Elizabeth Kahn
President, Co-founder

Brazilian born Co-founder and President of The Forever After Project, Inc., Elizabeth is the daughter of Nanette Blitz Konig, Dutch Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and schoolmate of Anne Frank. Elizabeth, her husband and two children have lived in several different places around the world, including Sao Paulo, Brazil, Zurich, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Midland, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida.

Elizabeth has been actively involved in Jewish and non-Jewish organizations around the world. Some of the organizations in which she participated include: The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, The International Women’s Club, The American Women’s Club, Women’s International Zionist Organization, and the Jewish Women’s Historical Society of Hong Kong, which she founded.

Elizabeth was awarded a trophy from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, an organization that helps shape Jewish Culture in America through the arts. This gift was in recognition of her tremendous work in organizing a screening of the “Anne Frank: The Biography” miniseries, based on “The Biography of Anne Frank” by Melissa Mueller, at ABC studios in Chicago before it was nationally aired to the public. At this event, her mother, Nanette, one of the last to see Anne in Bergen Belsen, spoke about her war and concentration camp experience and life in Amsterdam where her father was a widely known banker at the then Amsterdamsche Bank, today ABN AMRO Bank. The film’s director, Robert Dornhelm, scriptwriter, Kirk Ellis, Tatjiana Blacher, actress who played the role of Edith Frank (Anne’s mother), and Melissa Mueller, all came to support the efforts on teaching about the Holocaust and the need for tolerance. A panel discussion was held with a group of Chicago Public School students, and a signed copy of Melissa’s book was donated to all the Chicago Public School libraries.

Elizabeth currently lives in Chicago, Illinois, with her husband. She looks forward to her continuous involvement in Holocaust education with the purpose of reaching out cross-culturally.

Helene Kahn Achour
Secretary, Co-founder

Daughter of Elizabeth Kahn and Co-founder of The Forever After Project, Inc., Helene has been actively involved in Holocaust education and awareness programs throughout her life.

Helene graduated Magna Cum Laude in Economics from the University of Michigan. During her four years there, Helene held several important roles in organizing the University of Michigan’s Annual Conference of the Holocaust, a two-week long compilation of events including lectures, panels, art exhibitions, panel discussion, plays etc. aimed at increasing Holocaust awareness and promoting tolerance. As an active member and Co-Chair her senior year, Helene’s responsibilities ranged from overseeing programming and publicity, to fundraising for the Conference. Helene collaborated with her mother Elizabeth to Co-chair a private screening of the film “Anne Frank: The Biography” at ABC 7 Studios in Chicago. The screening was followed by a discussion panel for an audience of over 250 individuals including high school students from the Chicago Public Schools.

Helene completed her MBA at New York University with a specialization in Media, Entertainment and Technology.

Henry Kahn
Vice President

Husband of Elizabeth Kahn, and Director of Forever After Project, Inc., Henry is a son of German Jewish parents, survivors of the Holocaust and refugees of Nazi Germany.

Henry has been an Executive in the Corporate Finance area for the last 35 years. A graduate in Industrial Engineering from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a M.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A from Columbia University, New York, he pursued a Global career working in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the USA, for Dow Chemical, FMC Corporation and Westlake Group as Treasurer and CFO.

During these assignments, and his life around the world with his family, he has always been particularly interested in promoting tolerance and better understanding amongst people of different cultures and backgrounds.

Elizabeth Grzebinski
Treasurer

The Forever After Project, Inc. holds a special place in her heart as she has known several Holocaust survivors and their children and has been deeply touched by their resilience in the face of unspeakable violence and tragedy.

Elizabeth together with her husband David and three young children live in Houston TX. There the three children attend Jewish Day Schools to which the family is committed, The Beth Yeshurun Day School, a Solomon Schecter affiliate and The Beren Academy, a Modern Orthodox school both to which Elizabeth donates and dedicates her time and resources.

Elizabeth is very involved with Jewish causes and is a member of the Executive Board of the Houston Jewish Federation, the Board of the Beth Yeshurun Synagogue, and is a recent Wexner graduate. In 2008, she won the Jewish Federation’s Young Leadership Award for Houston, TX. Elizabeth is also committed to Medical Bridges, a Houston based charity that ships surplus medical supplies to needy people around the world. In the past whilst living in Chicago, IL. Elizabeth volunteered her skills to the Chicago Abused Women's Coalition, where she worked with their Board of Directors to develop a long term strategic plan for the organization.

