Advisors
Zuleika Rodgers
ADVISOR
Zuleika is Associate Professor in Jewish Studies at Trinity College Dublin. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she is the Director of the Herzog Centre for Jewish and Near Eastern Religions and Cultures and is currently Head of Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies. She has been involved in Holocaust awareness and education and is the Academic Director of the Certificate in Holocaust Education.
Lior Tibet
ADVISOR
Lior is a PhD candidate and a part-time lecturer at University College Dublin where she specialises in twentieth-century violence and the Nazi era. Her PhD project deals with violence against Jewish children during the Holocaust in the pre-war Polish territory. Lior is a fellow at the UCD Centre for War Studies and a fellow at the Herzog Centre at TCD.
David Reichental
ADVISOR
David is a Dublin-based technology consultant with many years’ experience designing and delivering large digital systems, particularly in healthcare.
He is the son of the late Holocaust survivor and educator Tomi Reichental. Growing up with his father’s story, and later seeing the impact of his work, gave David a deeply personal understanding of the Shoah and of the responsibility that comes with carrying its lessons forward.
For David, Holocaust education cannot be only about recounting what happened. It must also help people understand how antisemitism develops, how prejudice and hatred become normalised, and how those same patterns continue to appear today. As part of the second generation, he hopes to contribute to that work and to help keep the lessons of the Holocaust connected to the choices we make today.
Alison Deegan Barry
ADVISOR
Alison was born in Dublin and grew up in the heart of the Jewish community. She joined the Abbey Theatre as an actor, worked in television and now is a screen writer with her own production company. Alison has studied the Holocaust extensively and in 2018 she was the moderator for Testimony – a conversation between Oliver Sears and his mother Monika, a Holocaust survivor; the only occasion they have spoken together in public. She lives in Wicklow with her husband, the writer Sebastian Barry.
Catherine Punch
CO-FOUNDER
For over twenty years Catherine has worked across a range of cultural organisations including film, visual arts, theatre & opera. In 2000, she played a key role in establishing the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland which she then ran for five years. Following eight years at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, she now project manages exhibitions for Oliver Sears Gallery. She produced & co-curated The Objects of Love exhibition for HAI. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin.
Advisors Emeritus
Dónal Denham
ADVISOR
EMERITUS
Dónal served as Ambassador of Ireland to Finland and Lithuania & Belarus, and as Consul General in San Francisco. Other foreign service postings include Geneva, Washington, Brussels, Lusaka and Paris. He has worked on multilateral diplomacy in the context of the United Nations, WHO, ILO, World Bank, IMF, European Union (all 7 presidencies since 1975), humanitarian institutions, the International Red Cross and non-governmental organisations.
David Abrahamson
ADVISOR
EMERITUS
David is a Progressive Dublin Jew. He was educated in Sandford Park School, Ranelagh, and studied Computer Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. On graduation he joined the staff of Trinity where he taught for over 40 years. David served two terms as the Senior Tutor in College and he was the first Head of its School of Computer Science and Statistics. Today he is a Trustee of Trinity Trust, a Governor of the Rotunda Hospital and serves on the International Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Lenny Abrahamson
ADVISOR
EMERITUS
Lenny is the director of the critically-acclaimed Room. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. ROOM was Abrahamson’s fifth feature film. Some of Lenny’s other work includes: GARAGE, ADAM AND PAUL, WHAT RICHARD DID and FRANK.
His latest TV series, NORMAL PEOPLE, a 12-episodes series for BBC, Hulu and RTE, adapted by and based on Sally Rooney’s Man Booker long-listed novel of the same name was released in 2020. His latest feature, THE LITTLE STRANGER, was released in 2018 and based on the novel by Sarah Waters.
He is also in development on a number of projects: NEVERHOME, an adaptation by Lucy Kirkwood of Laird Hunt’s civil war novel with Element Pictures and Film4, A MAN’S WORLD based on the true story of Boxing legend Emile Griffith which he’s writing with co-writer Jon Raymond for Element/Film4 and OURSELVES, a coming of age story set in 1980s Ireland, written by Mark O’Halloran.
Lenny is the director of the critically-acclaimed Room. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His latest TV series, Normal People, adapted by and based on Sally Rooney’s Man Booker long-listed novel of the same name was released in 2020. Other film work includes: Garage, Adam And Paul, What Richard Did, Frank and The Little Stranger. He is also in development on a number of projects.
Tomi Reichental 1935 - 2026
ADVISOR
EMERITUS
Tomi Reichental was a Holocaust Survivor. Born in 1935 in Slovakia, he was sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. Tomi lived in Dublin since 1959 received many awards for his work and tireless efforts to promote tolerance & to educate young people about the importance of remembrance and reconciliation. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, Maynooth University, the International Person of the Year award, Global Achievement Award as well Germany’s highest honour, The Order of Merit. He was the author of I Was a Boy in Belsen and is the subject of the documentaries Close to Evil & Until the Tenth Generation.
We were honoured to have Tomi sit on our advisory committee. May his memory be a blessing