Leadership

Stuart Abrams is a teacher of Genocide Studies, Psychology, History and Human Rights Education at Avon High School. He has served as the advisor to the school’s Amnesty International chapter since 1998. Mr. Abrams was awarded the Joseph Korzenik Fellowship for Excellence in Holocaust Education by the Greenberg Center at the University of Hartford in 1996. In 2000, Mr. Abrams was awarded the prestigious Museum Teacher Fellowship by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mr. Abrams was selected as the Avon School District’s 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year. In 2011, Mr. Abrams received the Prudence Crandall Memorial Human and Civil Rights award given by the Connecticut Education Association. Also in 2011, the Polish government, through the auspices of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, invited Mr. Abrams to spend a week in Poland working with Polish educators discussing the future of Holocaust and Genocide studies in both countries. In 2015, Mr. Abrams was selected as co-chair of the steering committee to help launch a new statewide organization, the Connecticut Human Rights Partnership. The mission of the CHRP is to develop, support and publicize educational and co-curricular opportunities through a network of interested individuals and organizations with expertise, skills and proficiencies in the field of human rights. In May of 2016, Mr. Abrams was recognized by Voices of Hope as a recipient of the first annual Simon Konover award in Recognition for Excellence in Holocaust Teaching. In December of 2017, Mr. Abrams was honored to be elected to serve on the Board of Directors for Voices of Hope. Mr. Abrams resides in West Hartford, Connecticut with his wife of 46 years, Joan. They have two wonderful children, Lauren and Zachary, a terrific son-in-law, Brian, and two adorable and delicious grandchildren, Nathan and Madeline.

Toni Boucher is a Director at a leading non-profit asset management company. In that capacity, Ms. Boucher contributes to its business development, marketing, research, education and professional development activities for clients and the broader non-profit community throughout the Unites States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Toni has held executive positions with Fortune 500 companies in the areas of sales, marketing and management. She was also a co-founder and served on the board of a marketing design agency specializing in high tech and bio science and was a principal of a mainframe software maintenance and consulting company. In addition to her private sector experience, Ms. Boucher has an extensive public service background.  She previously served as Chief Deputy Leader in the Connecticut State Senate for ten years after twelve years as a State Representative and Assistant Minority Leader. Prior to serving in the General Assembly, she served as Chair of a local Board of Education, as a member of the Connecticut State Board of Education and as a local selectman. Ms. Boucher is a recognized state policy thought leader and spokesperson having developed model legislation in the areas of tax policy, finance, transportation, education (authored and passed Connecticut’s Holocaust education mandate in 2018), higher education and best practices in non-profit governance.  She has also published and conducted numerous TV interviews in these areas of expertise.  Ms. Boucher co-authored a white paper on Ethics and Nonprofits.  Toni also serves as a trustee and advisor on numerous non-profit boards, including as a founding board member of a leading university’s Nonprofit Leadership Development Institute. Ms. Boucher earned an MBA in International Marketing from University of Connecticut and has held Series 7, 63 and 31 licenses.

Peter Fishman is the son of a Holocaust survivor. His mother, Ruth “Tutti” Fishman, was fortunate to have her brother, both parents and paternal grandparents survive the Shoah because her father was able to obtain a falsified Paraguayan passport. Peter has been involved in Voices of Hope since its inception and currently serves as President. He has also served on the Watkinson School Board for many years and has been on the JCC board for over 16 years, serving as President from 2019 to 2021. Peter has lived and worked in Connecticut his entire life. He works in the field of real estate development, property management and consulting and serves as  President of PKT Development and Vice President of H.B. Fishman and Co., Inc. Married to Lisa Fishman, Peter has called Farmington home since 1991. He has two sons, Garrett, who is married to Chelsea, and Ari, both of who work with him at PKT Development.

Holocaust and genocide education have become the most important philanthropic passion in Peter’s life. He feels that never forgetting and passing on the experiences of survivors may be the best way to make people understand the importance of being an upstander and not letting the mistakes of the past occur yet again.

Rona Gollob was born and raised in New York State but has lived in the Greater Hartford (CT) area essentially all her adult life.  Rona has a B.S. and M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and worked in the nuclear industry for over 15 years.  After her “retirement,” she became very involved in Jewish philanthropy and other civic organizations. She is co-chair of the Israel and Overseas Allocation Committee.  She is also a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.  She has been a literacy volunteer in an inner-city school for the past 20 years and is currently co-chair of Children’s Reading Partners.  She is a past president of Beth Hillel and currently is a member of The Emanuel Synagogue Board of Trustees.  She loves to travel and this year she has been on 4 trips that were Jewish related.

