WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama appointed a pioneer of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program, a prominent Holocaust historian and a top Jewish Democratic activist to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which governs the national Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C.
The White House announced the three appointees in a June 7 statement.
Nancy Brooks Gilbert, the CEO of Travels and Dialogues, an Israel tourism specialty outfit, designed the itinerary pilot trip for Taglit-Birthright, the program that brings Jewish adults aged 26 and under to Israel for the first time. Gilbert, who is active in South Florida Jewish groups, including the South Palm Beach County Jewish Federation, sponsors a village for orphans of the Rwandan genocide modeled on those Israel built for young survivors of the Holocaust.
Deborah Lipstadt, a professor in Holocaust studies at Emory University, successfully defended a libel suit brought by David Irving after she described him as a Holocaust denier. She has twice served as a a member of the museum’s council and helped design its section on the American response to the Holocaust.
Marc Stanley is the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council and also a vice-chairman of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella body for public policy groups. He has served as a president of the Dallas Home for the Jewish Aged.
