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) MarczykAcademic Programs Librarian

Agnieszka Aya Marczyk is Academic Programs Librarian at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript 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.

Eliana SwerdlowProgram Manager for Education and Outreach

In her role, Eliana Swerdlow develops and promotes educational curricula and manages partnerships with schools and community organizations. She holds a B.A. in English and Human Rights from Yale College, with a focus on poetry and memory. After completing her undergraduate studies, she designed and led trauma-informed storytelling initiatives for marginalized populations and helped writers publish their stories within their local communities. She also worked in public defense mitigation through Partners for Justice, collaborating with attorneys, clients, and community partners to support people navigating the criminal legal system. She then earned a Master of Arts in Religion and Literature from Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music, concentrating on both multifaith chaplaincy and creative writing.