Rona has two adult children, a son, Marc, who lives in Las Vegas and a daughter, Sandra, who lives in Maryland  with her husband Aaron and their son, Felix.

Anna Huttner is proud to sit on the board of Voices of Hope. She worked as a Project Manager at the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut and was the former Director of Education and Communications for Voices of Hope. Anna has a Masters Degree in Education and worked at Jewish day schools in both Washington, D.C. and West Hartford, CT. Anna is the co-founder of the Pearl Society at the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, sits on the Board of Directors for JT Connect and is an active participant on several community committees.  She is thankful to currently have time at home with her family and volunteer at her children’s school. 

Jeff Israel is a native of Connecticut and grew up in Hartford where he attended local schools. He majored in television at Grahm Junior College in Boston, Massachusetts and majored in Communications and Theater at Western Kentucky University. Jeff worked in the television industry for over forty years. He started his television career at WTIC TV channel 3 in Hartford as a film editor and projectionist. He then worked for a short time at KDKA TV in Pittsburgh as an editor on Evening Magazine. He moved back to the Hartford area and worked for WFSB TV, formally WTIC TV 3 as a news photographer. In 1979, he joined a small group of pioneers in Bristol, Connecticut and helped launch the ESP Network, now known as ESPN. Traveling the world, Jeff covered every major sporting event as a photographer. While at ESPN, Jeff covered major sports stories for SportsCenter and other ESPN branded shows. Jeff is the recipient of five Emmys for his work on event coverage and studio shows. Before retiring from ESPN, he came off the road to serve in Studio Operation and Engineering. Jeff lives in Bristol, CT with his wife, Pat. He has two sons, Jonathan and Matt. Jeff is a member of the Temple Sinai Board of Directors and is a former president. Both of Jeff’s parents are survivors of the Holocaust, and he is active in telling his family’s Holocaust story. Jeff is a docent at the Museum of Jewish Civilization at the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and serves as the Director of Visual Production.  Jeff is a member of the Bristol Interfaith Coalition. He also serves on the Mayor’s Diversity Counsel in Bristol, CT. 

Adele R. Jacobs is the daughter of Fred and Regina Jacobs, two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. She has her BA from Smith College and her JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School and is licensed to practice law in Connecticut and New York State and Federal courts. She is in private practice as a trial attorney in Bridgeport, Connecticut and lives with her husband, Michael Liebowitz, in Fairfield. She has twin sons, Jake and Stephen.  Adele is currently the Vice President of Voices of Hope, and she has proudly been the Chairperson for the State of Connecticut Holocaust Commemorations on three separate occasions. She has also been the keynote speaker about the Shoah in multiple venues. In addition, she has chaired the Greater Bridgeport Federation Holocaust Commemorations and served on the committee, as well as serving on the Town of Fairfield Holocaust Commemoration Committee. She is passionate and outspoken about the Shoah, and the importance of remembrance.

Estelle Kafer was the Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford from 2004-2019 . One of Estelle’s priorities was to focus on collecting, preserving and disseminating local survivor testimonies. She organized volunteers and oral historians to interview, transcribe and videotape survivors. This archival material was used for community projects such as author Betty Hoffman’s book “Liberation, Stories of Survival,” a primary source publication which included Estelle’s father, Leon Zeeberg. In her role as director of JHSGH, Estelle partnered with numerous academic institutions, organizations and museums in the Hartford area and beyond, offering Holocaust educational programming, exhibitions, speakers and authors to the community. Hartford co-sponsored the national exhibition, “Emanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto” from the Museum of Jewish Heritage (2008).

Estelle and the JHSGH staff produced several significant community publications such as: “Images of America: Jewish Community of Hartford,” “Remembering the Old Neighborhood: Stories from Hartford’s North End” and “A Life of the Land: Connecticut’s Jewish Farmers,” as well as a number of traveling exhibitions, “Pride, Honor and Courage: Jewish Women Remember WWII,” “Breaking the Glass: The American Jewish Wedding” and most recently, “Trailblazer: Connecticut Jewish Women Making History.”

Estelle also organized and helped lead a number of educational and life changing Jewish journeys to Eastern Europe, Russia and Poland. In 2017 – 2020, she assisted in developing and coordinating the Hartford European Roots Project, originally housed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at UCONN, a community based outreach endeavor to provide programming and learning opportunities about Jewish life and culture in pre-war Europe.

Estelle and her husband Sheldon raised their three children in the Greater Hartford area and now enjoy visiting with their eight grandchildren!

Pat Kazakoff, a child of Holocaust survivors from Łódź, Poland, was born in Antwerp, Belgium. She was brought up in Canada, where she graduated from McGill university with a Bachelors of Commerce degree; she speaks Polish, French, and English.

