I was born and educated in Britain, and initially followed a career in the field of geological sciences including stints on various North Sea oilrigs. In 1994, however, I retrained as an historian and in 2000 I received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Southampton in the UK. My doctoral dissertation focused on the ways in which European Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi antisemitism were received in Britain during the 1930s. Since relocating to the United States, I have worked in public history in several capacities. I served as guest curator, scholarly advisor, and researcher for an exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, “Lives Lost, Lives Found: Baltimore’s German Jewish Refugees, 1933-1945”. I have researched and written oral histories for the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA), an on-line resource for the history of Jewish women. With the aid of fellowships and grants from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Jewish Women’s Archives. I researched and wrote about aspects of Jewish women’s history in the twentieth century. I have published works in Shofar, The Journal of Holocaust Education, and Jewish History and Culture and has taught courses on Anglo-Jewish History and Modern Jewish History.
Since 2007, I have coordinated the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project (JBAP). This Project seeks to create a comprehensive archive of Jewish institutional, organizational and group documentary holdings, as well as family materials in the Buffalo and Niagara area. I have secured donations from the oldest synagogues in Buffalo to the area’s longest running Jewish sleep away summer camp, as well as a range of family donations and many other Jewish groups or initiatives. I have recorded a series of oral histories with a wide array of individuals that complements the documentary record. Much of the work of the project has involved working with the University Archives of the University at Buffalo, who are partnering with the project to provide guidance, repository services and access services.
My research interests lie in local Jewish history, American and Anglo-Jewish history, Jewish women’s history, Twentieth Century Jewish History, Jews under Nazism, oral history and archives management.