Sirpa Rautio
Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights
Sirpa Rautio took up the role of Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in March 2024.
Previously, she was the first Director of the Finnish National Human Rights Institution, the Finnish Human Rights Centre that she established. She served as its Director from March 2012 until February 2024. She was also Chairperson of the European Network of Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) from March 2022 until 2024.
Prior to returning to Finland in 2012, Sirpa worked abroad for some 20 years in expert and managerial positions in international organisations, including at the World Bank, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the EU.
Sirpa was a member of the FRA’s Management Board from 2015-2020 and Chairperson of the Board from 2017. She has worked on human rights and rule of law both in the field and at the headquarters. She has extensive experience working in post-conflict settings and countries in transition. Sirpa is a lawyer by profession, having graduated from the University of Turku, Finland.
Ellen Germain
Special Plenipotentiary for Holocaust Issues
Ellen Germain joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1995 and became Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues in 2021. She has served as Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Sarajevo; head of the U.S. Consulate General in Krakow; and deputy political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York. She was also posted to Tel Aviv, London, and Moscow. She was director of the Arabian Peninsula Affairs Office and served in the offices of Russian Affairs, Israel-Palestinian Affairs, and Maghreb Affairs. Ms. Germain is from New York City and holds degrees from Stanford, Columbia, and Cambridge. Before joining the Foreign Service, she worked as a computer programmer and a science journalist.
Andrew Baker
Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on combating anti-Semitism
Andrew Baker is Director of International Jewish Affairs for American Jewish Committee (AJC). He also serves since 2009 as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chair-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism. A member of the Leadership Council of the Jewish Claims Conference, he helped establish and served on restitution and historical commissions in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia. He led AJC efforts in partnership with the Polish Government in the creation of the Belzec Memorial. In recognition of his work in Europe he was decorated by the Presidents of Germany, Lithuania (twice), Latvia, and Romania (twice). He is a past President of the Interfaith Conference of Washington, a former Commissioner of the District of Columbia Human Rights Commission, a past President of the Washington Board of Rabbis, and a former chaplain at San Quentin Prison.
Michael Whine
Member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
Michael Whine is a Member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance in respect of the United Kingdom. ECRI is a unique human rights body which specialises in questions relating to the fight against racism, discrimination, xenophobia and antisemitism. He was the co-founder of the Community Security Trustand is the former Lay Advisor on Counterterrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service. He is a member of the National Independent Advisory Group on hate crime for policing and criminal justice at the National Police Chiefs Council
He chaired the ECRI Working Group that renewed the ECRI General Policy Recommendation No.9 Combating Antisemitism and has been an occasional representative of the UK Government to the OSCE and the United Nations.
Paula Sawicka
CHAIRWOMAN OF THE PROGRAMME COUNCIL OF THE OPEN REPUBLIC ASSOCIATION AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM AND XENOPHOBIA
Paula Sawicka is a psychologist by training, former university teacher, translator from English. In the 1970s and 1980s she was associated with the democratic opposition, in the 1990s she was involved in rebuilding of the civil society in Poland. She was also one of the initiators of the of new non-governmental organizations. From 2004 to 2014 she was the president of the board of directors of the Open Republic Association Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia, currently chairwoman of its Program Council. She is a member of the Polish PEN Club. Co-author, with Marek Edelman, of his memoirs And There Was Love in the Ghetto. Together with Krzysztof Burnetka she published a collection of Marek Edelman’s writings Prosto się mówi, jak się wie. The author of the selection Marek Edelman. A book to write.
Meir Linzen
President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists
Meir Linzen is Chairman of the Herzog Fox & Neeman, one of Israel’s leading law firms, having served as its Managing Partner for over 20 years. In addition to these roles, Meir heads the Tax Department at the firm.
Meir completed his legal studies at Tel Aviv University in 1980, summa cum laude. Meir has received an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the Tel Aviv University in recognition of his contribution to the University and to public life in Israel.
