting cooperation between Lithuania and YIVO and for the preservation of the prewar Jewish archives of Lithuania.

Brent lectures and publishes widely on Jewish, Soviet and East European history.  He has made three documentaries about his work: Stalin’s Last Plot (2009); Stalin: Man of Steel (2003); Declassified: Stalin (2006); and How to Become a Tyrant (2021, Netflix).  His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Commentary, The American Scholar, The New Republic, The New Criterion, The Chronicle of Higher Education and numerous other journals and newspapers.  He is now participating a documentary on the life and disappearance of Raul Wallenberg. His books have been translated into French, Swedish, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, and Polish.

Jason Guberman-P., a social entrepreneur who specializes in building broad coalitions and melding intellectual and technical innovation, is the American Sephardi Federation’s Executive Director, founding Executive Director of Digital Heritage Mapping, and coordinator of DHM’s flagship initiative, the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African & Middle Eastern Jewish Life. A summa cum laude graduate of Sacred Heart University, Jason was named to Connecticut Magazine’s “40 under 40” and to the NY Jewish Week’s “36 under 36.” He has presented at Stanford University’s Digital Humanities Center and conferences of the Association of Jewish Studies, Association of Jewish Libraries, Limmud UK, and the US Department of State/Moroccan Rabita Mohammadia of Ulema’s 1st Regional Conference on the Preservation of Cultural and Religious Heritage; guest lectured classes at Harvard’s Middle East Studies Center and Wellesley College; represented the ASF at the Mecca-based Muslim World League’s “National Conference on Peace, Harmony & Coexistence” in Sri Lanka, the Moroccan Royal Inauguration of Bayt Dakira in Essaouira, and on the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ Missions to Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, and UAE; written for AJS Perspectives, Sh’ma Journal, Wexner Foundation Newsletter, Newsweek, The Algemeiner, and MyJewishLearning; as well as appeared on NPR’s “Here & Now” and in SmartHistory.

William H. Weitzer, Ph.D., became the Executive Director of the Leo Baeck Institute—New York|Berlin (LBI) in January, 2013. The LBI (www.lbi.org) maintains the world’s largest archive dedicated to German-Jewish history, supports scholarly research, and provides public access through programs and projects, for example, the 1938Projekt (https://www.lbi.org/1938projekt/1/) and the Shared History Project (https://sharedhistoryproject.org/). Previously, Dr. Weitzer served as an administrator at Fairfield University, Wesleyan University, and the Uni­versity of Massachusetts-Amherst. He combines various aspects of his background—working closely with faculty and scholars, applying his professional and management skills, being of German-Jew­ish descent, and having involvement in Jew­ish communal life—in support of LBI’s mission to preserve and promote the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry.

Shulamith Z. Berger is the Curator of Special Collections and Hebraica-Judaica at Yeshiva University’s Mendel Gottesman Library.  She blogs on material from Yeshiva University’s collections at: https://blogs.yu.edu/library/

She is a frequent speaker at the Association of Jewish Libraries conferences. Her translation of Joseph Opatoshu’s Yiddish novel, Hebrew, into English is forthcoming from Ben Yehuda Press.

Bernard Michael is the CEO and President of the Center for Jewish History. Previously, he was Chair of the Board of the Center and President of the American Jewish Historical Society. Mr. Michael is a Co-founder and Partner at AWH Partners, LLC, a privately held real estate investment firm specializing in hospitality, and was a partner in the Real Estate Group at the law firm Proskauer, LLP. Mr. Michael is a graduate of NYU School of Law and Brown University.