Executive Committee
Max Arpels Lezer
President
Max Arpels Lezer, a Dutch Child Survivor, has been the President of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants since 2023. Prior to becoming President, he served as Executive Vice President of the organization. He is also the former President of the European Association of Jewish Survivors.
Max was born on October 9, 1936, in the Netherlands to Flora Arpels and Solomon Lezer. His mother was arrested, sent to Westerbork and then murdered in Auschwitz. His father arranged for Max to be hidden in a Northern Holland village where most knew Max was Jewish, but they never betrayed him. After the war, Max eventually returned to his father, who had by then remarried. In 1961, Max married Sofia Snoek, a Jewish woman who had also survived the war in hiding, and they settled in Amsterdam. Max is the author of two autobiographical books in Dutch: Max is een hondennaam (“Max is a Dog’s Name”), 2005; and En toen zag ik mijn moeder (“And Then I Saw My Mother”), 2021. In 2007, Max was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his outstanding leadership in Holocaust memorialization advocacy.
Dr. Charles Silow
Executive Vice President
Dr. Charles Silow, the Executive Vice President of the WFJHS&D, and the lead member of the Executive Council in developing of the Annual Conferences’ structure and program. He is a Second Generation descendant of Polish Holocaust Survivors, born in Belgium. Dr. Silow has extensive experience in dealing with the psychological needs of Survivors and their families as a psychologist and Director of the Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families/Jewish Senior Life in Detroit, Michigan.
His professional involvement focuses on a program that provides support groups, counseling, Cafe Europa, phone calls, and an oral history project, Portraits of Honor. It is a photographic/historical project in which over 700 survivors at the Zekelman Holocaust Center have been photographed and interviewed, and their portraits and testimonies available at portraitsofhonor.org. Dr. Silow is the founder and current co-president of CHAIM-Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Michigan, and a member of GSI.
Isaac A. Kot, CPA, MST, PFS
Treasurer
Isaac Kot has been the Treasurer of the WFJHS&D since 2009. As a Certified Public Accountant, Tax Planning Specialist and Financial Consultant he has been advising individuals, trusts, and not-for-profit for over 20 years. In addition to his WFJHS&D duties he is also a Director and Co-Treasurer of a not-for-profit organization, Generations After, Inc., and the treasurer of the not-for-profit organization Havurah Haverim (Community of Friends).
Annette Bar-Cohen
Secretary
Rose Gelbart
Member
Rose Gelbart was born in 1935 in Leszno, Poland. She survived the Holocaust in a ghetto and then in hiding with her mother. She was liberated by the Russians in 1945 and came to the United States in 1951.
Erica Gold
Member
Erika Gold is a Holocaust survivor who educates students about World War II. Born in 1932 in Budapest, Hungary, she and her mother escaped a Nazi transport truck in 1944. They hid with a former housekeeper until Soviet forces freed them.
Esther Toporek Finder
Member
Esther Toporek Finder, a daughter of two Holocaust Survivors, is the President of the Holocaust Survivors’ Group of Southern Nevada and Generations of the Shoah – Nevada, as well as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust. She serves on the Coordinating Council of Generations of the Shoah International (GSI), and the Executive Committee of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA.
David Wachs
Member
David Wachs, the grandson of two Holocaust survivors, has been a leader in the community of Holocaust survivor descendants since 2010. He was President of 3GNY from 2017 to 2023 and co-led the creation of Living Links, the first nationwide organization for 3Gs, in 2021.
Jason Camis
Member
Jason Camis is the Treasurer of the Kindertransport Association (KTA). He joined the KTA board a few years ago when he determined it was his responsibility to honor his grandmother, Ilse Camis (a Kind from Vienna), by sharing his vast nonprofit experience to help the organization look to the future.
Leadership Sub-Committee
Max Arpels Lezer
Dr. Charles Silow
Isaac A. Kot
Annette Bar-Cohen
Governing Board
The Governing Board of the WFJHS&D consists of all its Member Groups.
Staff
Lily Elbaum, CMM – Conferences Management
Susan Dubin - Administration