Meet the
2026 jury

Dr Michele Migliori is a researcher specialising in Jewish cultural heritage, with a particular focus on Jewish art, material culture, and the preservation of Jewish heritage in Europe and Latin America. He has extensive experience in researching, documenting, and disseminating Jewish heritage, including as a Collection Officer at the Jewish Museum of Belgium and as a contributor to Jewish Heritage Europe. In 2026, he completed a PhD in Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. He has also served as Best Practices Officer at the ESJF – European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative and collaborated with research institutes, universities, and NGOs working in the field of Jewish heritage.

Gabriel Brezoiu is a European trainer, project manager and civil society leader specialising in non-formal education, democracy and digital youth work. He is the founder and General Manager of GEYC (Group of the European Youth for Change) and the initiator and President of the PRISMA European Network. With over 15 years of experience leading European initiatives, Gabriel works extensively on digital citizenship education, youth participation, human rights education and building democratic resilience across Europe, the Mediterranean region and beyond. In 2018, he was recognised in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list as one of the leading young changemakers in Romania.

Uta Arning is a Stockholm-based filmmaker and cultural funding expert. Her character-driven work often explores identity, belonging and cultural memory. Her films include Mischmasch, a documentary about a Yiddish theatre group, and A Doll Named Glick, a family short film about reconnecting a child with her Yiddish roots. Uta has served on cultural and film funding juries and is Chair of the Swedish Arts Council’s minority assessment group in 2026.

Laura Schwartz is a specialist in Jewish heritage, cultural policy and international cultural cooperation. Her work lies at the intersection of heritage, culture and international relations, with a particular focus on the preservation, documentation and transmission of Jewish heritage in Europe and worldwide.

She previously directed JGuide Europe, a European platform dedicated to Jewish heritage and culture, before joining the French Institute in Israel as Cultural Attaché, a position she held from 2019 to 2023.

In 2024, she worked as a consultant for UNESCO on a project developed in partnership with the World Monuments Fund (WMF) to document and preserve Jewish heritage worldwide. She is also the French representative of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage.

Maciej W. Hofman is an independent expert specialising in European Union cultural policy and funding, cultural and creative sectors, cultural heritage, and European remembrance.

Since 2021, he has served as an advisor on EU policies for the European Cultural Foundation, Europe’s oldest foundation supporting initiatives that help people experience, share, and imagine Europe. He has also worked as an expert for EU programmes and initiatives, including Creative Europe, Horizon Europe, the European Heritage Label, and the New European Bauhaus, and as an advisor to the Engaged Memory Consortium, a network of memory-activism NGOs. In 2022–2023, he was a jury member of the European Heritage Awards.

From 2015 to 2021, Maciej worked as an official at the European Commission, where he led cultural study visits, negotiated cultural investments through the Structural Funds and post-COVID-19 national recovery plans, and contributed to key EU cultural strategies, notably the New European Agenda for Culture and the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, at the British Council in Warsaw and Paris, and as a translator. He is a graduate of the College of Europe and the University of Warsaw.

Vitalii Bobrov is a proud contributor to the House of Europe Programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by Goethe-Institut Ukraine, which fosters professional and creative exchange between Ukrainians and their colleagues in the EU and the UK. He has also served as an educational director and facilitator at the NGO Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in Kyiv, supporting education, research and heritage work that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine and fosters a more inclusive society. He is also privileged to have helped shape many national and international projects, including “Connecting Memory”, “Babyn Yar: Memory against History’s Background” and others.

Noa Hermele is the director of Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and founding rector of Paideia Folkhögskola. He has been a board member of the Forum for Jewish Studies at Uppsala University, chairperson of the Committee for National Minorities at the Swedish Arts Council, member of the steering committee for the Yiddish Language Centre at the Institute for Language and Folklore, and member of the reference group for the Government’s study on a national strategy for strengthening Jewish life in Sweden. He is currently a board member of the Jewish Cultural Magazine in Sweden and a board member of RIO – the umbrella organisation for the 114 Swedish folk high schools owned by civil society organisations.

Laura Cazés serves as head of communication and digitalisation at the Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany (ZWST). In this role, she is responsible for strategic communication, visibility, and innovation processes within Jewish welfare and community structures in Germany. She studied psychology and non-profit management and has worked at the intersection of community work, civil society, and public discourse for many years. As an author and speaker, Laura Cazés explores the diversity of Jewish life in Germany and its perception and integration into public discourse. In 2022, her anthology “Sicher sind wir nicht geblieben – Jüdischsein in Deutschland” (We Have Not Remained Safe – Being Jewish in Germany) was published. She also works as a freelance moderator and has hosted several podcasts, including one for the German broadcaster WDR.

