prof. David Assaf
Professor David Assaf was born in Israel in 1956 and lives in Jerusalem. He completed doctoral studies at the Department of Jewish History, Hebrew University in 1992. In the years 1998 to 2000 he held the position of Director of the Unit for Research on the History of Polish Jewry, the Diaspora Research Centre.
Since 1994 Professor David Assaf has been involved in teaching and research activity at the Tel Aviv University where he is the Head of the Jewish History Department. Assaf is also the Director of the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland Relations.
Assaf's research interests include the traditional Jewish society in the 18th and 19th centuries in Eastern Europe, the history of the Chasidic movement and everyday life of the Jewish community in Eastern Europe. He also studies the history of Jews in Poland.
Assaf is the author of a number of works and academic publications, such as "Ma sheraiti: Zikhronotav shel Yekhezkel Kotik, Vol. 1" ("What I Saw: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik", cz.1), "Bratslav: An Annotated Bibliography" – a publication devoted to rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the Tzadick of the Chassids in Podole and Ukraine. The work tells the story of his life, teachings and views.

Eli Barbur
Eli Barbur is a writer and a journalist. He was born in 1948 in Paris, but he spent his childhood and teenage years in Warsaw. Following the events of March ’68, he left Poland and stayed in Copenhagen, which he left for Israel in 1973. He is living in Tel Aviv.
In the 1980s, he was a journalist for the Polish-language Israeli daily “NK”. Following Poland’s transformation, he began to cooperate with Polish media: radio “Three”, Radio Zet, “Wprost”, “Gazeta Wyborcza”, TVP, TVN 24 and many others. Since the mid 1990s, he is a permanent correspondent of Radio RMF FM in the Middle East.
He is an author of several books: “Grupy na wolnym powietrzu” [“The groups in free air”] novel (1995), “Ten za nim” [“He after him”] collection of short stories (1996), “Wzgórza krzyku” [“Crying hills”] collection of reports and interviews (1998), “Strefa Ejlat” [“Eilat zone”] novel (2005) and an interview on Israel and the Middle East “Właśnie Izrael” [“Israel Exactly”] (2006).

Sophia Braun
Sophia Braun was born in 1947 in Tarnopol. In 1957 she moved to Poland, where she continued her education in the Jewish School Shalom Aleichem no. 7 in Wrocław. Her studies at the Faculty of Chemistry at Wrocław University were interrupted by the events of March ’68. Sophia Braun was forced to leave the university, her family and she emigrated to Israel. She graduated Organic Chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is currently working at the Medical Library in Tel Aviv University.

prof. dr hab. Alina Brodzka-Wald
Prof. dr hab. Alina Brodzka-Wald, a literary scholar, was born in 1929 in Warsaw. Brodzka-Wald is a member of the Committee on Literature Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the Warsaw Science Society (TNW). Her research interests include history and history of literature. Professor Brodzka-Wald graduated from the Faculty of Polish Studies at Warsaw University. She has been working at the Institute of Literary Research in Warsaw since the second year of her studies. Brodzka-Wald explores post-January uprising literature and contemporary literature in the international context and has been the supervisor of over twenty PhD dissertations to date.

Haim Cohen
Haim Cohen is the Institute's coordinator and the Managing Editor and book review Editor of the bi-lingual annual, Gal-Ed.
He is currently completing his PhD. dissertation on radical Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) circles in Galicia under the guidance of Professor Shmuel Feiner.
His fields of interest include the intellectual history of East European Jewry in the 19th century with emphasis on the Jewish Enlightenment.

prof. Jerzy Eisler
Professor Jerzy Eisler (born in 1952 in Warsaw) – Polish historian, an expert on the contemporary history of France and the political history of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL), director of the Warsaw Division of the Institute for National Remembrance. He has also been associated for many years with the History of Poland After 1945 Section of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is specialising in the contemporary history of Poland and the general contemporary history. Jerzy Eisler teaches at Warsaw University and is an author of many books, such as: “Od monarchizmu do faszyzmu. Koncepcje polityczno-społeczne prawicy francuskiej 1918–1940” [“From monarchism to Fascism. Political and social ideas of the French Right 1918-1940”], “Kolaboracja we Francji 1940–1944” [“Collaboration in France 1940-1944”], “Marzec 1968. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje” [“March 1968. Origins, course and the consequences”], “Zarys dziejów politycznych Polski 1944–1989” [“An outline of political history of Poland 1944-1989”], “List 34” [“Letter 34”], “Grudzień 1970. Geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje” [“December 1970. Origins, course and the consequences”], “Polski rok 1968” [“The Polish year 1968”].

