Dr. Lauren Granite directs our US educational programs. Before joining the Centropa staff, she spent more than a dozen years teaching Jewish history in colleges, Jewish day schools and congregational schools.  As a teacher, Lauren created our first cross-cultural projects with Berlin and Budapest.  And since 2010 she has been building our network of Jewish day and congregational schools; expanding into public, parochial and charter schools; running workshops and seminars; mentoring teachers; writing lessons and projects; and establishing teacher advisory teams to advise us about Centropa curricula. 

Jonathan was born in Germany and received his Bachelors degree in Political Science and Sociology in 2018 at the University Trier. Jonathan began as an intern at Centropa in 2018 and we asked him to stay on. He has been carrying out research in our archive as well as helping with our teachers’ seminars. Jonathan is continuing his education and is now working on a Master’s degree in Political Science at the University Vienna with an emphasis on International Relations, EU and Europeanization.

Maximilian studied Social Science at Humboldt University of Berlin and received his master’s degree in Holocaust Communication and Tolerance at Touro College Berlin.

From 2009 until 2015 he worked at Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) at Free University of Berlin for the online oral history archives „Forced Labor 1939-1945“ and „Witnesses to the Shoah“, and assisted organising and conducting the annual CeDiS Summer School from 2013 until 2016.

As historical consultant and scientific editor Maximilian worked with an interdisciplinary team of journalists, film makers, web designers and historians on the award-winning web documentary „The Sand Mine“ about the shooting of 127 Italian forced labourers in Treuenbrietzen, Germany at the end of WWII which went online in April 2016 (imidoc.net).

Since August 2017 he is supporting Centropa’s Trans.History project in logistics and fundraising, and is responsible for social media and website content.

Magda Farnesi studied English and Polish philology and Jewish Studies in Olomouc, Czech Republic and Central European History at the CEU in Budapest. She loves languages, dogs, and if she´s not in the Hamburg office, she is translating young adult literature, singing, writing poetry or out on the boat. She is the motor of all logistics issues in the German team: she organizes seminars and summer academies.

Ninja Stehr studied History at the University of Hamburg with a focus on media, gender, and culture in the 20th century.  After graduating with a Master degree, she did a traineeship in a studio for exhibition design in Berlin, where she specialized in museum education and editing. In March 2020, joined Centropa Hamburg's team to assist our education programs. Ninja will also provide content for the social media & website of Centropa’s Trans.History project.

Damjan comes from Ljubljana, Slovenia. He studied Geography and History at Ljubljana University. He has been a teacher for more than 20 years. He teaches Geography and History and also works as deputy headmaster at his school which is located about 25 km south-west from Ljubljana. He likes to join national and international projects either alone or with his pupils to give them skills and motivation for their future. He was introduced to Centropa back in 2013, participated in his first Centropa seminar in Skopje and his first CSA that year. He has been helping as a coordinator for Centropa in Slovenia ever since. 

Gintarė Liorančaitė was born in Vilnius. In 2008 finished history in Vilnius Pedagogical University, 2010 received Local history master‘s degree, 2011 her second master's in International diplomacy from Vilnius University. Gintarė has taught hight school students at Sholom Aleichem ORT school for more than six years. She joined Centropa in 2012. Gintarė organized Centropa's seminar in Lithuania, has held several projects on how to teach “My town’s Jewish history” based on the Centropa method, published Centropa Lithuanian magazine, organized video competitions and local school projects.

Jelena Krucicanin is a teacher of Serbian language and literature at The Third Grammar School in Belgrade. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, and has been working as a teacher for more than 15 years. Jelena has attended many seminars and workshops on Jewish history, including Centropa seminars in Sarajevo and Skopje, as well as Centropa Summer Academy. She has been a mentor teacher in many schools and international school projects, most of them related to the topics about WW2, the Holocaust, culture of remembrance etc. She became Centropa’s teacher in 2015, and as of 2018 she has been assigned with the role of Centropa’s coordinator for Serbia.

Ewa Arendarczyk works as an Education Assistant at the Galicia Jewish Museum and she tries to bring closer the issues about the extermination of the Roma community before and during the Second World War and the delicate matter of memory after the Holocaust. She started working in Centropa’s team in January 2020. If you want to learn more about seminars, traveling exhibitions or educational material provided by Centropa in Poland, or if you want to join the Centropa teacher network, please contact Ewa.

Marcell Kenesei graduated as a political scientist at the ELTE University Faculty of Law, and later was a fellow at the Paideia Institute in Sweden. He took part in the establishment of the Israeli Cultural Institute in Budapest, and takes part in the work of Haver Informal Jewish Education Foundation (http://www.haver.hu) as a volunteer, a teacher, and also as a general advisor. Between 2011-2019, Marcell has been the deputy director of Centropa, responsible for our programs in Hungary, Israel, and our European Jewish School Network. In 2020, Marcell joined the JCC Budapest-Bálint ház, and works for Centropa as the member of our Hungarian and international board.