Hannah Lessing has headed the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism since 1995 and the Fund for the Restoration of Jewish Cemeteries in Austria since 2010, serving as secretary general until January 2024 and as managing director since then.

She participated in negotiations on compensation as a member of the Austrian delegation that led to the Joint Statement signed in Washington in January 2001. She headed the General Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism, which implemented an extensive restitution and financial compensation programme, from its establishment in 2001 until its dissolution in April 2022.

Hannah Lessing oversees the many and varied tasks of the National Fund, which include fostering relations between Austria and victims of the Nazi regime living abroad and in Austria and their descendants, as well as providing support and assistance to Holocaust survivors and their families.

Hannah Lessing is co-head of the Austrian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). She also holds numerous other positions, including serving since 2011 as a member of the Council of the Auschwitz Birkenau Foundation and as a board member of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW). Since 2017, she has served as vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC), and since 2022 as a member of the International Auschwitz Council.

She has lectured extensively on the National Fund and the General Settlement Fund and on the subject of international Holocaust remembrance.

Hannah Lessing holds a degree in business administration and commerce from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) and is a graduate of the Federal Academy of Public Administration.

Lilian Grootswagers is one of the founding members of FRH (Future for Religious Heritage, a non-faith based, European-wide organisation focused on places of worship) based in Brussels. She is a former council member and has been President of the Advisory Board since 2019. She is a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Cultural Heritage. She is the author and publisher of several guidelines and handbooks on the reuse of listed buildings and guidelines for religious heritage. She participated in the selection commission of the FARO programme of the Ministry of Culture and Education in the Netherlands, run by the National Cultural Heritage Agency. She is a member of the Advisory Panel of Europa Nostra’s 7 Most Endangered Programme. She was the project leader and co-author of the publication “Guidance on religious heritage in motion, building the future together, inspiration for municipalities”, published in 2024 at the request of the VNG (National Association of Dutch Municipalities), which provides insights into different working methods and actions.

Ruth Ellen Gruber has written on Jewish heritage and culture for more than 35 years. With her 2002 book Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe, she coined the term “Virtually Jewish” to describe the way the so-called “Jewish space” in Europe is often filled by non-Jews. Her other books include National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe; Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere); and Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today. A former foreign correspondent in communist Europe, she has contributed to many other books and publications and developed the web portal www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu, a project of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe. Her awards and honours include a Guggenheim Fellowship and Poland’s Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit. She was the Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 and has a long-term project exploring the European fascination with the American Wild West.

Dr Linda Hyökki is ECCAR’s Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor. In her role at ECCAR, she coordinates capacity-building and peer-to-peer learning initiatives across municipal working groups, including those focused on anti-Muslim racism and antisemitism. Alongside her institutional work, she operates as an independent consultant on national and transnational human rights projects. She is particularly dedicated to advancing joint, intersectional efforts against both anti-Muslim racism and antisemitism at local and national levels, bridging policy and advocacy to strengthen human rights protection, inclusive governance, and democratic resilience.

Prof. Lela Tsitsuashvili holds a PhD in Art History and has worked at the Sh. Amiranashvili Georgian State Museum of Fine Arts (Georgian National Museum) since 1986. She currently serves as Head of the Fine Arts Research and Expertise Laboratory. Her doctoral thesis was dedicated to the Jewish collections of the Georgian National Museum, and she has researched Jewish art and Jewish cultural heritage in Georgia over the past 30 years. Since 2006 she has spearheaded some 20 Jewish exhibitions at the Georgian National Museum and has published books, articles, and a Jewish collections website. She is also a member of AEJM; an organiser and coordinator of the European Days of Jewish Culture; an associate professor at the University of Georgia; and a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Tbilisi State University.

Esther Offenberg is a programme manager, education consultant and editor with over seven years of experience designing and delivering political and educational programmes. She works with NGOs and think tanks around the world on topics including hybrid threats, conflict resolution, discrimination and gender inequality. Her work encompasses capacity building, peer learning and programme facilitation. As an editor at K. Review, she manages its English, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian editions, conducts interviews and supports the magazine’s international distribution. Fluent in five languages, she brings an international perspective to her educational and editorial work.

Javier D. Castaño is a historian specializing in medieval and early modern Jewish history, with a particular focus on Sepharad and its diaspora. His research has advanced understanding of the social, economic, and family structures of Jewish communities, especially inheritance, dowries, social mobility, and conversion as a social process. He has also contributed to the study of material culture and documentary sources, notably through the Ginze Sepharad project and the edition of Hebrew-script archival texts. He currently leads the SepharDyn project, which examines social mobility and economic inequality in late medieval Sepharad. In addition to his research, he has played an active role in scholarly leadership, serving as editor-in-chief of Sefarad (2006-2015) and as president of the European Association for Jewish Studies (2023-2027).