Sousa Mendes
Visa Recipients
The Families
By Ship
Casa do Passal
Journey on the Road to Freedom | A Tour
Visas to Freedom | A Campaign
These are my people! | An Exhibition
Disobedience | A Film
With God Against Man | A Film
30,000 Lives | A Ballet
Circular 14 | An Oratorio
There is a Mirror In My Heart | An Exhibition
Work Towards Fairness | An Installation
FRONTIER OF PEACE | A MUSEUM
SMF Speakers Bureau
Mariana Abrantes de Sousa
Mariana Abrantes de Sousa is an economist with degrees from the University of California Berkeley and Princeton University and extensive experience as an investment banker and international finance consultant. She worked as financial controller in the Ministries of Health and Transport, reporting to the Portuguese Minister of Finance from 2006 to 2010. She is a member of the Portuguese Economics association and the Portuguese Institute of Corporate Governance IPCG. Mariana has been involved in the movement to recognize Aristides de Sousa Mendes for over twenty-five years in the US and Portugal. Born in Coimbra, Portugal, she holds US and Portuguese citizenships.
Dr. Olivia Mattis
President and COO
Board President Dr. Olivia Mattis is an award-winning musicologist and author with a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Yale University. Twelve members of her paternal family were rescued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes as they escaped from Belgium in 1940; meanwhile, her maternal grandparents founded and led the Jewish Resistance there, while her mother was a hidden child. Mattis lectures widely, and delivered Keynote addresses at the 2011 Yom Hashoah commemoration of the City of Philadelphia and the 2014 Yom Hashoah commemoration of the City of Rochester. She has organized high-profile international conferences and music festivals that have received media coverage from Good Morning America and The New York Times. She is Contributing Editor of the Jewish genealogy and family history journal, Avotaynu Online and author of "Sousa Mendes's List — The Search for Survivors."
Dr. Mordecai Paldiel
Dr. Mordecai Paldiel headed the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem from 1982-2007, and was himself rescued from the Holocaust by a Righteous Gentile. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at Temple University in the field of Religious and Holocaust studies. His books include The Path of the Righteous, Sheltering the Jews, Saving the Jews, Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust, Saving One's Own: Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust and The Righteous Among the Nations. He currently teaches at Stern College and Drew University and serves as a consultant to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
Monique Rubens Krohn
Monique Rubens Krohn is a writer and historian with a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Litt from Oxford University. Her mother, grandparents and six other maternal relatives received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in their escape from Paris and Brussels in 1940. Krohn has deep experience in the non-profit sector, both as an independent development consultant and within various organizations. She has worked as a reporter based at the United Nations, corporate communications manager in the pharmaceutical industry, editor, event planner, and in other capacities. For more than twenty years, she has been active in the New Jersey-based Heritage Trail Association, a non-profit historical society for which she has served as President and Executive Director. Krohn has been active in interviewing visa recipients for the Sousa Mendes Foundation since her participation in its 2016 "Journey on the Road to Freedom" trip.
Leah Sills
Vice-President and Chair of the Gala Committee
Leah Sills is a librarian at the Riverdale Country School in Bronx, NY. She holds an M.S. Ed. from the College of New Rochelle and a B.A. from The University of Massachusetts (Amherst). Her father, Stefan Rozenfeld, as well as her grandparents, Abraham and Eugenia Rozenfeld, were rescued by Aristedes de Sousa Mendes and received visas #961 and 962 in May of 1940 and later arrived in New York in July of 1940. Leah is a longtime resident of New Rochelle, NY. She is a community activist, serves on two local boards, and participates in the Sills Family Foundation. She is also an outdoor enthusiast.
Daniel Subotnik, Esq.
The son of two Sousa Mendes visa recipients, Daniel Subotnik is a Professor of Law at the Touro Law Center in Central Islip, New York. Admitted to the bar of New York; Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.), State of Illinois. Subotnik worked in the investment banking field before undertaking teaching positions in law and business at, variously, Northwestern University College of Law; the University of Illinois, Chicago; Santa Clara University School of Law; Seton Hall University School of Law; and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. In 2013 he organized a major event honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes at the Touro Law Center, in partnership with leaders of Long Island's Portuguese community. He serves on the Sousa Mendes Foundation's Board of Directors and is Chair of its Governance Committee.
