May 13, 2002
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL COUNCIL CHAIRMAN WELCOMES NEW APPOINTEES
The Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Fred S. Zeidman, today welcomes the appointment of 11 new board members by President George W. Bush.
“I am delighted with the caliber of these appointments, who include survivors of the Holocaust, scholars, philanthropists and business leaders,” Mr. Zeidman says. “They give additional depth to an outstanding board. They will be invaluable assets as we begin our second decade of Holocaust education and remembrance.”
The Council members, who have been appointed for five-year terms of office expiring in January 2007, are:
- Sonia Weitz, Peabody, Massachusetts, a Holocaust survivor, Founder and Director of Education for the Holocaust Center, Boston North’s Center for Study of Human Rights and the author of two books.
- Nechama Tec, Ph.D., Stamford, Connecticut, a Holocaust Survivor, Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut at Stamford and the author of five books on the Holocaust.
- Tom Bernstein, New York, President of Chelsea Piers Management Inc., President of the Board of Directors of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and Vice Chair of the Board of WNYC Radio. He is a member of the Board of the Fresh Air Fund, the Markle Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations.
- Alice Kelikian, Waltham, Massachusetts, Associate Professor of History specializing in 20th Century Europe at Brandeis University and research affiliate at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. She served on the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad from 1996 to 2002.
- Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Ph.D., Bloomington, Indiana, Professor of English and Director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, a Holocaust scholar, author and lecturer.
- Mickey Shapiro, Farmington Hills, Michigan, a real estate developer and investor and a former Director of the Michigan Holocaust Memorial Center. His parents are Holocaust survivors and he was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany.
- Ronald Steinhart, Texas, former Chairman and CEO of Commercial Banking Group of the Bank One Corporation who is active in several philanthropic and arts groups in Dallas. His grandparents were killed during the Holocaust.
- Sheldon G. Adelson, Las Vegas, Nevada, Chairman of the Board of Las Vegas Sands, Inc. He provides venture capital to select high-technology companies in Israel and, with his wife, has established drug abuse treatment and clinics in Israel and Las Vegas.
- Joel Geiderman, M.D., Los Angeles, California, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
- Mervin G. Morris, Menlo Park, California, Chairman of Morris Management Company and a former Chairman and current member of the Northern California Board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He also serves as a trustee for several philanthropic organizations.
And appointed for the remainder of a five-year term expiring in January 2004 is:
- Aldona Zofia Wos, M.D., North Carolina, who has dedicated herself to presenting and preserving information about Polish citizens during World War II. Her father survived the Flossenburg concentration camp and rescued others held in various camps during the Holocaust.
These new members join 44 other presidential appointees to the Council in addition to the ten congressional representatives and three ex-officio members from the federal government departments of education, interior and state. The terms of office for approximately one-fifth of the council members expire each year.
The Council is the governing body for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that is America’s national institution for the documentation, study and interpretation of Holocaust history and serves as this country’s memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust. Since opening in April 1993, the Museum has welcomed more than 17.5 million visitors.