Pat has taken on various leadership roles in the Hartford Jewish community, notably at Congregation Beth Israel, Yachad, and the Mandell JCC. She is currently a life officer at the Mandell JCC and a Board member of CHABAD of Greater Hartford. In 2018, she moderated “The Historic Event with Eva Schloss,” at the Bushnell.

Pat owned PRK Associates, an ad specialty business for many years; she has spoken nationally at multiple business conferences on sales and sales management.

She looks forward to working with Voices of Hope.

Debbie is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors from Bocholt, Germany, a small town on the Holland border. Debbie’s mother, Greta
Loewenstein Meier, was on the Kindertransport from Germany to England. Her father’s family was fortunate enough to obtain a visa enabling them to leave Germany after Kristallnacht and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, Harry Meier, returned to Europe several years later to fight as an American soldier interrogating Nazi prisoners.

Debbie is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. She has a BS in Early Childhood & Elementary Education from Boston University. She worked with people with intellectual disabilities for many years before becoming a full time volunteer in the community. She has served on the Boards of HARC, Hebrew Senior Care (serving as Board Chair for 3 years), and The TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB’s) which provides support for people with hair pulling, skin picking, and other repetitive self-grooming behaviors. Debbie was the Founding Chair of the Lillian Fund, a giving circle at the Jewish Community Foundation helping women and children in need. Most recently, Debbie has been actively involved with resettling Afghan refugees in the community.

Debbie currently resides in Hartford with her husband Steve and their dog Dara.

Neil Kochen recently retired from a 35-year career in the financial services industry. After graduate school, Neil moved to the greater Hartford area and over time has worked at Aetna Life and Casualty and Alpha Equity Management, and most recently at MassMutual Trust Company. Over his career, Neil has served as Portfolio Manager, Head of Strategy and Policy, Chief Asset/Liability Strategist, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and most recently as Chief Investment Officer. Throughout his career, Neil has been an active member of the Greater Hartford Jewish community. He has served on the boards of the Solomon Schechter Day School, Beth El Temple of West Hartford, Greater Hartford Jewish Federation, and The Harold Grinspoon Foundation Investment Committee.

Neil is the son of a Holocaust Survivor. His father was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1931 and fled with his immediate family in July 1940. He was able to spend the war years in London, finally emigrating to Canada in 1946.

Neil is happily married to Sharon Kochen, also an active contributor to the Hartford Jewish community, and they have 4 adult children, all graduates of Solomon Schechter Day School.

Sharone Kornman, VOH Secretary, is the daughter of two survivors from the Galitzia region of Poland. Her mother, Irene Frisch, survived the Drohobycz Ghetto and was later hidden by the family’s nanny, Frania Sobkowa. Her father, Eugene Frisch, fled to Russia alone and survived a Russian work camp and other dangers he did not care to recount. Sharone grew up in NJ, and later earned a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from George Washington University. She has practiced law in Hartford for close to 30 years. She is married to Paul Kornman, and they have three children: Jacob, Isabel (Izzy) and Joseph (Joey). Sharone has been an active member of the Hartford Holocaust Commemoration Committee since 1990 and is a founding member of VOH. She also is active in The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford, where she formerly served on the board and Executive Committee and now serves on the Adult Education Committee. Roughly 5 years ago, Sharone traveled with her mother and other family members to Drohobycz to see her mother’s childhood home, her nanny’s apartment, and other sites – a trip she recounted in her VOH Second Generation Speak-Up.

Alan Lazowski co-founded LAZ Parking in 1981 while attending the University of Connecticut. Since then, LAZ Parking has grown into a national parking management, transportation, and mobility company with managed revenue in excess of $1.8 billion and over 15,000 employees.

The son of Holocaust survivors, Alan believes that he has “an obligation to give back.” He’s a well-respected philanthropist and has given his time and money to various charitable efforts. In 2009, he started the LAZ Parking Charitable Foundation. He is also the founder and co-chair of Voices of Hope, an organization that collects, categorizes, and shares the experiences of Holocaust survivors for the benefit of future generations.

He served as a member of the United State Holocaust Museum’s Council appointed by President Obama. Alan is the recipient of numerous professional awards, including the Thomas and Bette Wolff Family Entrepreneurship Award from the University of Connecticut, the NAACP Civil Rights Award, the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hartford Business Journal. Alan has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Commercial Science from the University of Hartford. Alan is the past chairman of the National Parking Association Board. Alan serves on the national boards of the NAACP, the ADL, and Conscious Capitalism. In addition, Alan serves on the following local and regional boards; the Greater Hartford Jewish Federation, the Connecticut Immigrant & Refugee Coalition, the Bushnell Theater, the Hartford Economic Development Corporation, the Goodwin College Foundation, the Jordan Porco Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Chabad House of Greater Hartford.