Robert Jacobvitz
Chair of the Advisory Council
Robert Jacobvitz is a graduate of Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work and holds an MSW in Community Social Work. For ten years he directed the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Greater East Bay, and it was in this capacity in the 1980's that he began championing the cause of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. In 2005 he received the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Humanitarian Medal from the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. His paper "Reinstating the Name and Honor of a Portuguese Diplomat Who Rescued Jews during World War II" was published in the Winter/Spring 2008 issue of The Journal of Jewish Communal Service.
Miguel Avila
Miguel Valle Ávila is a photojournalist, columnist, and Assistant Editor of The Portuguese Tribune, as well as a Senior Director for a healthcare multinational. He holds a Master of Public Administration degree from San Jose State University and is the author of IV International Conference on the Holy Spirit Festas: A Photo Journal (Portuguese Heritage Publications, 2010). He serves as Co-Chair of the Portuguese Studies Program Advisory Board at San Jose State University. For decades an admirer of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, he coordinated the celebrations of the 70th Anniversary of his Act of Conscience with three events in 2010.
Rabbi David Baron
Rabbi David Baron is the rabbi of the Temple of the Arts in Los Angeles and a consultant to the television industry on Jewish issues. He is the author of Sacred Space, Sacred Moments, and Moses on Management: 50 Leadership Lessons from the Greatest Manager of All Time. He conducted televised interviews with Elie Wiesel, Abba Eban, Yitzhak Rabin, Dr. Jonas Salk and other Jewish leaders. He chaired the gathering honoring Righteous Diplomats at the United Nations in 1999. As founder of the Committee for Righteous Deeds, he co-produced the premiere of the History Channel Documentary, Diplomats for the Damned.
Dr. Michael Berenbaum
Michael Berenbaum, Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and co-founder of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is one of the foremost Holocaust authorities in the world today. His books include A Promise to Remember: The Holocaust in the Words and Voices of Its Survivors; The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp; A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis and Witness to the Holocaust: An Illustrated Documentary History of the Holocaust in the Words of Its Victims, Perpetrators, and Bystanders. In film, his work as co-producer of One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissman Klein Story was recognized with an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and the Cable Ace Award. He was the historical consultant on The Shoah Foundation's documentary The Last Days, which won an Academy Award for best feature-length documentary.
Dr. David Bossman
Reverend David M. Bossman is Professor of Jewish-Christian Studies in the Department of Religion at Seton Hall University where he also directs the Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies—an endowment that sponsors graduate education for teachers on the Holocaust and related subjects. He received his Ph.D. in Biblical Languages and Literature from St. Louis University and is the Editor-in-Chief of Biblical Theology Bulletin. He was a Rockefeller Scholar-in-Residence at the Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological Research in Jerusalem and has participated in National Endowment for the Humanities institutes at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Brown University.
Isabelle Coelho-Marques
Isabelle Coelho-Marques is a South African-born Portuguese-American advocate, community leader and analyst at a financial NYC company. She is President of the New York Portuguese-American Leadership Conference (NYPALC), a consortium of 66 organizations representing approximately 180,000 Portuguese and Portuguese-Americans. Previously she was the Director of New York's oldest Portuguese language school and served as the Public Relations Director for the Portuguese-American Chamber of Commerce in Yonkers. In addition, she founded the annual New York State Portuguese-American Youth Conference. In 2015, Coelho-Marques was elected as an Advisor to the Portuguese government's Diaspora Advisory Council. Since then, she founded the NYPALC Women's Network, the New York Portuguese-American Caucus and the NYPALC Entrepreneurship and Young Professionals platform.
João Crisóstomo
João Crisóstomo is a humanitarian activist who has been a prime-mover in a variety of causes: the saving of the Stone Age engravings of Foz-Coa in Portugal (now designated a World Heritage Site); the struggle for the Independence of East Timor; and the recognition of three Holocaust rescuers: Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Luis Martins de Sousa Dantas, and Père Benoit. In 2000, following his involvement and contribution to the "Visas for Life" exhibit at the United Nations organized by Eric Saul and Rabbi David Baron, he was invited to join the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. João Crisóstomo has worked tirelessly for over 15 years to raise awareness and bring recognition to Aristides de Sousa Mendes.
Dr. Nathaniel Deutsch
Dr. Nathaniel Deutsch is a Professor of History, the Co-Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, and the Director of the Institute for Humanities Research at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the son of the late Henri Zvi Deutsch, a Sousa Mendes visa recipient who was an important defender of the hero's memory and a prime-mover in the effort to have him recognized in Israel and worldwide. Deutsch has continued his father's efforts to honor the memory of Sousa Mendes through public speaking, and is developing an annual Sousa Mendes Lecture at his university.