prof. Moshe Fass
Professor Moshe Fass (born in 1939, Israeli by birth) obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, later receiving a Master’s diploma in contemporary Jewish history and education. He completed his doctoral studies in Dropsie College in Philadelphia.
In the years 1966-67 he conducted an educational project mainly aimed at foreign students at Hebrew University. Afterwards, he has worked as a director of the Prepatory Program at Hebrew University’s School for Overseas Students (currently Rothberg International School) until retiring in 2003.

Marcel Łoziński
Marcel Łoziński (born in 1940 in Paris) – film director, documentary author. He graduated from the Faculty of Directing of the Łódź School of Film, Television and Theatre in 1971. He received an Oscar nomination in 1994 for the documentary “89 mm from Europe”. Since 1995 he has been a member of AMPAS (the American Film Academy, which awards the Oscars). He is also an educator – he has taught at the Paris Film School FEMIS and the Institute of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He has also conducted workshops on documentary films in Marseilles and since four years he is the head of the documentary course at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School of Film Directing. He is also running the Dragon Forum – the international documentary film workshops. In 2006 he has received the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation Award for extraordinary achievements in portraying human rights in films, Vitae Valor – a lifetime achievement award (Tarnów, 2005), the Andrzej Wajda / Philip Morris Freedom Prize (Berlin, 2004), Grand Prix at the 1st Warsaw Jewish Film Festival (2004), Prowincjonalia Honorary Award (Września, 2004), Award of the President of Polish Television (2004) and the Main Prize at the Film Academy Festival (Olomouc, 2002).

Kora and Marek Perelstein
Kora Perelstein was born in 1946 in Poland. She had been studying ethnography and archaeology in Warsaw for three years. After emigrating to Israel in 1968, she continued studying archaeology and history of arts at Hebrew University. She is currently working for Phoenix, a well-known insurance company. She is living in Tel Aviv.

Marek Perelstein was born in 1946 in Poland. He had completed his fourth year of studies at the Faculty of Chemistry of Łódź Technical University. After coming to Israel in 1968, he continued his studies at Haifa Technical University, where he obtained a Master’s diploma. He is currently living in Tel Aviv and working as an advisor in industrial pharmaceuticals.

Marek Rozenbaum
Born in Poland. In 1968 he left Poland for Israel where he graduated from the Film and Social Work Department at Tel Aviv University. In 1988 he established a film production company Transfax.
Today Marek Rozenbaum is one of the most renown and recognised film producers in Israel. He directed two films himself and produced another 25. His achievements include co-produced films which have received numerous awards at the most prominent film festivals around the world. Apart form feature films Rozenbaum has produced over 40 documentary films, 7 theatrical performances for the Israeli television and over 80 commercials and television shows.
Marek Rozenbaum is the head of the Film and Television Council at the Israel Export Institute. Since 2005 he has also been the chairman of the Israeli Film Academy. For 6 years he held the position of the chairman of the Israeli Association of Film and Television Producers and is a member of the Association’s Board still today.
The latest films produced (or co-produced) by Marek Rozenbaum include the following:
“Live and Become” (2005) dir. Radu Mihaileanu (Viewers’ Award at the Berlin Film Festival, Best Picture and Best Screenplay awards at the International Film Festival in Copenhagen) “Close to Home” (2005) dir. Dalia Hager and Vidi Bilu (Best Screenplay award at the International Film Festival in Jerusalem), “Or” (2004) dir. Keren Yedeaya (Camera d’Or, Grand Prix of the Critics Week awards at the International Film Festival in Cannes, Best Picture award at the Film Festival in Dortmund), “To Take a Wife” (2004) dir. Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz (Critics’ award at the International Film Festival in Venice and at the Film Festival in Hamburg).

