BIOGRAPHY: David P. Drimer

Co-Founder/president National Holocaust Awareness Initiative

David Drimer founded the National Holocaust Awareness Initiative in response to a Pew Research Poll which reveals 44% of Millenials in the United States cannot adequately explain the Holocaust.

Drimer had been National Executive Director of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Founded in 1897, ZOA is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. Previously he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the now world-renowned Global Press Institute, a multiple award-winning not-for-profit enterprise that trains, empowers, and employs women as multimedia journalists in developing countries.

Earlier, he was associate publisher/general manager of the Forward, the legendary 123-year old weekly Jewish newspaper and daily updated website.  Under his leadership, the Forward won some 30+ editorial and Web awards, including Online News Association and Deadline Club awards. Most notably, his team won three Webbys in a row (“The Oscars of the Internet,” NY Times).

Prior to joining the Forward, Mr. Drimer had been the sole knowledge management consultant in the Enterprise division of LexisNexis, the leading global provider of business information solutions to the legal and business communities. He had worked for thirteen years in a wide variety of roles in Knight Ridder publications and later in the Economist Group,

Drimer received an MBA in marketing while serving as assistant director of admissions for the University of Miami.

BIOGRAPHY: Donna Drimer

Co-founder/vice president

Donna is the founder and principal owner of MATTED LIC, a Long Island City-based gallery featuring paintings, sculpture, collectibles and investment-quality works on paper from the 18th through 21st century. MATTED LIC was named a “Best Gallery” by TIME OUT magazine in 2017. Previously, she managed the famed Field Gallery in NYC’s East Village during the zenith of that arts community’s historic influence on the American cultural aesthetic.

 Always a leader in her local business community, Donna has at various times been president of the LI-chapter of the PPFA and the Union Turnpike Merchant’s Association and has been recognized by then NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as one of the founders of Long Island City Women in Business, to this day considered a model organization for women’s empowerment in local business and commerce. She was one of the premiere members of LIC Arts Open, the local artistic community’s annual open studios event. She has been n active advocate and fundraiser for various not-for-profit ventures, including Global Press Institue, Groundswell, Hunters Park Points Conservancy and the local small business community.

Donna received a BA in Political Science from SUNY Buffalo.

BIOGRAPHY: Daniel Friedman

Co-founder/vice president

Dr. Dan Friedman is Director of Content and Communications for Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where he helps lead strategic communications and develops content for a broad range of audiences, with a focus on new media technologies. 

Previously Dan served as executive editor of the Forward, where he won numerous awards for writing and editing including a 2018 Rockower award for editorial writing for his response to the events in Charlottesville, VA. He received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale and an MA in English Literature from Cambridge, where he captained the university soccer team.

Dan is the author of an ebook about the real ideological roots of Tears for Fears, the 80's rock band. He writes regularly about books for the L.A. Review of Books, about whisky wherever he can, and is a contributing editor to 8by8 (America’s glossy soccer magazine). He was a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen and has also written for The New York Times, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.