Reese Erlich has been a freelance journalist for 44 years. He was among the first to write about the Sousa Mendes case for national media, including the Christian Science Monitor. He taught journalism at several Bay Area universities and is the author of four books, and numerous TV and radio documentaries. "World War II Holocaust hero's honor caught up in politics," Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 4, 1986 "Forgotten Hero. Portugal's President to honor diplomat who defied Holocaust" Christian Science Monitor, May 19, 1987 "Portuguese Jews Out of the Shadows," Baltimore Sun, April 16, 1995 Photo © Janyce Erlich
Eva Fogelman
Eva Fogelman, PhD is a psychologist in private practice in New York City and an authority on Holocaust rescue and the altruistic personality. She is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, which discusses Aristides de Sousa Mendes among other rescuers. In 1986 she co-founded the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, then called the Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers. She is co-editor of Children During the Nazi Reign: Psychological Perspective on the Interview Process. Dr. Fogelman wrote and co-produced the award-winning documentary, Breaking the Silence: The Generation After the Holocaust. She was honored at the Sousa Mendes Foundation's 2017 gala for her pioneering contributions to Holocaust studies and her compassionate work with aging survivors today.
Jane Friedman, a veteran foreign correspondent, was until recently an editor at the Voice of America in Washington DC. Early in her career, she was a Newsweek correspondent in Paris followed by postings with CNN in Jerusalem and then Cairo. She has covered news overseas for The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her father's family, from Antwerp, Belgium, received Portuguese visas in June 1940 thanks to the generosity of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Her forthcoming memoir is titled, The Diamond Dealer's Daughter.
Dr. Lissy Jarvik
Dr. Lissy Jarvik, founding President of the Sousa Mendes Foundation Board of Directors, is one of the foremost geriatric psychiatry specialists in the world today. Rescued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes after her family fled her native Holland, she earned an M.D. from Case Western University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is Professor Emeritus at UCLA and the author of over 350 publications. She was appointed Distinguished Physician by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, only the second woman and one of thirty-six physicians nationwide to be so honored at the time of her appointment. She is featured in the series "Changing the Face of Medicine" of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Marcia Sachs Littell
Dr. Marcia Sachs Littell is Professor and founder of the Master of Arts Program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and is an internationally recognized Holocaust educator. She is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Center on the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights and from 1980-2011 was the Director of the Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, both based at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Her books include Liturgies on the Holocaust: An Interfaith Anthology, The Genocidal Mind and Women in the Holocaust: Responses, Insights and Perspectives.
Dr. Andrée Lotey
Dr. Andrée Lotey holds a Ph.D in French Literature and teaches French language and literature at Université de Montréal. As a professor at Université canadienne en France, she has organized art and literary tours in the Côte d'Azur and Provence regions of France. In addition to numerous newspaper and scholarly articles, she has written a screenplay revolving around Marc Chagall. Thanks to a hidden suitcase, she discovered that her late father, Jacob Lotenberg, was saved by Aristides de Sousa Mendes. She is currently writing a screenplay on this discovery, entitled The Green Suitcase. Dr. Lotey is a former Board Member of the Sousa Mendes Foundation and is a frequent speaker on the Sousa Mendes story.
Luis Pires
Luis Pires is the news editor of the Portuguese-American newspaper Luso-Americano and the author of the Portuguese book O Anjo de Bordéus about Aristides de Sousa Mendes, forthcoming in an English-language edition. He was a radio and television personality in Portugal before immigrating to the United States, where he has worked as a correspondent for Portuguese television and a news anchor for the Newark-based station SPT-TV.
Adélio Simões
Adélio Simões holds an MBA and is the Founder and CEO of Iberel Corporation. Born in Portugal during the Salazar regime and now living in the United States, he has been interested in the Sousa Mendes cause for many years.
Michael Spett
Michael D. Spett is a retired New York City printer-publisher now residing in Florida. Born in Brussels, Belgium, he escaped with his family via France and Portugal. In 1986 the family's Portuguese visa, signed by Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, was reproduced in The Courage to Care, a book about the Righteous Gentiles that was designed and printed by his firm. This led to his participation in the Portuguese documentary film Le Consul proscrit and subsequently to the production of another Holocaust related book, The Yellow Star, the American translation of the highly regarded German photo-documentary volume, Der gelbe Stern.
