Director
The Eye Contact Foundation
Basalt, Co
Besa – Muslims Who Saved Jews In World War IIIn 2002, I joined my friend Norman Gershman to create this project. We made seven trips to Albania to document Albanians who rescued Jews during World War II. Albania, a small, predominantly Muslim country, gave up no Jews to the holocaust though occupied by Nazi Germany. Some 2000 lives were saved under the Albanian tradition of Besa which demands that a guest in one’s home be protected at all costs. The photographs we made in Albania, along with the stories we recorded from the rescuers have been exhibited in over 150 venues worldwide, including the U.N. in New York, The European Commission in Strasbourg, the British House of Commons, Yad Vashem, The Israeli Knesset, and The Museum of Tolerence. The book, Besa – Muslims Who Saved Jews In World War II was published by Syracuse University Press in 2008. This project has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR’s Weekend Edition. The movie, Besa – The Promise was recently completed by JWM Productions and will debut at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival this July. A curriculum and PowerPoint presentation are available to teachers on the web site. And I am available as a speaker to tell this amazing story and show the photographs we made. My responsibilities on this project have included Technical Photography Director, Book Designer, Writer, Speaker, Video, Audio and PowerPoint Production, Fund Raising, Website Design, Foundation Director and Movie Star.