Dr. Shay Pilnik

Dr. Shay Pilnik became the Executive Director of the Nathan & Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in June 2014. Previously Pilnik was an adjunct lecturer in the departments of both Religious Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh with a specialty in modern Jewish civilization.  The son and grandson of immigrants to Israel from the USSR, Pilnik is an Israeli citizen and a permanent resident of the US. He has twenty years of experience as a Holocaust scholar and educator. Pilnik holds a bachelor’s degree from Hebrew University, a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He dedicated his Ph.D. dissertation to the commemoration of Babi Yar in the Soviet Union.