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BOARD / MANAGEMENT
Board
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Chair - Deborah HartA lawyer by profession, the former executive director at the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand, Deborah Hart is currently a Panel Member of the Human Rights Review Tribunal, the Director of ASH NZ, and on the board of DocEdge.
She undertook the independent review of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme and is a former member of the Government’s Small Business Advisory Group. Deborah is a second-generation survivor. Mum to 3 adult boys, Deborah lives in Auckland with her partner, John, as well as Falafel the Wonder Cat and Sheeba – a Portuguese Water Dog. In her spare time Deb reads, hikes and cooks, and when not in Lockdown, she hangs out with family and friends. |
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Deputy Chair - Miriam BookmanMiriam was born and raised in Auckland and has been involved in the Jewish Community through Kadimah School, Bnei Akiva youth group, and LIMMUD NZ festival of learning. Miriam currently lives in Wellington where she practised as a public lawyer at Russell McVeagh for two and a half years and now works as a Lead Adviser at the Ministry of Education.
Her mother descends from Salonican Jews who immigrated to the UK in the 1920s amidst antisemitism. Her father descends from Russian Jews who lived in a shtetl called Klykoliai in today's Lithuania, where her great-grandfather escaped conscription. Miriam is active in her support for the refugee community. She volunteers for Community Law on Refugee and Immigration advice sessions, and is an advocate for a refugee family going through the reunification process. Miriam also coordinates a mentoring programme, with the support of the Astor Foundation, for women with refugee backgrounds studying in Wellington. She has a keen interest in human rights and it is a privilege for her to be working alongside the talented and dedicated group of volunteers and staff at the Holocaust Centre. |
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Treasurer - Jeremy SmithJeremy is Managing Director of Wellington-based hospitality group, Trinity, which owns hotels, restaurants and bars. Jeremy is also the National President of Hospitality New Zealand and is the Board Chair at Temple Sinai - Wellington Progressive Jewish Congregation. He has been involved in the Wellington Jewish community for many years.
Jeremy has been involved with the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand in the roles of Chair, Treasurer and in fundraising. |
Board Members
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Marcus BlomquistMarcus is excited to have the the opportunity to serve on the board of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand. Having grown up in the United States, Marcus was surrounded by survivors and the culture of duty towards education and the community.
Marcus is a descendant of Polish and Romanian Jews who immigrated to the United States looking for religious freedom and economic opportunities. Since moving to New Zealand, Marcus has fallen in love with the beauty of this country and is a great place to be receptive towards accepting Holocaust education. By serving on the board, Marcus hopes to help the centre, its employees, and the message of the centre reach the entire country. To aid in this, Marcus bring over 30 years of growing up with the message “Never Again," as well as over 15 years of classroom experience. |
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Giacomo LichtnerDr Giacomo Lichtner is Associate Professor of History and Film at Victoria University of Wellington, where he has worked since migrating to New Zealand from Italy, in 2003.
Giacomo has dedicated his career to studying the memory and representation of the Holocaust, publishing widely on the subject, including Film and the Shoah in France and Italy (Vallentine-Mitchell: 2008; 2015) and Fascism in Italian Cinema: the Politics and Aesthetics of Memory (Palgrave: 2013). Giacomo shares the Holocaust Centre's commitment to Holocaust education, and looks forward to opportunities to engage with Holocaust discourses outside of academia. |
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Rivkah Nathan Rivkah Nathan has served on the HCNZ board since 2019/5780. Rivkah moved to Wellington 6 years ago. She grew up in Rockland County, NY, and left when she was 21 years old. From there she travelled and worked in South Korea, Malaysia, Israel, and New Zealand. When she arrived in Wellington, she hit the ground running and engaged as an active member of the Wellington Jewish Community Centre; specifically focusing on outreach to Jewish youth through education and youth development.
Rivkah has an educational background in Philosophy, Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, and English Literature. She has been teaching at Wellington College for 3 years after receiving her Masters in Teaching and Learning from Victoria University. After receiving the Yad Vashem Holocaust Education Scholarship (2019), Rivkah has expanded her educational attention beyond the Jewish community, to general youth outreach regarding the Holocaust, Antisemitism, and Racism. She is actively engaged in this work within the classroom, and her community of colleagues and friends. In her spare time she is the coach of an Ultimate Frisbee Team called “Ultimate Maccabees”. She also runs, dances, sings, composes music, plays guitar, tramps, practices mindfulness meditation, and prays. Primarily, she endeavors to make her activities, contributions, and thoughts align with the ideal that the world should be a safe space for genuine connection, and peace. |
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Diana WichtelDiana was raised in Canada until the age of thirteen, when her Kiwi mother brought her children home to New Zealand. Her father, a Polish Holocaust survivor, was to follow but she never saw him again. Diana has an MA in English from Auckland University, has worked as a university tutor, a teacher and was a feature writer and television critic for the New Zealand Listener magazine from 1984 until April 2020. Since 1993 Diana has been a member of the Auckland Second Generation Group. In 2016 she was joint recipient of the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship, which enabled her to write the memoir, Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father, about the impact the Holocaust on her family. The book won the Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non-Fiction and the E.H. McCormick Best First Book Award for General Non-Fiction. Diana is honoured to bring a deep personal and profession engagement with the legacy of the Holocaust to an organisation devoted to keeping the memory of her family and so many others alive. Diana lives in Auckland with her partner, Chris Barton. They have three children and four grandchildren.
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Helene RitchieHelene brings extensive governance and advocacy experience on over 21 different Boards for over 30 years, serving at the top level of civic and health governance in the Capital City, Wellington, as the first woman deputy mayor, the first Jewish woman deputy mayor and likely the first Jewish woman to be elected to Wellington City Council. This has meant that throughout her life, she has fought for equality of opportunity and human rights, especially of women, disabled children, and against racism, while being highly vigilant for democratic underpinnings of our society, speaking truth to power as necessary, and guarding against discrimination. Her guiding principles, values and action have been social and environmental justice, underpinned by the Holocaust which shaped her life, and the personal aim to stand up and be counted.
Professionally, Helene is a registered psychologist, and mediator, having been awarded four degrees and two university diplomas and working for many years in all levels of public education, preschool through to University, and in her own private practice. In summary Helene will contribute with her wide range of skills, not only in governance, but also in research, writing, and as an author, currently having completed another book as a result of fifty years’ research for her family murdered in the Holocaust. Helene considers it a privilege to serve on the Board of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand and to travel in the footsteps of those who went before her. |
Management
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Chief Executive Officer - Chris HarrisChris Harris joined HCNZ in 2016 as its National Director of Education, bringing 13 years of teaching experience with him, before being appointed to the role of CEO in March 2019.
Chris oversees the Centre's strategic direction; facilitating the national and international activities of the Centre and its profile. Chris fosters HCNZ’s mission and vision with all partners, donors, visitors, and volunteers. He strongly believes in Human Rights education and advocacy, and the relevance of the enduring lessons and messages from the Holocaust for modern society. ceo@holocaustcentre.org.nz |
Education
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Operations
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Database & Exhibitions Management
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