Valery Bazarov was born in Russia in 1942. He immigrated to the United States in 1988. He holds two graduate degrees from Odessa State University (1969) and Hunter College of the City University of New York (1994). Valery Bazarov joined the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1988 and over the next decade assisted the arrival of more than 200,000 Jewish refugees who came to the United States under HIAS auspices.

Valery is currently responsible for the HIAS Location and Family History Service, helping immigrants of different generations to find family members and friends – often in other countries – whom they lost contact with over the years, sometimes, decades. He is especially committed to finding and honoring the heroes who rescued European Jews during the Holocaust. Valery also researches HIAS history and presents his findings in lectures and publications. He is a frequent lecturer at the international seminars on Jewish genealogy talking about HIAS activities and projects. He is also traveling to Eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine) where he is working in various archives and locating documents related directly to HIAS activities, spanning the last 100 years.