Meet Our Team
Our Founders
Dr. Deborah Fripp
Executive Director
A professional educator, Yad Vashem trained Holocaust educator, and a storyteller, Deborah is the author of five books including Light from the Darkness: A ritual for Holocaust remembrance.
Now based in Singapore, Deborah holds a PhD from MIT in communication and learning in formal and informal settings.
Violet Neff-Helms
Executive Vice President
Known as Tante by the many kindergarten children she taught for fourteen years at Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound, Texas, Violet is an experienced storyteller, a Yad Vashem-trained educator, and the co-author of Light from the Darkness: A ritual for Holocaust remembrance.
Violet is based in North-East Texas.
Dr. Michael Fripp
Board Advisor
An experienced storyteller and educator, Michael is a Schultz Israel Fellow and a former member of the board of directors at Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound, Texas.
Now based in Singapore, Michael is the author of five books and over 500 patents. He holds a PhD from MIT.
Our Directors
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff
Storytelling Director
A professional Jewish storyteller, educator, facilitator, and coach, Jennifer has been teaching people to tell the stories of Holocaust survivors with empathy and love for more than 15 years.
Based in Baltimore, MD, Jennifer serves as a storyteller-in-residence at synagogues across the US and is the founder and director of The Golden Door: Storytelling for Social Justice.
Lynne Feldman
International Coordinator & Director of Holocaust Scholarship
Lynne is a pioneer in guiding with storytelling, certified as an Educational Holocaust guide by Yad Vashem and a Poland Tour Guide by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.
Based in Tel Aviv, Lynne is also a dedicated Holocaust scholar and researcher with an MA in Holocaust Studies from the University of Haifa.
Our Artists & Facilitators
Leora Lazarus
Storyteller & Workshop Facilitator
Leora is an author, storyteller, early childhood educator, supplemental school teacher, and best-selling children’s author. Educated in Cape Town, South Africa, she is now based in San Diego, CA.
Leora is the granddaughter of survivors and is dedicated to telling her family’s stories.
Tanya Wisoker
Storyteller & Workshop Facilitator
Tanya has been telling stories her whole life, starting with reading to her little sister. She worked with preschoolers, as a museum interpreter, and as a Religious School principal. Tanya was a Day School science teacher and drama coach for 11 years before retiring to pursue her many other interests.
Cantor Karen Webber
Poet & Liturgical Artist
Karen is a performance, teaching and liturgical artist who crafts music/theatre pieces for use in Zoom rooms, senior centers and on the bimah. Ordained as a cantor by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, DFSSM in 1990, Karen has served congregations large and small in all 4 corners of the U.S.
Our Storytellers
All of our team members at Teach the Shoah tell stories. These individuals specialize in storytelling.
Dr. Mehak Burza
Mehak has a PhD in Holocaust Studies and is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Delhi, India. She also holds several international adjunct positions.
Gregory Eftimie
Greg a holistic practitioner of massage therapy and folk herbalism in Flower Mound, TX. He is a first generation son of immigrants of Balkan and Eastern European descent. Romanian was his first language.
Rowan Fripp
Rowan is a student at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, studying biology. They have been telling stories for Teach the Shoah since they were 17 years old.
Joanne Gilbert
Joanne is an author, educator, personal historian, public speaker, and consultant for the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center’s Teacher Training program, currently living in Las Vegas, NV.
Esther Fripp
Esther attends high school at the Singapore American School. She’s excited about bringing storytelling to her school.
Karen Golden
Karen is an international touring storyteller, musician, published author, award-winning recording artist, educator and the director of a learning center.
Tamara Filipovic
Tamara Filipović lives in Seward, Alaska and has been a Holocaust storyteller since 2009. She is a graduate of the Goucher College Oral History of Holocaust Survivors course.
Joel Loeb
Joel is the son of German Holocaust victims. His grandfather Josepf Joseph (a noted lawyer), grandmother Lilly, and mother Liesl, were passengers on the MS St. Louis.
Neil Borg
Tells stories of …
Cathy Polakoff
Tells stories of …
Emma Glinsman
Tells stories of …
Linda Hackner
Tells stories of …
We are always looking for new storytellers.
Would you like to be a storyteller with Teach the Shoah?
Our Board of Directors
Dr. Deborah Fripp
Board Chair
Deborah is one of the founders of Teach the Shoah, with over 25 years of experience in education.
Dr. Michael Fripp
Michael is one of the founders of Teach the Shoah. He is an inventor in the energy sector with over 500 awarded and pending patents.
Violet Neff-Helms
Violet is one of the founders of Teach the Shoah, with extensive experience in education and in elder care.
Tanya Wisoker
In addition to being a Teach the Shoah facilitator, Tanya is a teacher and Jewish educator, with a background in evaluating educational programming.
Dr. Mehak Burza
In addition to being a Teach the Shoah storyteller, Mehak has been an Assistant Professor of English Literature in the University of Delhi, India and a pioneer of Holocaust education in Asia. She holds several adjunct positions internationally.
Erica Guerra
Erica comes to Teach the Shoah with over 25 years of marketing, branding, and communications leadership and management experience serving organizations as well known as IBM and Adobe to grassroots non-profits with nothing to their name but a web domain.
Dr. Alisha Wimbush
Alisha is the Program Director for Religious Leaders at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. She comes to Teach the Shoah with a deep understanding of interfaith relations as well as a background in trauma counseling.
Paul Dietz
Paul recently retired as Senior Advisor for US and Asia Operations for a global corporation. He has extensive experience in international sales and marketing.
Mitchell Gordon
In addition to being a storyteller, facilitator, educator, mediator, and master drummer, among many other talents, Mitch has extensive experience with nonprofit management.
Our Partners
Texas
USA
Singapore
South Africa
Europe
Will you help us with this important work?
We feel strongly that all our events should be free so money is not a constraint on participation. We also feel strongly that our storytellers and facilitators should be paid for their work. Your donations help us meet both of these goals.