Elizabeth Grzebinski was born in New Orleans, LA. and has a Finance degree from Louisiana State University which she attended on scholarship. Before children, Elizabeth held various positions over her 10 year career with Dow Chemical. Those positions include Credit Manager for the Plastics Division, Sales Manager for Ion Exchange Resins, and Business Analyst for Corporate. Prior to her work experience at Dow Chemical, she was a manager at the New Orleans Federal Reserve Bank.

Frederick Kahn
Director

Son of Elizabeth Kahn, Fred is a partner of Metrica Investments, a merchant banking firm specialized in investments and advisory for Latin America.  Fred's experience includes mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and restructurings for a diverse range of corporate, institutional investor, and family office clients, globally.

Fred's past non-profit Board affiliations include:

Board Member, CrossPathCulture, an organization dedicated to facilitating international dialogue on art and culture (2002). Treasurer, University of Michigan Inter-fraternity Council, he was responsible for the management of the organization's financial operations (1997 - 1998). 

Board Member, Hillel of University of Michigan. Responsible for managing the organization's grass roots fundraising drive for 1995. He participated in the organizing and programming of the yearly Conference on the Holocaust.

Founder and President of the Midland County Youth Action Council, a Community Non-Profit dedicated to sponsoring youth oriented community projects in Midland County, Michigan (1993).

Paul Brink
Legal Counsel

A legal consultant to the International Refugee Program of Catholic Human Development Outreach in Grand Rapids, MI, Paul is and will be continuing to serve as a legal consultant for the organization Forever After Project, Inc. besides being involved in all the endeavors of the organization as a board member.

Paul, an attorney, is a retired Director of Taxation and Director of Risk Management from The Dow Chemical Company where he pursued a long career, both nationally and internationally. He is a certified arbitrator with the AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society in New York. Previously he was the chief U.S. delegate to the International Chamber of Commerce Taxation Committee in Paris, France, and was a member of the Risk Management Advisory Committee of the Wharton School.

Currently he is the president of the Warm Hearts Foundation, a volunteer organization drilling water wells in Malawi and supporting an orphanage in Kenya.

Melissa Mueller
Director

Austrian born Melissa Mueller has been working as a journalist for various news magazines for over a decade before turning to writing non –fiction books on the Third Reich, both about the victims and the perpetrators.

Melissa Mueller’s great successes include:

“Anne Frank. The Biography” (Henry Holt 1998)
“To the final hour. Hitler’s secretary” (Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2003), the number one bestseller in Germany.

In the early 1990s she was involved in various projects against racism, such as “Journalists for Tolerance” sponsored by the German edition of “Forbes magazine”.

Melissa has been serving as a consultant to many film projects, such as “Downfall” and is currently writing her first script based on a WWII novel.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin
Director

Rabbi Lopatin became Anshe Sholom’s spiritual leader in 1995 and under his guidance and influence used his enlightened vision of today’s world to turn it into Chicago’s foremost modern Orthodox Synagogue.

Rabbi Lopatin is a member of the executive committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, as well as a member of the Rabbinical Council of Illinois. He sits on the Governing Commission of Hillels of Illinois, is on the Advisory Committees of the New Israel Fund, Religious Zionists of America, The Jewish Council for Urban Affairs and Edah.

A Rhodes Scholar, Rabbi Lopatin holds a Doctorate in Philosophy in International Relations from Oxford University where he completed a thesis on “Islamic Fundamentalist Attitudes toward Jews and Chrisitian’s: An Islamic model of international relations.” He earned a Master’s in Philosophy in Medieval Arabic Thought also from Oxford University, and a BA in International Studies from Boston University. He received his ordination from Rav Ahron Soloveichik at Yeshivas Brisk and Yeshiva University in New York.

Charlotte Newberger
Director

Currently Chairman and former President of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Charlotte has been over many years hand on going very heavily involved in the philanthropic landscape, locally in Chicago and nationally across the USA. Charlotte is a member of the Jewish Federation Board in Chicago and the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel.

Charlotte has been greatly involved in the Chicago theatre community. She is a founding board member of the St. Nicholas Theater, president and founding member of the National Jewish Theater, and advisory board member of the Poetry Center in Chicago. She also served on the Auditorium Theater Board, and seventeen years on the Steppenwolf Theater Board.

As an entrepreneur, Charlotte was one of the founding partners of Beliard, Gordon and Partners Real Estate Company in 1980. She was also the co-founder of The Heartland Health Spa, the first holistic fitness retreat in the Midwest in 1983.