Meir has acted as Visiting Professor at the Tel Aviv, Bar Ilan and Ben Gurion Universities. Meir served for approximately 10 years on the Executive Board of Tel Aviv University and today sits as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University. Meir also sits as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Law Faculty at Tel Aviv University.
Meir is a senior member of the Israel Bar Association and heads two of its important Committees – the Committee for International Relations and the Tax Committee. Meir acts as a member of many public committees as representative of the Bar Association.
Meir is extremely involved in legal fight against antisemitism and counteracting anti-Israeli attitudes around the world. Since 2018, Meir has served as President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IJL). During Meir’s time as Head of the IJL, the organisation has submitted numerous submissions to National Courts (for example in Poland and Germany), Constitutional Courts (such as the Supreme Court of the United States of America and the Constitutional Court of Poland), the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and the International Tribunals in the Hague (ICC and ICJ).
Meir is the son of Polish Holocaust survivors. His mother, Ita Linzen (nee Weisman), survived the Warsaw ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen.
Michael Schudrich
Chief Rabbi of Poland
Michael Schudrich was born in New York City in 1955. Schudrich was educated in Jewish Day Schools in the NY area. He graduated from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1976 with Religious Studies major. Schudrich received smicha through the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1980 and then later through Yeshiva University in 2000 and received an MA in Jewish Studies from JTS in 1978 and an MA in history from Columbia in 1982.
Schudrich served as rabbi of the Jewish Community of Japan from 1983-89. He was also concerned with the recognition of the heroism of Consul Sugihara in saving Polish Jews from the Shoah.
As a student in the 1970’s, Schudrich began his travels to East Europe by leading Jewish groups to those countries and meeting with the remnants of the Jewish communities. In 1990, Schudrich began working for the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and spent 1992-98 residing in Warsaw, Poland. In June 2000, Rabbi Schudrich returned to Poland as the Rabbi of Warsaw and Lodz and in December 2004 was appointed Chief Rabbi of Poland.
Rabbi Schudrich is the recipient of several awards and medals including the Polish Presidential Medal of Honor, The Menorah Award for dialogue, Jan Karski Award, Guardians of Memory Award, Tygodnik Powszechny Award.
Rabbi Schudrich is married to Magda Dorosz-Schudrich, and he has one daughter, Arianna, who lives in New York.
Angelika Nußberger
European Commission for Democracy through Law, Venice Commission
Angelika Nußberger is professor of international law, public law and comparative law at the University of Cologne and founding director of the Academy for European Human Rights Protection, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, member of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the Institut de Droit International. She was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights elected on behalf of Germany from January 2011 to December 2019 and its Vice-President from February 2017 until the end of her mandate. Between 2021 and 2024 she has been engaged in the project “Memocracy” studying memory laws and policies in Central and Eastern Europe.
She has studied law and literature (German, Russian and French) in Munich, Würzburg, Moscow (1985 study visit) and Boston (visiting researcher at Harvard University 1994/1995).
Sonia Styrkacz
Foundation Towards Dialogue
Sonia Styrkacz is a practicing psychologist and psychotherapist in the cognitive-behavioral current (CBT), and a researcher. Employee of the Institute of Educational Research. Associate of the Foundation Toward Dialogue. She has completed doctoral studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice and the University of Warsaw and is in the process of defending her doctorates at both these universities. She conducts trainings, among others for the Center for Education Development (ORE), in the field of child diagnosis. Her research interests focus on decolonization topics. She also has experience in forensic opinion. She is a member of the Bergitka Roma group and is active in advocating for Roma rights. She is involved in humanitarian organizations supporting Roma refugees and refugee women from Ukraine in Poland within MHSS (Mental Health Support Solutions). She cooperates with the Migration Research Center.
Adam Bodnar
Minister of Justice, Attorney General
Born on January 6, 1977 in Trzebiatow. Polish lawyer, academician and politician. Doctor of habilitated legal sciences, former Ombudsman.
Graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at Warsaw University and LLM studies at the Central European University in Budapest. In 2006, he received his doctoral degree in legal sciences from the Institute of Legal and Administrative Sciences at the University of Warsaw, where he received his habilitation in 2019.
