Board of Directors
President
Board of Directors
Associate Director
Maggie Fried
PRESIDENT
Laurie Sprayregen
Laurie Sprayregen is President of Thanks to Scandinavia, a scholarship fund that her father, Richard Netter, and Victor Borge began in 1963. Since 1979, Laurie Sprayregen has been actively involved with the Jewsh Board of Family and Children’s Services (JBFCS), the largest mental health agency in the New York area and became a Trustee in 1993. At JBFCS, she has served in several capacities: as Chairman of The Ittleson Center; as a Co-Chair of JBFCS’s Development Committee; and in 2008, she became the Chairman of the Madeline Borg Clinics at JBFCS. She also serves on both the Advisory Board and the Community Advisory Board of WFUV-FM, a public radio station broadcasting from Fordham University.
Mrs. Sprayregen has been actively involved with Riverdale Country School, serving as the President of the Parents Association from 2006-2008.
Mrs. Sprayregen, a graduate of Cornell University, lives in New York City with her husband, Philip Sprayregen. Mr. Sprayregen is a commercial real estate broker with the firm Byrnam Wood. They have raised two sons: Jim, is a sophomore at Indiana University; and Dale, an eleventh grader at Riverdale Country School.
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
Shirley Adelstein
Shirley Adelstein is a Ph.D. candidate in American Government at Georgetown University. She holds a B.A. from New York University and an M.P.P. from Georgetown University. Her research centers on American politics and social policy, including early childhood education, marriage and family policy, and work-life policy. As the descendent of Holocaust survivors, Shirley is also dedicated to honoring their memory and the lessons of their experiences.
Edward M. Berman
Edward M. Berman is a practicing attorney-at-law, whose firm is Singer Netter Dowd & Berman PLLC, located in White Plains, New York. He is admitted to practice in New York, and before the Tax Court of the United States, the United States Court International Trade, the Supreme Court of the United States, and several other courts. Mr. Berman has not only been a Director of Thanks to Scandinavia for more than thirty years, but is also actively involved in other charitable organizations, including The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. He is also Chairman of the Westchester County Airport Advisory Board, Chairman of the Town of North Castle (Armonk, New York) Board of Ethics, and otherwise active in community organizations.
Irene L. Berman
Irene L. Berman was born, raised and educated in Oslo, Norway. She moved to the US in 1961 when she married an American. She ran and operated a foreign language translation agency in West Hartford, CT for more than 25 years, in addition to working as a freelance translator of Scandinavian languages. She has co-translated six of Henrik Ibsens’s plays from Norwegian to English for production nationally. Peer Gynt was published in book form by Theater Communication Group.
Irene authored “We are going to Pick Potatoes”, Norway and the Holocaust, the Untold Story in Norwegian for publication in 2008. She translated and adapted the English version herself which was published in the US in 2010. Currently she is involved with presentations of this relatively unknown story for educational purposes through book events throughout the U.S. Currents interest is focused on obtaining information on how to educate the general public on efforts to alleviate the increased anti-Semitism in Europe. She keeps in very close contact with relatives and friends in Norway as well as with the Jewish Congregation in Oslo and Trondheim by frequent visits.
She is married to Martin M. Berman M.D. and lives in Bloomfield, CT. They have three adult daughters and 6 grandchildren.
Howard Burkat
Howard Burkat has an extensive expertise in management and marketing. Mr. Burkat launched Discovery Kids Channel Latin America and an in-country feasibility analysis of American private investment in Russian television stations and newspapers. He has supervised the marketing at NBC, was one of the founders of The Entertainment Channel, now A&E, and has been director of Radio Division Advertising and Promotion, NBC, WCBS-TV, WABC-TV, ABC Magazines.
Mr. Burkat received a BA in sociology from the University of Michigan, and a MA in communications in a joint program of the Annenberg School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studied at Jära folkhögskola in Malmbäck, Sweden, and holds a Certificate in Philanthropy and Fundraising Management from New York University where he studied social media. He is listed in Who’s Who in the East and Who’s Who in Media & Communications, frequently appears on industry panels, and writes for media industry publications.
Leslie Chatzinoff
Leslie Chatzinoff has been committed to working as a volunteer and lay leader for over twenty-five years. A majority of those years were spent in Jewish education while serving on Congregation Rodeph Sholom School Board of Trustees and the Rodeph Sholom Board of Directors. In the past two years she has become very involved at AJC. She is on the NY Region Board of Directors and will be going on the National Board of Governors in April. She works very closely with the ACCESS team on various projects as well as with The New York Region on programs, and is currently on the Diplomatic outreach Committee and Nominating Committee. In 2008, she traveled with David Harris and a small group of AJC lay leaders on a Diplomatic Mission to the Former Soviet Union and in 2009, she was a participant on the AJC Adenauer Exchange Program.
She is married to Howard Chatzinoff, a Senior Partner at Weil, Gotshal and Manges, and they have 3 children, Greg (twenty-one), Jill (seventeen), and Matthew (eleven).
James P. Colias
Robert H. Elman
Robert H. Elman is retired chairman, CEO, and founder of DESA International, a major manufacturer of products for the home improvement industry, and serves on the Board of Governors of AJC.
