Cave Explorer & Author to Visit Community

Chris Nicola

The North Shore Chavurah of Rabbis community-wide Yom HaShoah Commemoration will feature Chris Nicola, cave explorer and author of The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story, on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:45 PM at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. The evening will include memorial prayers, a candle lighting ceremony, and a special presentation. Copies of the book will be for sale and a book signing will follow.

Chris Nicola has organized and led over 40 expeditions to Africa, the former Soviet Union, Oceana, the Caribbean, and throughout North, South, and Central America. He spent ten years unearthing one of the most amazing underground survival stories of all time: how 38 Jews survived the Holocaust by living in a massive cave system in the Ukraine for more than 500 days. Nicola holds Bachelor's degrees in Criminal Justice, Forensic Psychology, and Physics, as well as a Master's degree in Criminology. He currently resides in New York where he works as an investigator for New York State but much of his free time is spent continuing his research on the Priest's Grotto story, teaching exploratory caving and rope climbing/rappelling skills to scouts and members of the Explorers Club, and running the Priest's Grotto Heritage Project.

While in the Chicago area, Nicola will also visit the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, the Chicago Jewish Day School, Lakeside Congregation, the Cohen Religious School at NSS Beth El, and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

Source: Trib Local