Debra Brunner Frsa Email & Phone Number

Co-founder and CEO of The Together Plan Charity and founder of the Polotsk Jewish Cultural Educational Foundation in Polotsk, north Belarus. A passionate advocate for support of the Jewish people and communities in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and telling stories yet to be told. I have spent years travelling Eastern Europe and reading books on East European twentieth century history and the Holocaust. My grandparents came to the UK as Polish Jewish immigrants in the late 1920's speaking only Yiddish. Relatives who remained in Poland perished in the Holocaust. My mother became a Yiddish singer. I married the son of Hungarian Holocaust survivors who came to the UK as refugees fleeing the communist uprising in 1956. Holocaust trauma occupied a lot of spacein many guises, and contributed to my marriage breakdown. When I discovered Belarus, I felt a real and powerful connection. Here was a country that had a rich and untold Jewish story and communities who needed to find their way back to Judaism post Communism.Through my work I build programmes in support of community capacity building, empowerment, self-determination, social change and civil society. Currently managing the development of a Jewish Cultural Heritage Trail in Belarus. This is a Jewish route in development at The Together Plan. The Jewish Heritage Routes are being curated by the AEPJ (European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Heritage and Culture) under the Council of Europe's 'Cultural Routes of Europe' Programme.'The Council of Europe is not only the oldest European international organisation, founded in May 1949, it is also the "most European". The 47 member states cover the whole continent, including countries which span Europe and Asia like Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey. The only gap in this rich and fertile patchwork of peoples and cultures is Belarus, although the country has been a member of the European Cultural Convention since 1993'

Listed skills include Fundraising, Community Outreach, Networking, Charity Work, and 15 others.