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President Barack Obama has appointed a prominent Holocaust historian, a top Jewish Democratic activist and a pioneer of the Taglit–Birthright Israel program to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

The body, which governs the national Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., now includes Deborah Lipstadt, Marc Stanley and Nancy Brooks Gilbert.

Lipstadt is a professor in Holocaust studies at Emory University who successfully defended a libel suit brought by David Irving after she described him as a Holocaust denier.

Stanley is the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council and also a vice-chairman of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Gilbert is the CEO of Travels and Dialogues, an Israel tour agency that designed the itinerary pilot trip for Birthright Israel. She is active in South Florida Jewish groups, including one that sponsors a village for orphans of the Rwandan genocide modeled on those Israel built for young survivors of the Holocaust. — jta