Annual Conference Warsaw 2026: Jewish Museums and People – Speakers
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Netta Assaf — Exhibitions Curator at the National Library of Israel.
She developed and curated the Library’s inaugural permanent exhibition, which opened with the new building in 2024, and leads its temporary exhibitions program, making the Library’s collections accessible as public experiences connecting history, text, and visual culture.
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Oliver Baurhenn — Berlin-based cultural curator, producer, and arts manager with decades of international experience in contemporary art, music, and cultural cooperation.
He currently works, besides other commitments, with AEJM as the CERV EU Grant administrator. His practice focuses on transnational collaboration, public funding strategies, and EU grant development and mentoring.
Zuzanna Benesz-Goldfinger — head of Art Department at the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
A cultural anthropologist and art historian, she curates exhibitions on the history and art of Polish Jews. She looks after the Institute’s art collection. She cooperated with POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
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Barbara Cuglietta — Director of the Jewish Museum of Belgium since 2020.
Drawing on a background in international finance, contemporary art, and cultural management, she has developed a program that places particular emphasis on school and public education, as well as on the promotion of contemporary Jewish artists and their engagement with today’s social and cultural challenges.
Julia Chimiak — employee of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, where she has been conducting anti-discrimination training for professional groups for over 10 years.
She is also POLIN Museum guide and guides’ supervisor. She is a certified trainer of the “Overcoming Antisemitism” program developed by CEJI and a co-organizer of the Memorial de la Shoah Summer University “In the Footsteps of the Holocaust of Polish Jews.”
Candice Mendes da Costa — Director of Operations and Events of the Jewish Museum London since 2026.
She brings over two decades of experience in the not-for-profit sector, where she has played a central role in planning, coordinating, and delivering some of the UK Jewish community’s largest and most complex events. Her work has consistently focused on creating meaningful, engaging experiences that strengthen community connection and impact. At a pivotal moment for the organization, Candice is helping to shape Jewish Museum London’s next chapter as it embarks on a five-year strategic journey to secure a new permanent home. In the meantime, the Museum is preparing to launch an interim exhibition space, ensuring continued public engagement and access to Jewish stories, culture, and heritage during this transition.
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Natania Dan — curator of public programs at the Jewish Cultural Quarter.
She develops and produces a wide range of public programs, including lectures, workshops, panel discussions, concerts, and symposia, with programming connected to exhibitions and the museum’s main themes.
Bartek Dymarek — Director of Development at the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland.
He has been involved with POLIN Museum and the Association of the JHI since 2009, responsible for fundraising activities of the Association, strategic planning of fundraising priorities and donor cultivation and cooperation with international partners.
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John H. Falk — leading researcher in the museum visitor experience, known for pioneering the concept of “free-choice learning.”
He is the founder and Emeritus CEO of the Institute for Learning Innovation and Professor Emeritus at Oregon State University. His work focuses on audience engagement and experiences, and the social impact of cultural institutions.
Karen S. Franklin — former chair of CAJM, currently Director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute and Director of Outreach for JewishGen.org at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
Karen also served as Chair of ICMEMOHRI (memorial museums committee of ICOM) and Chair of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
Joanna Fikus — head of the Exhibitions Department at POLIN Museum
and Vice Chair of the Board of the Association of European Jewish Museums; Vice Chair of the Board of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland and Chair of its Grants Committee; Member of the Board of Founders of the JCC Warsaw. She has a degree in cultural anthropology.
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Elżbieta Grab — head of the School Programs Section in the Education Department at POLIN Museum.
An educator and applied drama trainer, she develops educational materials and workshop programs and has long been involved in anti-discrimination education.
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Nisya Isman Allovi — Director and Curator of The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews.
Born in Istanbul, graduate of the International Relations Faculty and Cultural Heritage and Tourism, she is the AEJM board member.
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Petra Katzenstein — head of Special Projects in the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam
Petra initiated and developed the first Children’s Museum in 2000 and is currently working on the second renewal. She also initiated and developed the I ASK method with Judith Whitlau and Irith Koster (Tact) which was initially addressed to tour guides but after years of expansion it now provides tools for program- and exhibition development. Petra is a member of the AEJM Board.
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett — Professor Emerita at the New York University, and Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Łucja Koch — Deputy Director for Education and Sales and Head of Strategic Programs at POLIN Museum.
She leads the Museum’s strategy development and oversees education, cultural programs, sales, customer services, and major international initiatives, including the Norway Grants-funded Jewish Cultural Heritage program. She is a member of Poland’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and recipient of the 2024 Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education.
Katarzyna Krauze — head of Promotion and Marketing Department at POLIN Museum.
She is responsible for promoting the Museum’s activities, audience research, and the development of marketing tools, placing the visitor perspective at the center of the organization. Co-creator of the award-winning “Two Sides of the Wall” campaign (two Effie Awards 2024 and Best in Show at the IAB MIXX Awards). Prior to joining the POLIN Museum team, she spent 16 years in FMCG marketing and consumer research at Kraft, Unilever, and Danone.
Franziska Krah — curator of Family Collections at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt.
She was responsible for the reconceptualization of the museum library and archives, developed sections of the permanent exhibition as well as the exhibitions “Mirjam Pressler. Writing Her Fate” and “Mishpocha. The Art of Collaboration.” She earned her doctorate with a dissertation on the history of antisemitism research.
Monika Koszyńska — education specialist at the USC Shoah Foundation and has been its representative in Poland since 2011 (the Foundation holds the world’s largest collection of video testimonies of Holocaust survivors).