Jonah Lazowski was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut and is the grandson of 2 Holocaust survivors, Rabbi Philip and Ruth Lazowski. He attended Solomon Schecter Day school in West Hartford, continuing to Kingswood Oxford for high school and graduated in 2016 from Emerson College in Boston with a BA in Film Production and a minor in Entrepreneurial Studies.

Holocaust education, the preservation of its history, civil rights, and fighting hate are causes that are incredibly important to Jonah. He currently serves on the Next Generation Board of the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Next Generation Board of the Jewish Partisan Education Foundation, the NextGen Advisory Board for the Anti-Defamation League, and the Advisory Board of The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Hartford.

Jonah started his company, A Lot Media, 4 years ago. They specialize in advertising in parking facilities all over the country. After partnering with the 5 largest parking operators and real estate companies, they now have access to over 1/3rd of all parking facilities in the United States.

Jake Liebowitz is the grandchild of two holocaust survivors, Fred and Regina Jacobs of West Hartford, CT, both survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen Concentration Camps. He received his BA from New York University in 2015, is an Aerospace Underwriter for AIG in New York City, Licensed Real Estate Agent for Corcoran Group in New York City and a private pilot. An active young professional in the Jewish community, Jake has been involved with BBYO Inc. as a March of the Living participant, Community Engagement Fellow and Chapter Advisor. He was also invited to and attended BBYO’s Alumni International Leadership Institute in Israel. He continues to be actively involved in the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. In his undergraduate years, he served as the Philanthropy Chair for his chapter and proudly serves as the Chapter Advisor for the Yale University chapter. As part of his involvement with Alpha Epsilon Pi, he and 120 other top pro-Israel student leaders were invited to the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. for high level briefings at an Israel Campus Mobilization Day. He was equipped with information, strategies and resources to effectively communicate about the Israeli and Hamas conflicts. In addition, he participated in the inaugural class of the Michael A. Leven Leadership Institute and continues to serve as a mentor in this program. Jake has also traveled to Israel with the Jewish National Fund to participate in a week of community service, giving back to under-supported communities.

Although his grandparents are no longer living, Jake continues to cherish the relationship he once had with them and the influence they had on his exploration of Jewish identity and advocacy skills. He is committed to promoting and educating about antiemitism and the Holocaust.

Joseph Olzacki has worked with Voices of Hope for many years beginning with the Identity Project, in which students of color from Bloomfield Public Schools were challenged to see lessons learned from the Holocaust and world genocides and their relation to current events. He was awarded the 2012 University of Hartford Humanitarian of the Year Award, the 2010 Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, the 2010 Connecticut Movers and Shakers from the Hartford Courant and Connecticut Jewish Ledger and the 2008 Educator of the Year from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Olzacki was asked to visit the Republic of Rwanda to assist in training the next generation of teachers. His Excellency President Paul Kagame and University of Hartford President Walter Harrison created the Rwandan Teacher Education Program (RTEP). Beginning in 2014, the RTEP educated over 5,000 Rwandan educators in English language, learning, education methods, and peace initiatives.

Dr. Olzacki played an integral role in getting the mandate for Holocaust and Genocide education passed by reaching out to legislators and the community. Dr. Olzacki was honored by Voices of Hope in 2018 with the Simon Konover Recognition for Excellence in Holocaust teaching. 

Shiri Sandler is the Managing Director of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwamagana, Rwanda. Previously, Shiri was the U.S. Director of the Auschwitz Jewish Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Shiri directed fundraising, educational programs for North American students, and Board relations for the Center, an affiliate of the Museum’s. While at the Museum, she led immersive programs on dehumanization and genocide for military students, developed new ethics programs for professional school students, and taught about the Darfur genocide. Prior to joining the Museum, she was the Interim Chief of Staff at the Genocide Intervention Network, a Darfur genocide activism organization founded and staffed by students. Shiri received her M.A. in Modern European History from Brown University and her B.A. from Cornell University. Her academic research is on Soviet liberator rape of Jewish concentration camp survivors. Shiri is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.

Eveline Shekhman is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors from Lithuania and Romania. Her parents emigrated to Israel during the period when the former USSR gave exit visas to Soviet Jews in the late 1960’s. Born in Tel Aviv and raised in Toronto, Canada, Eveline and her husband, Mark Shekhman, also a grandchild of Holocaust survivors from Latvia and Ukraine, moved from Vancouver to New York, and to Farmington, CT where they have lived with their three sons since 2008.