Leon Sfard
Leon Sfard was born in 1947 to David Sfard, a Jewish poet and writer and to Regina Dreyer-Sfard, a professor of History and Theory of Film. In March 1968, during the student riots in Poland, he was elected to the Student Committee of the University of Warsaw as a representative of the Mathematics and Physics department. For this activity and for his former involvment within a group of Warsaw dissidents (called later by the communist regime “Commandos”), he was arrested. In January 1969, after his release, Leon Sfard and his parents left Poland.
He continued the mathematics studies in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received the degree of Master of Science with distinction. In early seventies Leon was involved in political activities relaed to peace movements in Israel. Since then he has been devoting himself to the professional career as an information technology and high technology expert. The most important posts that he held during these years were those of Vice President of one of the largest IT and computer companies in Israel, of the General Manager of a technological incubator for high-tech startups, and recently, of a consultant for VC funds and high-tech investment groups.

Scott Ury
Scott Ury received his PhD. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he worked with Professors Jonathan Frankel and Ezra Mendelsohn.
At present, he teaches a variety of courses on modern Jewish history and politics at the department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University where he is a post-doctoral fellow associated with the Institute for the Study of Polish Jewish History and Israel-Poland Relations. His fields of interest include the social and political histories of East European and East European Jewish societies and cultures in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Joanna Wiszniewicz
Joanna Wiszniewicz – born in Poland after the war and living here to this day. She is a Polish Jew and a graduate of Polish studies. She is working in the Jewish Historical Institute, studying the identity of Polish Jews, especially the first post-war generation. She is the author of the publication: “Z Polski do Izraela. Rozmowy z pokoleniem ’68” [“From Poland to Israel. Interviews with the ’68 generation”] (1992) – five interviews about emigrating after 1968 and confronting the Polish past with living in Israel. The interviews are given by people, for whom that journey was a venture into their adulthood, a form of a forced selection of their path in life. They answer questions about their identity, as well as about their own place. Joanna Wiszniewicz has also written the book “A jednak czasem miewam sny” [“Yet I still have dreams sometimes”].

Piotr Wojciechowski
Piotr Wojciechowski (born in 1938, grew up in Poznań) – writer, film director, author of children’s books, columnist writing on cultural issues. He is a graduate of journalism at Warsaw University and Directing and the Łódź School of Film and Theatre. In 1978 he received the Kościelscy Foundation award. Wojciechowski is dedicated to using such forms as pastiche or quotation, he consciously combines different styles (for example those of a psychological novel and a spy thriller). At the same time, he has somewhat of a carefree approach to the background of history and customs, resulting in an impressionist prose, creating his own image of the world. He is an author of novels and collections of short stories (including “Kamienne pszczoły” [“Stone bees”] 1967, “Wysokie pokoje” [“Tall rooms”] 1977, “Harpunnik otchłani” [“Harpooner of the abyss”] 1996, “Próba listopada” [“The trials of November”] 2000), children’s books (including “Lew koloru marchewki” [“A carrot-coloured lion”] 1971, “Czarodzieje pachną klejem” [“Wizards smell of glue”] 1976, “Jezioro na wyspie” [“A lake on an island”] 1979, “Wiatr schwytany w lustro” [“Wind caught in the mirror”] 1984), translations of his own publications (including German and French translations of “Czaszka w czaszce” [“The skull in a skull”] or the French of “Zdobywcy orzechowego tortu” [“Conquerors of the walnut cake”]).

Ryszard Wójcik
Ryszard Wójcik born in 1935 in Poland. He is an independent journalist and documentary author. He has been creating a „mechanical memory bank” – recording events and people with a camera and microphone for many years now. He made over 100 documentaries. He was the host of a programme shown on public television entitled "Caught in the frame". His major interests include the unknown heroes of world war II and the history and lives of Jews entangled in Polish history. He has recently published a book "Zagubione skarby Hitlera" [“Hitler’s Lost treasures”] in which he describes the search for treasures buried by Hitler's army in Poland, mainly in Lower Silesia. His wife and he both took part in the search trips discussed in the book.