From 2006 to 2020, he was employed and taught at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw. From 2015 to 2021 – Ombudsman. He also lectured at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Computer Technology. Since 2020, he has been a professor at SWPS University, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Law in Warsaw from 2021 to 2023. Author of numerous scientific publications in the field of law. He has cooperated with a number of non-governmental organizations, both national and international. In 2023, he obtained a senatorial seat. On December 13, 2023, he was appointed to the office of Minister of Justice.
Agnieszka Haska
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Agnieszka Haska ia s cultural studies scholar, sociologist, assistant professor at the Polish Center for Holocaust Research of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author of articles and books, including: “I am a Jew, I want to enter”. Hotel Polski in Warsaw 1943 (2006) and Disgrace! Tales of Polish betrayal (2018), editor of source texts, academic lecturer, expert in public discourse analysis. Member of the Polish delegation to the IHRA (Academic Working Group).
Yfat Barak-Cheney
Director of International and Legal Affairs, World Jewish Congress
Yfat Barak-Cheney is Director of International and Legal Affairs and the Executive Director of WJC’s Technology and Human Rights Institute, where she engages with stakeholders on issues of hate speech, Holocaust denial and distortion, using technology for education and more.
Yfat earned an LL.M from NYU, and an LL.M, LL.B, and B.A from the Hebrew. Yfat clerked with the International Law Department in the Israeli MFA and interned with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She also worked in several International NGO’s. Yfat is a co-founder of ALMA – Association for the Promotion of International Humanitarian Law and a member of Forum Dvorah. A member of the New York Bar and the Israeli Bar Association.
Krzysztof Izdebski
Stefan Batory Foundation
Krzysztof Izdebski, lawyer and civic activist. He has been involved in working for civil society organisations for many years. He currently holds the position of Advocacy Director at the Stefan Batory Foundation. Previously, he worked, among others, in the Department of Denominations and National and Ethnic Minorities at the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. He also served as Chairman of the Council of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland.
Michał Balcerzak
Chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Racial Discrimination
Michał Balcerzak is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political and Security Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, and the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Szczecin. He served as judge ad hoc at the European Court of Human Rights (2018-2022). He was a member of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (2015-2021). Since 2022 he is a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (vice-chairing between 2022-2024, and chairing as of 2024).
Katharina von Schnurbein
European Commission coordinator for combating antisemitism and supporting Jewish life
Dr. h.c. Katharina von Schnurbein was appointed European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life in 2015. Together with her team, she has drafted and is now implementing the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life adopted in 2021. For her work in the fight against antisemitism she has received multiple awards, including an Honorary Doctorate from Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 2024.
Prior, she served as advisor to the European Commission President for five years, responsible for civil society and the Dialogue religions and non-confessional organisations. And as Commission spokesperson for employment, social affairs and equality. She started working for the European Commission in 2002 as press and communication officer at the EU Delegation to the Czech Republic, after having served on the team of the Chair of European Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag.
Katharina studied Political Science and Slavonic Studies in Prague, Bonn and Oxford.
She is married and has four children.
Hanna Gospodarczyk
Dialogue Forum
Anthropologist and Arabist. Program manager at the Forum for Dialogue Foundation. She manages the work of the program team and the development of the offer for activists working for Polish-Jewish dialogue in the Dialogue Forum Network.
Piotr Kwapisiewicz
Czulent Jewish Association
Piotr Kwapisiewicz is a social activist, he works on advocacy, public participation and countering anti-Semitism, hate speech and hate crimes. Recipient of a Minorities Fellowship from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR/UN) program. Graduate of the School of Leaders of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. As an expert in the area of hate crimes and hate speech and anti-Semitism, he has worked with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR/OSCE), European Judicial Training Network.
