What is Searching For Identity?

In 2005, I wrote a memoir about an amazing woman, Carla Nathans Schipper. On Wooden Wheels explores how Carla and her two daughters survived the Holocaust by hiding throughout the Dutch countryside.

A few years after completing this incredible writing project, I got a call from a friend, asking me an interesting question.

Would you create a program for children of Holocaust survivors?

Drawing on my experience as a newspaper reporter, I created a one-of-a-kind workshop, built on a solid journalism writing method coupled with thoughtful, Socratic discussion.

The children of survivors who attend the workshop, known as the “Second Gen,” are remarkable people. Their writings accomplish two powerful things. Not only do they bravely document their parents’ profound survival histories, the Second Gen also bring to light and tell the world about the deeply personal impact the Holocaust has had and continues to have on their own lives.

Determined to give voice, validity and a platform to the Second Gen, in 2017, I established Searching For Identity. Today, the workshop thrives and includes survivors’ grandchildren. SFI continues to grow, producing: excellent documentary films, books and journals, public programs, educational videos and curriculum, art and literature programs and new this season, an SFI Second and Third Gen Support Group.

In addition, our award-winning 2023 documentary, Traces, Voices of the Second Generation, makes certain the Second Gen’s personal testimonies of historic importance will be shared around the globe.

Everyday, the urgency to document these stories grows more critical.

The SFI Team

  • Stacey Goldring, Founder

    Stacey Goldring, Founder

    My love of art and the written word dates back the fifth grade, from the minute I read the first page of E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

    Since then, storytelling has been woven into all I do, represented by everything you see on this website. Take a look. You’ll find amazing, meaningful projects, expressed through the written, digital, performing and visual arts. Each endeavor intended to bridge diverse communities, revealing the common bonds we all universally share.

    Yes, its a lot. And I love all of it.

  • Lisa Petyak

    After graduating with a B.A in 2017 and completing a successful film internship with Searching For Identity, Lisa Martinez Petyak officially joined the SFI team. Today, she is the SFI Marketing and Communications Director, managing its art exhibitions, book clubs, documentary films, film screenings, LiterARTure series, panel discussions and writing workshops. Her role as Traces associate producer draws on her talent as an exceptional portraiture artist and educational background in film and the digital arts.

  • Renee Berg

    Graphic Designer

  • Jeanine Rogozinski

    Active in nonprofit organizations for the past 30 years, Rogozinski is passionate about helping those around her. As the four-time chair of the annual River Garden Gala and Foundation board president for 15 years, Rogozinski is a constant force in moving people forward and having a positive impact on those around her. Inspired by her in-laws, who were Holocaust survivors, Rogozinski finds motivation in their story of resilience, courage, strength, tolerance and love of family and country.

    “I find a lot of joy in helping others and I believe that what you give, you will receive back in spades,” she said.