Introduction:

I'm a professional artist and teacher, and just as importantly I'm Jewish, a Kohen from my father's side of the family - a direct male descendant of the Biblical Aaron, brother of Moses from the priestly family of the Tribe of Levi. I'm very interested in the subject of the Holocaust (Shoah in Hebrew) and as an artist and a Jew I've been lecturing on the subject of clandestine artwork made by prisoners inside Nazi concentration camps for over twenty years. My research and scholarly activity on the subject became personal in 2004 when I learned through genealogical research undertaken by a distant cousin living in Jerusalem, Israel that 24 fourth and fifth cousins on my mother's side of the family - the Kleins, were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau and several other cousins froze to death in the Parczew forest of eastern Poland near the town of Lublin while serving as Partisan Fighters. I continue to conduct research on learning more about my family tree from both sides and am currently working on several projects and continue to lecture both regionally and nationally on the subject of clandestine artwork made by prisoners inside Nazi concentration camps.