Anne Treseder
Anne Treseder is an attorney in San Francisco, California. In 1986 she was a founding member of the International Committee to Commemorate Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes, which successfully worked to "rehabilitate" Sousa Mendes in his homeland. Later, in trying to follow Sousa Mendes' example, she became involved in the fight for East Timorese self-determination. She has been honored by Visas for Life and by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation for her work on East Timor and the Sousa Mendes cause. She has written numerous articles for the Portuguese-American and Caboverdian-American media and is presently working on an archive for inclusion in the planned Sousa Mendes museum.
Dr. Douglas Wheeler
Dr. Douglas Wheeler is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author, co-author or co-editor of eight books and more than 200 articles on Portuguese history, foreign affairs and the history of espionage, and he is also a playwright. He has been decorated with medals by two Portuguese Presidents of the Republic, for advancing world knowledge of Portugal and her past. He authored an important article on Aristides de Sousa Mendes that appeared in Luso-Brazilian Review and that is available here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3513337. His book A Little World War II: Secret Operations in Lisbon, 1939-45 is forthcoming.
Others on our Team
Ella Andriesse
Ella Andriesse is a retired New York State attorney with a degree in International Public Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands. Six members of her family received visas in June of 1940 from Aristides de Sousa Mendes and traveled from Bayonne, France to Porto, Portugal on a sardine boat, the Milena. She is a member of the Foundation's research team. She conducts research and interviews on behalf of the Foundation and participated in the 2016 and 2017 Journey on the Road to Freedom pilgrimages. She is documenting the 1940 journey of the Milena in preparation for an upcoming exhibition in Portugal.
Barbara Boies
Barbara Boies is on the Archive team of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. She is completing her MSLIS degree at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science with a dual concentration in Archival Management and Rare Books and Special Collections. She graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in history where the focus of her studies was World War II and the Holocaust. She has over ten years of business and management experience in commercial real estate in New York. Barbara lives with her family in Westchester, NY, where in their spare time, they volunteer with the Miracle League.
Nicole J. Bubolo
Nicole J. Bubolo is an American Certified Archivist who earned her M.S. in Library & Information Science from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at LIU Post. She earned two Certificates of Advanced Study, one in Archives and Records Management and the second in Public Library Administration. She has extensive professional experience in archival practice, education, electronic records management, and curatorial and preservation techniques at cultural institutions including museums, historical societies, and research libraries. Nicole is proud to mesh her skills with her interests in genealogy and history as a member of the Foundation's Archive team.
Danny Cohen is a co-founder of A Thing Design, the website development firm that built this website. He specializes in building complex database systems for organizational challenges, large and small. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Queens College. His portfolio includes clients such as the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, the Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League and now, the Sousa Mendes Foundation.
Anton Evangelista
Anton Evangelista is an award-winning New York-based filmmaker who has spearheaded the Foundation's project to capture the personal stories of the Sousa Mendes visa recipients on film. A graduate of the High School of Art and Design in New York City, he founded his production company Comprehensive Films in 1994. His directorial credits include Just Laugh!, a documentary on the healing effects of laughter featuring Regis Philbin and other celebrities, and Umberto E, a tribute to the filmmaker's father that tells a story of personal triumph, in which love and forgiveness serve as weapons of "revenge."
Stuart Freedman serves on the Educational Initiatives Committee of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. He was a high school teacher in Worcester, MA whose career spanned from AP American History, Sociology, and Psychology, to Special Ed. A Vietnam War combat infantry veteran from 1965-66, he maintains a lifelong interest in World War II history, particularly the Holocaust and the Russian-German War. He is also passionate about American politics and since retiring leads a weekly Current Events Discussion Group. He participated in the Sousa Mendes Foundation's 2019 Journey on the Road to Freedom tour.
Dr. Paul Freudman
Paul Freudman, M.D. is a Board-certified anesthesiologist in private practice in the New York/New Jersey area. Born in New York and raised and educated in Switzerland and Belgium, he lives on Long Island. An experienced genealogist, he has traced his family roots back to the 1700s in Poland and the Netherlands. At the outbreak of World War II, most of his relatives lived in Antwerp, and many escaped via Bordeaux. Three branches of his family and an uncle were Sousa Mendes visa recipients. Other relatives were likely granted Sousa Mendes visas too, including his paternal grandparents and close cousins. A key member of our research team, he speaks at SMF events and conducts video interviews with Sousa Mendes visa recipients.