Since 2013, she has worked at POLIN Museum, where she oversees programs for teachers. With over 25 years of experience as a trainer, she is also the author of numerous publications on history, tolerance, and oral history in education, as well as a co-founder of the Lauder-Morasha School in Warsaw.
Katarzyna Kulińska — senior education specialist and project coordinator.
With over 15- year experience in Jewish education, culture and human rights. She serves as the Anti-discrimination and Anti-mobbing Advocate at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. She is an expert at the intersection of Holocaust and anti-discrimination education, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and neurodiversity.
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Naomi Lubrich — director of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland in Basel.
She studied literature and art in New York and Berlin, focusing on Jewish studies and costume history. She previously worked at the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY).
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Dagmara Mańka-Wizor — head of the Antidiscrimination Programs Section at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
She is also a trainer, guide, and educator. Having worked at the Museum for over 14 years, since 2015 she has focused on projects addressing antisemitism and discrimination awareness, aimed at professionals. She is an alumna of Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies, a certified trainer of the “Overcoming Antisemitism” program developed by CEJI, and she leads the Field Advisory Board of the Renaissance Hub for Jewish Education in Europe.
Olga Melasecchi — Director of the Jewish Museum of Rome
since January 2018, having collaborated with the Museum since 2003. She has a doctorate in Art History and has curated important exhibitions and published several essays in the field of art history in Rome from Mannerism to the twentieth century.
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Maria Ostrowska — senior project specialist at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
She leads the FEnIKS cofunded project aimed at increasing access to the Museum’s cultural and educational offer through a new Core Exhibition gallery and enhanced infrastructure.
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Taina Máret Pieski — Director of the Sámi Museum Siida in Inari, Finland.
Pieski has extensive experience in different leadership positions, including Finnish Government. She was the Mayor of the northernmost municipality in the EU, Utsjoki. Under Pieski’s leadership, the Sámi Museum Siida has undergone major renovations and expansion, improving its exhibitions and practices to better serve the Sámi community, the public, and the preservation of Sámi heritage. The Sámi Museum Siida is the winner of the 2024 European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA), the Finnish Museum of the Year 2024 and the 2022 Europa Nostra Award.
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Kamila Radecka-Mikulicz — curator, interpreter and trainer.
She works in the Exhibition Department at POLIN Museum, with which she has been affiliated for 17 years. She has been engaged in the development of more than ten narrative exhibitions both in Poland and abroad.
Anika Reichwald — museum professional and curator of the core exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin.
In her work, she focuses on audience engagement, participation, and contemporary approaches to museum practice, with particular interest in dialogue and inclusion.
Sharon Reichel — General Manager of the Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM)
She coordinates the association’s activities and oversees the writing and management of European-funded projects. She previously worked as Curator and Registrar at the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah – MEIS in Ferrara, Italy, where she coordinated cultural activities and temporary exhibitions.
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Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz — Deputy Director of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute.
A curator specializing in Jewish history and Holocaust memory, she develops exhibitions, educational programs, and public engagement initiatives related to Jewish heritage and postwar history.
Dariusz Stola — Director of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
– a cultural institution that has attracted millions of visitors and won major European and national museum awards. Stola is a historian, professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences, who published ten books and many articles on the history of Poland in the 20th century. He serves as the chairman of the International Auschwitz Council, as well as a member of several advisory boards of museums, academic institutions, and journals.
Barbara Staudinger — Director of the Jewish Museum Vienna since July 2022.
She studied History, Theatre Studies, and Jewish Studies at the University of Vienna and earned her doctorate in 2001. She worked at the Institute for Jewish History in Austria, St. Pölten (1998–2013) and served as a curator at the Jewish Museum Munich (2005–2007). From 2013 to 2018, she worked as a freelance curator in Vienna and was a member of the curatorial team for the Austrian exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial (opened in 2021). Before her current appointment, she was the Director of the Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia (2018–2022).
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The TROP Foundation is an educational NGO fostering human-centric growth. Advocating empathy, it specializes in leadership development and authentic relationships, equipping individuals and organizations with psychological insights and practical tools to navigate complexity with understanding and purpose. It co-organizes the nationwide initiative Empathy in Action Festival, held in eight editions to date.
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Mirjam Wenzel — Director of the oldest municipal Jewish museum in the Federal Republic of Germany, located in Frankfurt am Main, which has been extensively renovated and expanded with a new building under her leadership.
She conducts research, publishes, designs exhibitions and digital products, and engages in intellectual and artistic explorations of European Jewish cultural history. In 2019, she was appointed honorary professor at the Department of Jewish Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, and in 2024, she became Chair of the Board of the Association of European Jewish Museums. In 2025 she received the Hessian Culture Prize for transforming the Jewish Museum Frankfurt into an internationally recognized venue for reflection, inspiration, and intercultural exchange.
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Anna Yamchuk — Head of Education at the Chernivtsi Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovynian Jews (Chernivtsi, Ukraine).
She graduated from the Chernivtsi National University in 2010 with a master’s degree in international relations, the same year she started working at the Museum. In 2014 Anna received her PhD in Political Science.
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Małgorzata Zając — head of the Research Section at POLIN Museum.
For more than 10 years, she has conducted audience development research, initiated museum projects based on research findings, and promoted knowledge about the practical application of research. Prior to joining the POLIN Museum team, she spent 11 years working with the Ipsos international research agency.