Beginning her career at Motorola Canada Inc., Eveline has focused on strategic marketing and business development within the international corporate environment as well as in fully integrated healthcare systems. Over the last 25 years, Eveline has worked for Microsoft, Best Buy’s Canadian affiliate, and at an advertising agency, along with 10 plus years at Hartford HealthCare, Connecticut’s largest healthcare system, as a marketing, business development and strategic planning executive. Recently, Eveline formed a healthcare entrepreneurial firm, MERJ Health, LLC, that focuses on her interest in global medicine, business growth initiatives in the healthcare environment, and program development.

Eveline is active within her community and sits on the Executive Board as Vice President of Publicity for the Hartford Hospital Auxiliary, President for the Friends of Farmington Crew, and is extremely active in the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford including the JCRC, and the American Israel Policy Affairs Committee. Her passion is in Holocaust and antisemitism engagement at the middle and high school levels that have become increasingly important with the rise in anti-Israel and antisemitism on college campuses. Both Eveline and her husband are committed to ensuring that the memory of their family members who perished in the Shoah will not be forsaken.

Colleen is a middle school teacher at heart and taught seventh and eighth grade for 16 years at a Catholic parochial school in Stratford. She is currently the middle school humanities teacher at Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford, CT. She has presented on the pedagogy of Holocaust education for the National Conference of Catholic Educators and the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies. Colleen is a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow and a member of the planning committee for the Holocaust and Genocide Educators’ Workshop held annually at the Maurice Greenberg Center of Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. She is the proud recipient of the Simon Konover Recognition for Excellence in Holocaust Teaching. Colleen is currently a PhD candidate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gratz College, and she has traveled to Israel, Poland and Rwanda to further her study and understanding of genocides. Colleen married her prom date in 1984, and they are parents to three young adult daughters and were proud to welcome their first son-in-law in 2015.

David J. Simon  is the Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University. He is also a Senior Lecturer and the Assistant Dean for Graduate Education at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. His work focuses on genocide prevention, recovery from atrocities, and the political dimensions of genocide memory. He has co-edited two recent volumes: Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age: Memorialization Unmoored (with Eve Zucker, 2020), and The Handbook of Genocide Studies ((with Leora Kahn, 2023). He has served as a consultant with the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide. Originally from Ann Arbor Michigan, he graduated from Princeton University and holds a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

Marge was a reading specialist and special education teacher for the last 35 years in Wethersfield and most recently also volunteered with the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford’s Reading Partners program and with the Freedom School’s Children Defense Fund in Hartford for children who are most at risk. Both of Marge’s parents survived the Holocaust and became involved with Voices of Hope when they moved to the area. Marge is always willing and available to help volunteer with any of VOH’s programs and attends our programs regularly. Marge participated in our 4th Speak Up Showcase, and she and her mother spoke together at the Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford to students from Venture Academy in Meriden, CT.

Gayle, a native of New York, earned her degree in Industrial Psychology from Queens College. She later received her MSW in Community Organization at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Gayle moved to Connecticut when she married her husband Steven.

Gayle’s father, Abby Weiner z”l, was a Holocaust survivor who spoke at numerous schools, colleges, and other venues about his experiences. In 2002, Gayle and her parents went back to the 4 concentration camps where her father had been held as a young boy.

Gayle is actively involved in the Greater Hartford Jewish Community. She is vice president of Voices of Hope and was honored with the L’dor V’dor Award in 2020. She served as a vice president of Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford. She spearheaded community collaboration as a core member of the Executive Committee for the Aim Chai Endowment Campaign and the Day School Transformation Fund. At Schechter, Gayle chaired the Development Committee, co-chaired the Annual Ner Tamid Gala and served on the Parent Association. In 2015, Gayle and her family were honored as recipients of the Ner Tamid award. Gayle is the president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, and past president of the JCC. Gayle also serves on the Board of Jewish Family Services and Beth El Temple, and is involved in the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford where she is a community trustee, past co-chair of the Presidents’ Council, and a Lion of Judah. In 2014, Gayle along with seven other community leaders came together to “save” The Crown Market, the only kosher supermarket in the area.

Gayle is passionate about providing improved treatments and ultimately finding the cure for Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD). Her daughter Alyssa has GSD type 1a, a Jewish genetic disease. She is Trustee and Founder of the Global Center For Glycogen Storage Disease. In 2006, Gayle and Steve created Alyssa’s Angel Fund in order to provide GSD patients and their families with financial assistance if necessary, in order to get the medical care they need.

In 2014 Gayle was selected as one of 20 Wexner Heritage Fellows from New England.