He works to increase minority participation by training and initiating coalitions, partnerships, cooperation of national, ethnic, religious minority organizations with local and government administrations. Author of numerous publications of studies and analyses on the inclusion of minorities in decision-making processes. Currently serves as the chairman of the board of the Czulent Jewish Association, a Jewish advocacy organization. Member of the Steering Committee of the European Network on Monitoring Antisemitism.
Jan Łazicki
Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Contacts with the Jewish Diaspora
Jan Łazicki – born in 1982, he graduated from the University of Warsaw, Faculty of History. Civil servant, between 2008 and 2018 he worked in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, in the Cultural Heritage Department and Monuments Protection Department. Among his main responsibilities was supervision of memorials and museums in sites of former German Nazi extermination and concentration camps. Since 2018 he has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Department of Foreign Policy Strategy and in the Department of Public and Cultural Diplomacy. On February 6, 2024, he was appointed the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for contacts with the Jewish Diaspora and the Head of the Polish delegation to International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias
Institute of Juridical Sciences PAN
Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. She specialises in constitutional law, legal tools of fighting anti-Semitism, freedom of speech, vulnerable groups rights and legal governance over memory. Co-editor and co-author of Constitutionalism under Stress(OUP, 2020) and Law and Memory: Towards Legal Governance of History(CUP, 2017). She held numerous fellowships, including at the University of Cambridge, Yale University and the European University Institute. Principal Investigator in international research consortium ‘The Challenge of Populist Memory Politics for Europe: Towards Effective Responses to Militant Legislation on the Past’ sponsored by the Volkswagen Stiftung (2021-2024) and ‘Rethinking Militant Democracy Doctrine’, funded by the Polish National Science Centre (2024-2027). In July 2024 she has been appointed the Head of Advisory Council to the Polish Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General on counteracting hate crimes and hate speech.
Zygmunt Stępiński
Director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Zygmunt Stępiński is a graduate of the Faculty of History at Warsaw University. For years he has been involved in the social activities of Jewish organizations in Poland and abroad. In the 1980s he was involved in the democratic opposition. Publisher, journalist, co-founder and long-time chairman of the board of MURATOR Publishing House, co-author of the social programs “Accessible Home” and “Home without Barriers”. As of February 2019, Director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Christian Heldt
Special Representative for relations with Jewish organisations, anti-Semitism and international affairs Sinti and Roma and Holocaust remembrance
Christian Heldt is a career diplomat who was named German special representative in September 2024. Having joined German diplomacy in 1991, he has served in various positions in Moscow, Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome (Holy See) as well as in functions at the German Federal Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence. In more recent positions, he was Ambassador to Kosovo and Latvia. In his current function, Heldt oversees relations with Jewish Organisations, Issues relating to Antisemitism, International Sinti and Roma Affairs and Holocaust Remembrance, coordinating German outreach on the EU and international level.
Agnieszka Markiewicz
American Jewish Committee, Central Europe Office in Warsaw
Agnieszka Markiewicz, director of the American Jewish Committe Central Europe. For years she has been involved in building relations between Poles, American Jews and Israelis. Member of the Board of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute. Previously associated, among others, with the Dialogue Forum and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. She is a graduate of the University of Warsaw. She is co-author of the book entitled: “Na Pierwszej Linii. The Life of a Jewish Diplomat. David Harris in conversation with Agnieszka Markiewicz” (ZNAK).
Virginia Gamba de Potgieter
Acting UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of genocide
Professor Virginia Gamba is the United Nations Acting Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Since April 2017, she is also serving as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict at the Under-Secretary-General level. She served most recently as Assistant Secretary General, Head of the Joint Investigative Mechanism Syria (SC Res 2235 and 2319). She previously served as Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and Director of the Office for Disarmament Affairs. Past engagements with the United Nations include serving as Director to the Disarmament and Conflict Resolution Programme at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva (1992-1996).
