Thierry Koch is the current president of JECPJ-France, an association bringing together in France a large part of the main Jewish cultural institutions, several large cities as well as local Jewish communities. Each year, it coordinates the participation of its members in the European Days of Jewish Culture.

Petr Svoboda has been working at the National Heritage Institute since 2007. He is the author of many exhibitions and publications focused on the textile industry in Brno, on the families of Jewish entrepreneurs and on architecture. He is the head of the Methodological Centre of Modern Architecture in Brno which is located in the Villa Stiassni, and works closely with the administrators of other Jewish houses and monuments.

Kveta Svobodova has been involved in the 10STARS – 10HVEZD project for 10 years. During the three-year reconstruction period she was responsible for setting up the permanent exhibitions and coordinating the team of authors and working together with architects and graphic artists, carrying out interior installations and purchasing historical equipment. Since the launch of the project in 2014 until the present day she has coordinated the operations and cultural activities in all the ten buildings, teaming up with local partners, solving technical issues and promoting the project.

Artur was born in Minsk and spent two years living with a relative in Nashville, Tennessee. It was there, as a child of the Soviet Union, that he discovered Judaism; he studied Hebrew and had a bar mitzvah. It was his first foray into Jewish life. He spent a year living in a boarding school in Israel before returning to Belarus where he completed his education in Minsk, studying Human Rights Law. Having had a taste of Jewish life, he has made it his life’s work to strive for a revival of the Jewish community in Belarus. He met Debra Brunner in 2009 and together, since that time, they have worked to build and grow The Together Plan.

Debra Brunner, co-founder and CEO of The Together Plan, is seen here inside the Great Synagogue of Slonim, Belarus. The Synagogue was built 1635-42 and is now the focus of a restoration campaign. A stunning building with hidden secrets, it is a vital heritage asset to the Jewish community of Belarus and the wider Jewish world. In 2018, The Together Plan facilitated the first bar mitzvah of a Belarusian boy, on the territory of the synagogue, since before the Second World War. Approximately 22,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis between 1941 and 1943. Only 200 survived as Partisans fighting in the dense forests. The Jewish route through Belarus will reveal hidden history and stories that have not yet been heard.

As a Product Development Head for the Azerbaijan Tourism Board, Sharifa is in charge of the establishment of tourism products development, to regulate and increase tourism experiences and activities, to create good conditions for infrastructure, facilities and services in place for tourism products, to ensure and increase of quality standards of tourism products, to establish tourism destination’s competitiveness and sustainability. Prior to this, Sharifa was leading Sales and Marketing teams in various hospitality groups in Azerbaijan.

He studied political science at the University of Vienna. During and after his studies he worked on several relevant research and publication projects and was a lecturer for political education at the Regional Adult Education Center Burgenland. Since September 1995 he is the executive director of the Research Society Burgenland/Burgenländische Forschungsgesellschaft (BFG).

Michael Schreiber, project manager and specialist staff member in the Department of Regional Contemporary History and Active Citizenship.

He is an historian with lecturing activities on historical topics related to the history of Burgenland. He is an expert on the history of minorities in Burgenland and has been working for the BFG since 2018.