About Us
Dr. Lori Weintrob, Director, Wagner College Holocaust Center
Dr. Lori Weintrob is Professor of History and founding director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center, Staten Island, New York.is founding director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center, Staten Island, New York and a member of the Hate Crimes Task Force, Richmond County District Attorney’s office. She teaches Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and the Holocaust in Film, Theater and Music. Lori has connected Holocaust survivors with over 30,000 youth of all faiths in the tri-state area. She is co-editor of Heroines of the Holocaust: Reframing Resistance and Courage in Genocide (2025); Beyond Bystanders: Educational Leadership for a Human Culture in a Globalizing Reality (2017) and Maternalism Reconsidered: Motherhood, Welfare and Social Policy in the Twentieth Century (2012). She is co-author of the original play Rise Up: Young Holocaust Heroes. Recent presentations include a keynote at the Inaugural Conference Against Antisemitism at CUNY, College of Staten Island. She is currently writing and editing Documents of the Holocaust: 100 Eyewitnesses (2026). She has received awards for interfaith community-building from the Albanian-Islamic Cultural Center, the Pride Center of Staten Island and the Alan and Joan Bernikow Jewish Community Center, among others. She is on the board of Staten Island Women, Inc. and VISIONS and also appointed to the Mayor’s Interfaith Council for Words and Symbols of Peace and Faith. She was fortunate to have studied the Holocaust with Saul Friedlander. Lori received her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Laura Morowitz, Senior Programming and Research Associate
Dr. Laura Morowitz is Professor of Art History at Wagner College, and Senior Research and Programming Associate of the Wagner College Holocaust Center. She teaches Art and Aesthetics in the Third Reich and, with Dr. Steve Snow, Origins, Holocaust History and Contemporary Crises: Israel and Palestine. In 2019 she and Lori Weintrob designed and curated the Center’s Education and Action Gallery and together have organized four international symposia dedicated to rescuers and resisters in the Holocaust and Genocide. She is the author of five books, including Art, Exhibition and Erasure in Nazi Vienna. Art and Politics Series (Routledge Press, 2023) and co-editor, with Megan Brandow Faller, of Erasures and Eradications in Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and Design (Routledge Press, 2022). She contributed the chapter on “Art and the Holocaust” to Sources for Studying the Holocaust:A Guide for Students, edited by Paul Bartrop (Routledge, 2022). Laura’s scholarly articles have been published in The Journal of Holocaust Studies, Contemporary Austrian Studies, The Austrian History Yearbook, The Art Bulletin, Art Journal, The Oxford Art Journal, The Journal of the History of Collections, The Journal of Popular Film and Television and Cultural Critique among other places. She has received grants for her scholarship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Hadassah Brandeis Foundation among others. Along with Marek Kaźmierczak, Mikołaj Jaźdon and Piotr Jaxa, she created the short experimental documentary Lilac/Bez (2024), which follows her return to the shtetls of her Polish grandparents. The film debuted at the Garden State Film Festival and has been screened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, CZ Kamek Art and Cultural Center in Poznan and was shown at the International Center for Education at Auschwitz in November 2025 .
Ruth Kupperberg, Solidarity Fellow of the Wagner College Holocaust Center, NYC Human Rights Commission and Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes
Ruth Kupperberg is a proud alum of Wagner College, where she majored in Theater Performance and minored in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies. She currently is the Wagner College Solidarity Fellow for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, where she is building educational presentations on antisemitism and the Jewish identity in NYC. Past positions for Wagner include: Holocaust Center Intern, Education Assistant and Conference Coordinator. Ruth continues to pursue her passion for theater and performance alongside her work promoting Holocaust education.
Wagner College Holocaust Center
Our mission is to empower future generations in empathy, courage, and ethical decision-making in order to combat anti-Semitism, racism & all forms of prejudice.
Wagner College Holocaust Center Advisory Board: Vision Statement
The Board supports a flourishing and exciting celebration of Jewish life, culture, faith and learning on the Wagner College campus. It will encourage the development of academic studies and co-curricular activities on Judaism, Jews in American Society, Israel and the Holocaust. It will work to stimulate students to engage in an open community of study and self-discovery that will help them to become passionate, informed Jewish leaders on campus, in their communities and after their time in college.
WCHC Advisory Board: Mission Statement
The Wagner College Holocaust Center Advisory Board is dedicated to strengthening the ties between the College and the Jewish community. Through its support for academic studies, the Holocaust Center and co-curricular activities, the Holocaust Center Advisory Board promotes the knowledge of the richness of the Jewish experience and interfaith understanding. We are committed to educating continuing generations on the ramifications of prejudice, anti-Semitism and racism in order to promote openness to all.
WCHC Advisory Board
Chair:
- Fern Zagor
Members:
- Dr. Victor and Kim Avis
- Louis Bruschi
- Jay Duskin
- Stephen Greenwald
- Rabbi Michael Howald
- Rabbi Yochanan Ivry
- Sadie Khodorkovsky Koyfman
- Marcia Klein
- Michelle Lee
- Dr. Ram Roth
- Scott Salmon
- Sue Sappin
- Eric Shuffler
- Judge Marjorie Steinberg
- Nancy Tricorico
- Rev. Terry Troia
- Judge Karen Wolff
- Amelia Winter
Faculty Advisory Committee:
- Dr. Laura Morowitz, PhD
- Dr. Lori Weintrob, PhD
Wagner College Hillel Mission Statement:
Wagner College Hillel is part of Hillel of Staten Island, which is run through a management agreement with the Joan & Alan Bernikow JCC of Staten Island. This management agreement has created a new, first of its kind model of one Hillel that serves both Wagner and the College of Staten Island, as well as other college-aged students and young professionals. The funding for this initiative comes from UJA-Federation of NY, a core partner of the JCC and Hillel.
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https://wagner.edu/holocaust-center/2025-mitzvah-awards-program/