Ms. Gamba has a long career in peace and security, human security and disarmament issues. From 2007 to 2011 she served as Deputy Director and Senior Coordinator on Safety and Security at the Instituto Superior de Seguridad Publica, Ministry of Justice, Government of the Autonomous city of Buenos Aires. From 1996 to 2006 she was based in Africa serving inter-alia as peace and security consultant to the Africa Union, Deputy Director of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa and Director for South-South Interactions of Safer Africa. She was also the senior program officer for arms control, disarmament and demobilization at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago (1991-1993). Prior to this she was an academic and a senior lecturer at the Latin American Security Studies, Department of War Studies, King’s College, London (1986-1991). Moreover, she also served as an advisor to the Argentine Ministry of Defense on Civil Military Relations and Transformation of the Military under Democracy (1983-1985).
Ms. Gamba holds an MSc (Econ) in Strategic Studies, University College of Wales, Aberyswyth and a B.A. (Hons) in Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
Born in San Martin, province of Buenos Aires in 1954, Ms. Gamba is married and has one daughter.
Michał Bilewicz
Centre for Research on Prejudice University of Warsaw
Michal Bilewicz, Ph.D., professor at the University of Warsaw. He conducts research on the psychology of intergroup relations, anti-Semitism, deals with the problems of hate speech, the determinants of belief in conspiracy theories, the identity of minority groups (including Polish Jews). He is the author of numerous publications in psychological journals (e.g. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Inquiry or Current Research in Psychological Science) and books – including the recently published “Traumaland. Poles in the Shadow of the Past.” Member of the Polish delegation to the IHRA.
Eric Pickles
President of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Lord Eric Pickles currently holds the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). He was appointed Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues in September 2015. Lord Pickles works closely with the wide range of Holocaust academics, survivors and educational and social organisations in the UK.
The Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues’ key objective is to ensure that the UK continues to play a prominent role in international discussions on all Holocaust-related matters, including Holocaust denial and distortion. Other areas of focus include Holocaust remembrance and education and the opening of archives.to education, the opening of archives, restitution of art and immovable property and promoting the implementation of the 2009 Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets.
Along with the former Labour Cabinet Minister, Ed Balls, he co-chairs the United Kingdom’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation which advises the UK Government on their plans to build a new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre next to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
Ruth Cohen-Dar
Director of Department for Combating Antisemitism and Holocaust Remembrance at Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ruth was born in the Negev, to a mother, third generation in Jerusalem, and a father who was born in Thessaloniki. A family of pioneers, who have established a village in 1950 in the Negev, near Ashkelon.
Served in the IDF for 3 years as an officer after a year of volunteering as a community worker in the peripheral rural area.
Holds a B.A and M.A. in Political Science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Served three postings abroad, last one as Deputy Head of Mission in Warsaw, Poland
Since 2020 serves as the Director of Department for Combating Antisemitism and Holocaust Remembrance at Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs and as the Co-Head of Israeli delegation to IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance).
Speaks – Hebrew, English, Spanish, some Polish and Some German
Married with two children.
Wojciech Soczewica
Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation
Director General and Board Member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. CEO with over 15 years of experience in international relations, team management, public administration, policy development and implementation, as well as non-governmental organizations with global impact. Proven track record in leading and managing teams, developing and implementing strategy, and building relationships with partners from politics, media, NGOs, and civil society. Passionate about socially oriented, long-term and result-driven relationships. Expertise in innovation management, international cooperation, and public administration. Lecturer in innovation management at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland. Chairman of the Board of the Garden of the Righteous Foundation. Father of two daughters: Hanna, 14 and Iga, 9, he lives with his family in Warsaw.
Maria Telalian
Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Maria Telalian (Greece) is the ninth Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), appointed in December 2024.
Prior to her appointment, Telalian was a Legal Adviser of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Head of the Legal Department. She was also Head of the Public International Law Section of the Legal Department, and was appointed as Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations (UN) from 2005 to 2007.
She has also served as an agent before the International Court of Justice, a counsellor before the European Court of Human Rights, a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and a representative to the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly.
She is a former member of the Appeals Board of the Western European Union for the settlement of disputes arising out of the WEU Staff Rules. She also has several years of teaching experience at the Diplomatic Academy of the Greek Foreign Service and at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy.