In 1963, Danish entertainer Victor Borge and New York attorney Richard Netter founded Thanks To Scandinavia to honor the heroic deeds of the Scandinavian people which saved their Jewish neighbors during WWII. To date, Thanks To Scandinavia has awarded more than 3,500 scholarships in commemoration of those heroes.
MISSION
Thanks To Scandinavia (TTS) is a scholarship fund that recognizes the ordinary people who performed extraordinary acts in Scandinavia and Bulgaria during WWII. Because of their selfless efforts, tens of thousands of their Jewish neighbors were saved.
TTS celebrates those who demonstrated courage, tolerance and civility in dark times. To honor their legacy, Thanks To Scandinavia provides scholarships to students from Scandinavia and Bulgaria who are pushing the boundaries of knowledge and working to create positive change in our world.
- TTS provides scholarships every year to Scandinavian and Bulgarian students who are pursuing graduate degrees in the United States and Israel.
- TTS draws inspiration from history, showcasing the enduring values of humanitarianism and tolerance through ongoing dialogue.
- Founded by Danish entertainer Victor Borge and New York attorney Richard Netter in 1963, TTS has been ahead of the times in highlighting the heroic individuals and communities who made the world a better place during one of the darkest periods in our history.
- TTS shares the inspiring stories — many of them little known — of how Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Bulgarian people protected thousands of their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust, often at great personal risk.
FOUNDERS
In 1963, Danish entertainer Victor Borge and New York attorney Richard Netter joined together to found the scholarship fund Thanks To Scandinavia to pay tribute to the acts of courage, tolerance, and civility demonstrated by Scandinavians and Bulgarians during WWII.
Victor Borge
“We condemn the bad but must remember to praise the good.”
Richard Netter
“Acts of heroism and courage are all too seldom seen in history.”
Board of Directors
“Danish entertainer Victor Borge and my father, Richard Netter, founded TTS more than 50 years ago to keep alive the truly amazing stories of Scandinavians rescuing Jews during WWII. This is a story of people doing the right thing, going against the flow and reaching out to fellow man at great personal risk. We have so much to learn still today from this inspiring act.”
~Laurie Netter Sprayregen
President, Thanks To Scandinavia
Laurie Sprayregen, President
Laurie Sprayregen is President of Thanks To Scandinavia. Laurie is the daughter of Richard Netter, who along with Victor Borge, founded TTS in 1963. Laurie Sprayregen is a Vice President of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (JBFCS), the largest mental health agency in the New York area. Since 1980, Laurie has served in several capacities at JBFCS: Chairman of The Ittleson Center; a Co-Chair of JBFCS’s Development Committee; and since 2008, she has been the Chairman of JBFCS’s 15 community-based mental health clinics. Laurie is also the Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board of WFUV.org, a public radio station broadcasting from Fordham University.
Mrs. Sprayregen, a graduate of Cornell University, lives in New York City with her husband, Philip Sprayregen. Mr. Sprayregen is a managing principal with the firm Sprayregen Real Estate Advisors, commercial real estate advisory boutique. They have two children: Jim, a Buyer for the Ross Stores, and Dale, a senior at The George Washington University.
Paul Koren, Treasurer
Mr. Koren is a retired partner of Goldstein Golub Kessler LLP, a large regional Certified Public Accounting firm and managing director of American Express Tax and Business Services. As the Senior Audit Partner at GGK , he managed the firm’s audit practice and provided audit services for a diverse clientele in both the public and private sectors. Mr. Koren developed the firm’s hedge fund practice which grew to become one of the largest in country. As an early leader in accounting for hedge funds he developed many of the methods employed in accounting and auditing such funds. At American Express he provided managerial and accounting consulting services to many of the company’s clients. Mr. Koren represented his firm before regulatory bodies, including the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, lectured extensively on accounting matters and participated in numerous industry-wide conferences. He has co-authored, with Advent Software, the book “Understanding Partnership Accounting. Previously he worked in-house as a divisional controller of Litton Industries.
Mr. Koren is one of the founders of Baruch College’s Executives on Campus program. EOC provides one on one mentoring to over 400 students at Baruch in addition to its other career oriented services. Among his other pro bono work, he is a former Board member and treasurer of the Young Adult Institute, a leading social service agency providing services to the developmentally disabled. YAI services include group homes, medical clinics, day care centers and special needs schools.
He is a Certified Public Accountant and has both a BBA and an MBA from Baruch College. His graduate paper was titled “Reporting to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission”.
Edward M. Berman
Edward M. Berman is a practicing attorney-at-law, whose firm is Singer Netter Dowd & Berman PLLC, located in White Plains, New York. He was a law partner of Richard Netter for decades, and has been a Director of TTS for more than forty years. He is admitted to practice in New York, and before the Tax Court of the United States, the United States Court of International Trade, the Supreme Court of the United States, and other courts.
Ed has been married to his wife, Barbara, for more than 62 years. They have three children (six, including their spouses), as well as 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren, all of whom reside in the area. After living in Bedford, New York, for 42 years, they moved to Stamford, Connecticut in 2013 where Ed also serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees of Temple Beth El, and is otherwise active in other organizations.
Anbjorg Knutsson
Anbjorg Knutsson is currently working as a consular officer at a foreign mission in New York City. Most recently, she worked as the interim general manager/director of hospitality at the Norwegian Church and Cultural Center in New York. Before moving to New York from Norway in 2016, she worked with refugee resettlement.
In 2018, she received her MPA from New York University where she focused on international policy and management. Previously, she studied political science with a concentration in Middle East politics at the American University in Cairo and SOAS, University of London.
Anbjorg is very excited to serve as the Alumni Ambassador on the TTS Board of Directors, having received a TTS scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year. She resides in Murray Hill where she lives with her husband. In her spare time, Anbjorg loves to explore New York City, travel, read, hike and volunteer.
Nancy Petschek-Kohn
Nancy is an experienced Holocaust and Anti-Bias Educator/Facilitator and Human Rights advocate. She has been the director of the Louise and Arde Bulova Juvenile Anti-Bias Education Project in Westchester County, NY, a collaboration of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center and the Anti-Defamation League. She was also a trainer for American Jewish Committee’s “Hands Across the Campus” curriculum, helping to bring the program and train teachers in the US and Germany; and has also been a trainer for the ADL’s “A World of Difference” program. Nancy designs and facilitates workshops to fit the needs of schools and other community or corporate settings.
With a Czech partner, Nancy conducted interviews of Czech survivors of Theresienstadt and created an educational project called “Children & Artists of Terezin”.
Ms. Petschek-Kohn holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from American University. She also sits on the Boards of American Jewish Committee (for which she is a team leader for the Czech Republic Diplomatic Outreach team); and the Anti-Racist Alliance. She was on the Board of Westchester Jewish Community Services for 20 years.
She is married to Stephen Kohn, and has three adult children: Rebecca, Julia, and David.
Ralph M. Freydberg, Emeritus
Ralph M. Freydberg was born and raised in New York City. His parents and Richard Netter enjoyed a warm friendship that began when Ralph was an adolescent. It was from Mr. Netter that Ralph learned of Thanks To Scandinavia, and Ralph has been a “modest contributor” in his own words, over the years.
Ralph went to Horace Mann, Perkiomen Prep, and the University of Virginia. Immediately after college, he joined the family business, which manufactured flexible packaging, and, in 1969, he entered the Financial Services industry and enjoyed a managerial career until his retirement in 2004.
Ralph has been married more than fifty years, and has two children and four grandchildren. He lives in Stamford and Morris, Connecticut, and is a long-time member of The Fairview Country Club in Greenwich.
Kim Larson, Vice President
Kim Larson has dedicated her career to promoting healthy lifestyles through a variety of organizations from safer farm practices (Board Director, Rodale Institute) to school lunchrooms (Founding Board Member of the Coalition for Better School Food) to promoting more access for urban children to outdoor places (Special Advisor to Children and Nature Network). She also serves as Vice President of the Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation dedicated to educating visiting international journalists about conflict resolution across racial and ethnic divides.
A graduate of UC Berkeley with Honors in Urban Studies focusing on Urban Agriculture, she holds a master’s degree from the Elliot School of Public and International Affairs at George Washington University in Science, Technology and Public Policy.
An outdoor enthusiast, Kim has cycled across America, summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, hiked across England and led numerous cycling and hiking trips to Europe and Latin America.
She lives in DC with her husband Gary Knell and together they have 4 grown children.
Ronda Lubin, Secretary
Ronda Lubin is a Chief Financial Officer at XO Capital LLC, which is based in Los Angeles and New York City. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and graduated from Brooklyn College with a BS in accounting. After earning her CPA certificate while at an accounting firm specializing in high net worth individuals, Ronda went on to pursue an MBA in finance from The Wharton School.
Ronda is married and lives in New York City. She is the proud mother of three accomplished sons – Miles, Eric & Todd – who live in the New York City area.
David J. Bloch
David Bloch is a general partner at Valedor Partners, a private equity and venture capital investment firm. He co-founded and was general counsel at Iron Creek Ventures, serves on multiple boards, and is an adviser on alternative investments to a U.K. family office. David began his career as an attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell and clerked for the Hon. Raymond C. Fisher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is admitted to practice law in New York.
Apart from his work for Thanks To Scandinavia, David is a Foundation Fellow at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford, whose endowment investment committee he chairs, and a trustee of Future, a U.K. educational charity.
He holds a B.A. in Classics from Amherst College, an M.Phil., also in Classics, from the University of Oxford, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Rebecca Prime and their two sons.
Rebecca Neuwirth
Rebecca Neuwirth is Executive Director of Define American, where she is committed to humanizing immigrant narratives in our culture as part of building strong communities across lines of difference and expanding democratic agency. With a career spanning leadership roles at Upwardly Global, the Center for Popular Democracy, JDC, and AJC, she has a track record of creating innovative campaigns and programs and deep partnerships that support equitable growth. Currently serving on the Board of Thanks To Scandinavia and the Advisory Board of the Jewish Studies program at Baruch College, Rebecca also volunteers in New York to ensure the arts are available to all students and to foster connection in her neighborhood through community dinners, intergenerational chess programs, and a new garden. She has been trained through Rockwood, Resetting the Table, 2164, and through a DAAD-Fulbright scholarship. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her family in New York and Berlin, hiking, biking, and reading with friends.
Ellen Rachlin
Ellen Rachlin spent her career in finance, most recently as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Prior to joining JPM in 2012, Ellen worked for 10 years at Mariner Investment Group, LLC as the lead Portfolio Manager for their Fund of Funds products. In that role, Ellen oversaw the investment and risk management processes and also served on the firm’s Investment Committee. Previously, Ellen worked in a variety of different capacities at several Wall Street firms, including Citibank, where she traded fixed income arbitrage, and SG Warburg, where she managed fixed income sales into the Americas. She has written several chapters for financial textbooks edited by Frank J. Fabozzi on economics and investment management, as well as other articles for finance journals, including The Journal of Investing. She holds an A.B. economics degree from Cornell University, an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Chicago, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University.
Amir Shaviv
Amir Shaviv is the Assistant Executive Vice-President for Special Operations of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Rescue and Relief Arm of the American Jewish community. Established in 1914, JDC now operates in some seventy countries, originating and managing humanitarian programs helping Jews and non-sectarian populations.
Shaviv is a 35- year veteran of JDC, he participated in the planning and execution of major Rescue operations of JDC (Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Sarajevo, Kosovo). He traveled extensively visiting and working with Jewish communities across the JDC-world.
Through his global rescue work, he came to appreciate historic circumstance that drove ordinary people to rescue Jews in danger. He joined Thanks To Scandinavia 20 years ago to help its mission to commemorate and reward those extraordinary acts of courage.
Shaviv graduated cum laude from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Political Science and International Relations). Prior to joining JDC, he had a distinguished career as a TV News journalist and editor for Israel Television.
Kelly Ramot, Executive Director
Kelly Ramot is the Executive Director of Thanks To Scandinavia, a position she has held since 2013. Prior to this, Kelly was with AJC for 12 years in a variety of roles, including the Associate Director of the AJC San Francisco office and the National Program Director of ACCESS, AJC’s new generation program, in AJC’s New York headquarters. Kelly has been committed to serving in the non-profit world for as long as she can remember, both personally and professionally. She is an active volunteer in a number of organizations, including West Side Soccer League and PS 87, and she recently completed a term as Co-chair of the Board of Trustees of The Brownstone School, an independent pre-school in New York City.
Kelly received an MSc from The New School in Nonprofit Management in 2010 and a BA from Colby College in in 1999. A native Texan, Kelly has traveled extensively around the world and lived in Israel for four years. She is married with three children and lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.