Advisory Board Member: Rositta Ehrlich Kenigsberg

Rositta Ehrlich Kenigsberg serves as the Executive Vice President of the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center Inc., located in Hollywood, Florida.

Since 1999, Ms. Kenigsberg has served in an advisory capacity to the Education Committee of the Florida Governor’s Task Force on Domestic Violence, and in January, 2001 was named the first Chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Domestic Violence Education Advisory Committee.

From 1983-86, Rositta E. Kenigsberg had the privilege of serving as a Second-Generation advisor to Nobel Laureate recipient Elie Wiesel, who, at that time was Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

In 1990, Ms. Kenigsberg served on the initial North American Advisory Board of the "March of the Living", along with Shoshana Cardin, Norman Lipoff, and Elie Wiesel. That same year, she participated in the 1990 March of the Living, an extraordinary trip to Poland, a journey that led her to the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Treblinka. Walking into the camps and retracing her father’s past, only made her realize more than ever, that the authentic memory of the Holocaust must be preserved, protected, and perpetuated. Her father is the sole survivor of a family of over 120 members, and Ms. Kenigsberg is named for the grandmother, Raizel, she never knew.

In 1992, Ms. Kenigsberg spearheaded, programmed, and planned, along with the Southeast Florida Center on Aging, the First National Conference on the Identification, Treatment and Care of the Aging Holocaust Survivor. This 2 ½-day conference provided the first national forum for recognizing the unique needs and concerns of the aging Holocaust Survivor. Internationally recognized experts in aging, Alzheimer and Holocaust-related issues were brought together with health care professionals, social service providers, and Holocaust Survivors from throughout the country. Selected proceedings of this conference have been published and are available to the public.

One of Rositta E. Kenigsberg’s proudest achievements came in 1994 that ultimately led to the passage of Florida Statute 233.061, “Required Public School Instruction of the History of the Holocaust.” Due to her efforts, Holocaust Education is mandated today in the State of Florida for all Florida students from kindergarten to 20.

For over a decade, Ms. Kenigsberg has been a leading advocate – nationally and internationally – for securing Long-Term Home Health Care for Holocaust survivors, and most particularly, for our Florida Survivor community. In 1998, Florida’s former Insurance Commissioner and current Senator, Bill Nelson, appointed her to serve on the Florida Steering Committee to assist the Department of Insurance in implementing the historic Holocaust Victim’s Insurance Act.

She was recently named to the American Gathering/Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, as a national Vice President. Over the years some of her positions included: President of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Executive Member of the American Friends of the Jewish Museum in Vienna, Austria, Member of the Advisory Committee for the U.S. Distribution of Funds from the Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust, and, locally as a member of the Advisory Committee of the newly developed Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Human Rights Studies for Florida Gulf Coast University.

In 1996, Ms. Kenigsberg received a 5 year term Presidential Appointment from then President Bill Clinton to serve as a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. During her tenure, she was privileged to become a Member of the Museum’s Executive Committee. Ms. Kenigsberg also served on the Museum’s Academic, and Collections and Acquisitions Committees.

In November 1998, she was named Chair of the Museum’s Second Generation Advisory group and served as a principal organizer and planner of the Museum’s January 2000 millennium event, “The Life Reborn Project”, which featured unprecedented exhibitions, cultural events, and culminated in a major international conference with almost 2,000 participants. The “Life Reborn Project”, was the untold, little known, and remarkable story of what happened to Survivors as “displaced persons” in the aftermath of the Holocaust.


Currently, her efforts and energies are focused on the newly acquired facility at 2031 Harrison Street in Hollywood, Florida which will house the ongoing documentation and education efforts of the Center and feature the first South Florida Holocaust Museum and Reference & Research Library.

The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center has forged a Legacy of Remembrance that will forever and always bear witness to truth and history, commemorate and celebrate the values of decency, humanity, and dignity and, above all, honor our sacred pledge to those who were there – to never allow their memories, words, and silences to be denied, distorted, or forgotten.

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