Joel Golombeck
Joel Golombeck is a co-founder of A Thing Design, the website development firm that built this website. He is a designer and illustrator with many years of experience working in web and digital platforms. His clients span a wide range of industries and organizations such as publishing houses, jewelry designers, photography retailers, medical professionals, investment firms, as well as individual artists and poets. He holds an MFA in Design and Technology from the Parsons School of Design and a BS in Studio Art from NYU. Golombeck's grandfather, born in Belgium, received a precious visa from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in 1940, and was able to escape Nazi-occupied Europe via Portugal to the United States.
Marie J. Gomes
Born and raised in France, Marie J. Gomes holds a BA (Maîtrise) in Corporate Law as well as a Master (DESS) in International Business Law from the University of Paris X. Having lived in several countries for the past fifteen years, working for global companies and law firms, she currently resides in San Francisco, where she is self-employed. She is fluent in French, Portuguese, English and Spanish and has a passion for history and research. She is co-founder of the SMF research team and translated José Ruy's graphic novel on Aristides de Sousa Mendes into French.
Joan Halperin
Director of Educational Initiatives
Joan Halperin, daughter and granddaughter of Sousa Mendes visa recipients, is a retired teacher in the New York City public schools. She participated in the Sousa Mendes Foundation's 2013 and 2016 "Journey on the Road to Freedom" and gave testimony in the documentary film, With God Against Man. Joan is conversant in Polish, Hebrew, Italian and French and holds a Master's degree in TESOL from Adelphi University. She is the author of My Sister's Eyes: A Family Chronicle of Rescue and Loss During World War II and co-author of the accompanying Curricular Unit. She is the Foundation's Director of Educational Initiatives.
Avi Losice
Avi Losice is the Israeli representative of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. He is a descendant of three generations who received June 1940 visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes. He was born and raised in Albany, NY. Avi was educated at City University of New York and New York University in addition to Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. He was an analyst and a manager at Standard & Poor's and an Assistant Director at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Avi and his family have made Aliyah and reside in Jerusalem.
Myra Bard Michaelson
Myra Bard Michaelson serves on the Educational Initiatives Committee of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. She is a graduate of McGill University and the University of British Columbia and has been working as an educator in a private Jewish Day school in Vancouver for the past 30 years. She has been involved in Holocaust education for many years and chaperoned a March of the Living teen group to Poland and Israel several years ago. She uses Joan Halperin's book My Sister's Eyes and curriculum (co-produced by the Sousa Mendes Foundation) with her Grade Six students in Jewish History studies. She participated in the Foundation's 2019 Journey on the Road to Freedom tour.
Heidi Omlor
Heidi Omlor serves on the Educational Initiatives Committee of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. She is a Holocaust educator at Ellsworth High School in Maine, and is obtaining her Ph.D. in Holocaust Studies at Gratz University. She participated in the Sousa Mendes Foundation's 2019 Journey on the Road to Freedom tour and is the author of "Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches: Diplomat, Christian, Savior, Hero."
Jackie Schwarz
A native of London and resident of Antwerp, Belgium, Jackie Schwarz has worked as a gemologist and jewelry designer. Since 2005, she has conducted genealogical research in Belgian and European archives, with a primary focus on helping Jewish families discover lost personal histories. Seven members of her husband's family received Portuguese visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes. A key member of the SMF research team, she investigates family links between the visa recipients and obtains their photographs, in order to put a face to every name.
Joanne Tuck
Joanne Tuck serves on the Educational Initiatives Committee of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. She taught "Facing History: Holocaust and Human Behavior" at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston for 30 years. For many years she served on the Teachers Advisory Board of the organization Facing History and Ourselves. She is the author of An Educator's Legacy: Reflections on Teaching Facing History and the Long Term Impact of the Facing History and Ourselves Elective Course at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Joanne conducted research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for her paper, "Designers of Death Nazi Engineers During the Holocaust." She participated in the Sousa Mendes Foundation's 2019 Journey on the Road to Freedom tour.
Ellen Widawsky
Ellen Widawsky serves on the Educational Initiatives Committee of the Sousa Mendes Foundation. She is a Library/Media specialist in the Merrick Union Free School District in North Merrick, NY. She has been teaching an Introduction to the Holocaust unit for several years. She participated in the Sousa Mendes Foundation's 2019 Journey on the Road to Freedom tour.
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