Staff & Advisory Board

Stephen NaronDirector

Stephen Naron has worked as an archivist/librarian since 2003, when he received his MSIS from the University of Texas, Austin. Stephen pursued a Magister in Jewish studies/history at the Freie Universitaet Berlin and the Zentrum fuer Antisemitismusforschung, TU. Stephen has worked with the Fortunoff Archive for more than 12 years, starting as an Archivist. Now, as director of the Fortunoff Archive, Stephen works within the wider research community to share access to our collection through the access site program, as well as writing and presenting on testimony for conferences, symposiums and class sessions inside and outside Yale. Stephen is also responsible for spearheading initiatives such as preservation and digital access to the collection; cooperative projects with other testimony collections; oversight of fellowship and research programs; and the production of the podcasts, ethnomusicological recordings, and the Archive’s documentary film series.

Gil RubinHead of Academic Programs

Gil Rubin received his PhD from Columbia University in 2017. He was an Israel Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University 2017-2019 and Co-Chair of the Jews in Modern Europe Study Group at the Center for European Studies, Harvard. His research concerns the history of Jews in East Central Europe, the Holocaust and the history of Zionism and the State of Israel. He is currently writing a book, The Future of the Jews: Planning for the Postwar Order, a history of planning for the reconstruction of Jewish life in Eastern Europe and Palestine after the Second World War.

Agnieszka (Aya) MarczykCurriculum Development Fellow

Agnieszka Aya Marczyk is a Research Scholar at the MacMillan Center and a Curriculum Development Fellow at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and the Beinecke Library. She specializes in modern European intellectual history and has co-edited and translated several books that explore the intersection of culture and politics, including, with Adam Michnik, Against Anti-Semitism: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Her current work focuses on partnerships, teaching materials, and instructional strategies that build bridges between history instruction in high school and college classrooms. She has worked with scholars and educators to create the Fortunoff Archive’s Race and Citizenship digital teaching set, and her research explores how teaching with historiography and archival collections can support students’ development as historical thinkers. Her current projects include Teaching Historiography: Testimony and the Study of the Holocaust in the American Historical Review, and The Art of Listening, an upcoming digital teaching set that invites students to learn from the Fortunoff Archive’s interview methodology.

She has a PhD in European intellectual history from the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in cognitive psychology from Bucknell University, and a BA from Brown.

D. Zisl SlepovitchMusician-in-residence

D. Zisl Slepovitch (Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch) is an internationally renowned multi-instrumentalist (clarinetist, saxophonist, flutist, pianist, keyboardist, singer), composer, arranger, translator, and music and Yiddish educator. Slepovitch is the founder and leader of the Litvakus klezmer band, Zisl Slepovitch Trio and Assistant Music Director / Music Director / Music Coordinator in many productions by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, including the Drama Desk Award nominated operetta “The Golden Bride” (2015-16) and “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish directed by Joel Grey. Zisl has taught Yiddish language and culture at The New School and served as educator and artist in residence at BIMA at Brandeis University. Some of Slepovitch’s theater, film, and TV contributions include consulting and acting in “Defiance” (Paramount), “Eternal Echoes” (Sony Classical), “Rejoice” with Itzhak Perlman, and “Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot” (PBS). He composed original scores for the documentary “Funeral Season,” the children’s musical “The King of Chelm,” the ballet “Di Tsvey Brider,” and many more. Over the years, Jewish music and Yiddish culture have remained the core elements of his creative inspirations. Zisl collaborates on several projects with the Fortunoff Archive, including “Where is Our Homeland,” a collection of songs remembered in testimonies.