Ilana Cone Kennedy & Peter Metzelaar — Holocaust Center for Humanity

Our weekly club lunch meeting at West Seattle Golf Course features a program with speakers Ilana Cone Kennedy of the Holocaust Center for Humanity, joined by Holocaust survivor Peter Metzelaar.

Ilana Cone Kennedy, CEO, Holocaust Center for Humanity

With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and in the field of Holocaust education, Ilana is focused on creating and facilitating programs that affect change, offering experiences that engage all ages from travel to exhibits, and challenging individuals to consider how their actions, even the small ones, have the power to make a difference.

Ilana received her B.A. from the University of British Columbia and M.A. from the University of Connecticut. She also holds graduate certificates from the UW in both Nonprofit Management and Fundraising Management.

She has been the driving force and architect of initiatives at the Holocaust Center for Humanity that help lead the industry today, including the Center’s Lunch & Learn series, the Student Leadership Board, and the online Survivor Encyclopedia.

Ilana is a recipient of the Pamela Waechter Award for Jewish Communal Service, an Alfred Lerner Fellow from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, a Jackson Leadership Fellow, and has participated and presented at numerous Holocaust education programs nationally and internationally.

Peter Metzelaar, Holocaust Survivor, Member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity’s Speakers Bureau

Peter was born in Amsterdam in 1935. In 1942, when Peter was 7, the Nazis seized Peter’s entire family except for Peter and his mother. Peter’s mother contacted the Dutch Underground for help. The Underground found Klaas and Roefina Post who agreed to shelter Peter and his mother on their small farm in northern Holland, putting their own lives at risk. For two years they lived with the Posts until it became too dangerous and they found another hiding place with two women in The Hague. Peter, his mother, and his aunt were the only survivors of his family. Klaas and Roefina Post have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

After the war, Peter and his mother immigrated to the United States in 1949, arriving in New York. Peter was 13 and didn’t speak any English, but was placed in the 8th grade. Peter had a long career as a radiology technologist. He and his wife Bea raised two children from Pete’s previous marriage and had a third son in California. The Metzelaars moved to Seattle in 1997 and currently live in West Seattle.