Ralph M. Freydberg
Ralph M. Freydberg was born and raised in New York City. His parents and Richard Netter enjoyed a warm friendship that began when Ralph was an adolescent. It was from Mr. Netter that Ralph learned of Thanks to Scandinavia, and Ralph has been a “modest contributor” in his own words, over the years.
Ralph went to Horace Mann, Perkiomen Prep, and the University of Virginia. Immediately after college, he joined the family business, which manufactured flexible packaging, and, in 1969, he entered the Financial Services industry and enjoyed a managerial career until his retirement in 2004.
Ralph has been married for fifty years, and has two children and four grandchildren. He lives in Stamford and Morris, Connecticut, and is a long-time members of The Fairview Country Club in Greenwich.
Victor Friedman
Ragnhild Galtung
Ragnhild Galtung has worked at the American Scandinavian Foundation in New York and as a director and honorary member of the Norway America Association in Oslo, Norway. Since 1963 she has been Thanks to Scandinavia’s representative in Norway. In 1994, she became a member of the board.
Liv Tchividjian Grimsby
Liv Tchividjian Grimsby is a native Norwegian. She received a Bachelor of Science from University of Agder before she moved to Israel where she has lived and worked, dividing her time between art studies at Bezalel Academy of Art and working in healthcare. She also interviewed and recorded stories of pioneers and survivors that ultimately created her current interest and involvement in research for TTS, focusing on the Scandinavian Jewish narrative. Her work as an artist has resulted in exhibits in the U.S, Canada, Israel, Brazil and Norway. She is fluent in English, conversant in French and Hebrew. Liv is a writer, translator and editor. She is also a real estate agent in NYC.
Suzanne Denbo Jaffe
Kim Larson
Kim Larson has been a leader in bringing healthier food to United States school children as a founding board member of the Westchester Coalition for Better School Food. She is a trustee of Neighbors Link, working to better integrate recent immigrants into mainstream America on a legal path to employment and citizenship.
A graduate of UC-Berkeley with honors in City and Regional planning focusing on urban agriculture, she holds a master’s degree from the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University in economic/agricultural development of Third World countries. She was awarded a fellowship from the InterAmerican Foundation to conduct research on colonial agricultural legacies, food biases and marketing structural alternatives. Larson is a trustee of the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, Urban Resource Systems based in SF and on the Children & Nature Network’s Advisory Board. She joined Rodale Institute’s Board of Directors in 2008.
William D. Siegel
William D. Siegel graduated from Syracuse University in 1960 and from Columbia Law School in 1963. He is a former Law Clerk to United States Judge Jack B. Weinstein (EDNY), Former Deputy County Attorney – Nassau County, Senior Partner with Siegel Fenchel & Peddy, P.C., Garden City, NY, Of Counsel – Berkman, Henoch, Peterson, Peddy & Fenchel, P.C.specialicing in Real Property tax review proceedings since 1968. He is a past Co-Chairman of Condemnation and Tax Certiorari Committee of Real Property Law Section of New York State Bar Association and Nassau County Bar Association.
Mr. Siegel frequently writes and speaks on real property tax review issues, a former columnist for New York Law Journal and Real Estate New York as well a former appointee of Governor Cuomo to the New York State Temporary State Commission on the Real Property Tax Law.
Mr. Siegel is a former President of Temple Or-Elohim, Jericho, NY as well as a former Chairman of UJA-Long Island Lawyers Division. He is a member of the National Board of Governors of theAmerican Jewish Committee, the National Legal Committee of AJC, the National Board, Project Interchange. Past President, Long Island Chapter of AJC, Co-chairperson, Diplomatic Outreach Committee, Long Island Chapter of AJC. He is a member of the New York City and Long Island boards of the American Jewish Committee and the Board of Jewish Community Relations Council, New York City. A former Member, Advisory Board, and Journal co-chair of Institute for Student Achievement and former Acting Vice-Chairperson, Board of Zoning Appeals, Village of North Hills.
He is married to Colette Siegel and has daughters, Dena and Karen.
Amir Shaviv
Amir Shaviv is the Assistant Executive Vice-President for Special Operations for the Joint Distribution Committee, supervising Rescue Programs. JDC is the Rescue and Relief Arm of the American Jewish community. It was established in 1914 and now operates in some seventy countries.
A twenty-two year veteran of JDC, he supervised the first team of operators in the Soviet Union from 1989-1991. This team laid the foundations for the return of JDC to Russia after 50 years of expulsion. Later on during the 1990′s, he participated in the planning and execution of major Rescue operations of JDC (Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Sarajevo, Kosovo).
Formerly a newscaster for Israeli television for sixteen years, Shaviv covered news and produced documentaries on a wide variety of issues, among them the Israel-Diaspora relationship, Aliyah and absorption, religious and judicial affairs. He was a War Correspondent during the 1973 war in the Middle East.
He graduated cum laude from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Political Science and International Relations).
Feature
A Melancholy Beauty: Interview with Founders Kalin and Sharon Tchonev
Liv Grimsby, Thanks To Scandinavia A Melancholy Beauty, a Songs of Life Production, had its World Premiere tour last year with performances in Washington DC, Boston and New York City. A Melancholy Beauty is a commissioned oratorio which depicts the rescue of 49,000 Bulgarian Jews from Hitler’s death camps, in 1943. It was founded by [...]
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