More than 150 guests attend Community Mitzvah Awards Reception at the Wagner College Holocaust Center

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — More than 150 guests gathered in the Horrmann Library at Wagner College on Grymes Hill on April 9 for the Community Mitzvah Awards Reception, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Wagner College Holocaust Center. Proceeds benefit the Wagner College Holocaust Center.

The 2024 event, which featured entertainment from Wagner Jazz Band with cocktails and hors oeuvres, recognized eight outstanding honorees: Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, Dan Glassman, who accepted for his late grandmother, Stefania Hecht, Susan Sappin, Rev. Dr. Agnes McBeth, Aubrie-Mei Rubel ‘23, Stephen Greenwald, and Dr. Lori Weintrob.

The Wagner College Community Mitzvah Awards planning committee comprises Co-Chairs Kim Avis and Nancy Tricorio, Marcia Klein, Michelle Lee, and Fern Zagor.

“Tonight we honor individuals who, in the face of rising antisemitism, Islamaphobia, global injustice, racism, have shed their light,” said Fran Zagor, chair of Wagner College Holocaust Center Advisory Board, opening the program. “We come together not only to honor them but also to support the work of the Holocaust Center.”

Zagor invited everyone to view the slideshow of the Holocaust Center’s accomplishments throughout the year, imploring everyone to be generous with their time, message, and money. Dr. Victor and Kim Avis, Marjorie Steinberg, Ram Roth, Michelle Lee, Lou Bruschi, and all members of the WCHC Advisory Board were also acknowledged for their contributions.

WAGNER COLLEGE PRESIDENT ANGELO ARAIMO

Angelo Araimo, President of Wagner College, who began his tenure at Wagner in 1994, lauded the Holocaust Center, and Dr. Lori Weintrob, founding director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center Wagner professor of History who teaches Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and the Holocaust in Film, Theater and the Arts. Weintrob has also connected Holocaust survivors with thousands of youth of all faiths in the tri-state area.

“Tonight, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Holocaust Society, but it is also the 20th Anniversary of the Chai Society,” Araimo said. “From the beginning, the Holocaust Center is about promoting certain principles that are important in education: Encouraging civic democracy, and not just being witnesses to it but also being a part of it and taking action. That is the foundation of our Holocaust Center.”

DR. LORI WEINTROB’S ACCEPTANCE REMARKS

In her acceptance speech, Weintrob praised former Wagner College President Dr. Richard Guarasci, who was in attendance with his wife, Caryn Guarasci, Staten Island Advance executive editor Brian Laline, JCC President Orit Lender, COJO President Mendy Mirocznik, and Arlene Sorkin of Illuminart, noting they stand “united against rising antisemitism and all forms of prejudice.”

“Tonight, as we gather, we honor the resilience of individuals like Stefania Hecht, Arthur Spielman, and Rachel Roth, whose grandchildren are here tonight, whose harrowing experiences during the Holocaust remind us of the importance of courage in the face of adversity,” said Weintrob. “Their stories, intertwined with those of countless others, gave birth to the motto of our Holocaust Center: ‘Inspire Courage.’

“With the help of my colleague Dr. Laura Morowitz, we’ve expanded our impact globally and locally. Our international conferences draw esteemed scholars from Poland, Germany, Israel and other nations to our campus. Our education programs and action galleries have reached over a thousand students and community members this year alone, igniting a spark of activism in each person we touch.”

ABOUT THE HONOREES

Rabbi Kerry Olitzky received the Monroe J. Klein ‘66 Humanitarian Award for unique arts contributions contributions to the Holocaust Education and Action Gallery at Wagner College.

Rev. Dr. Agnes McBeth was recognized with the Spirit of Change Award for her work as the first female assistant pastor at St. Phillip’s Church and as the youth and education liaison in District Attorney Michael McMahon’s Community Partnership Unit. In that role, she’s partnered with the Wagner College Holocaust Center in its “Youth Stand Up to Hate” programs, including recently with 350 students and teachers at a My Sister’s Keeper and My Brother’s Keeper Day at Wagner College.

Stefania Hecht, an Auschwitz survivor from Romania who died in March, was honored posthumously. Hecht worked closely with Wagner College students to create a video of her tragic experiences in Romania, Hungary and Poland. Her grandson, Dan Glassman, board chair of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, accepted the the prestigious Courage Award.

Sue Sappin, co-chair of the Alan and Joan Bernikow Jewish Community Center, was honored with the Allan Weissglass Civic Leadership Award for perseverance in promoting Jewish values to benefit the entire community. Together, the JCC and WCHC together expanded the programming for Holocaust survivors over the past decade, notably through Cafe Europa.

Aubrie-Mei Rubel ‘23, received the Next Generation Award as a former WCHC intern and WC Hillel president. She is working at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Professor Stephen R. Greenwald, an attorney, received the Founders Special Recognition Award, for collaborating with Weintrob’s vision of creating the only Holocaust Center on Staten Island. Greenwald brought his marketing experience and talents as co-founder to the college-based, Interfaith Holocaust and Genocide Remembrance and Action center.

A member and former President of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Greenwald is chairing the conference committee for the international symposium to be held June 6, 2024, at 6 p.m., at Wagner College, on legal issues in the Holocaust and genocide.

Dr. Lori Weintrob, founding director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center, is co-editor of Beyond Bystanders: Educational Leadership for a Human Culture in a Globalizing Reality (2017) and Maternalism Reconsidered: Motherhood, Welfare and Social Policy in the Twentieth Century (2012). She is co-author of the original play Rise Up: Young Holocaust Heroes. Recent presentations include “Thou Shalt not be a bystander: Holocaust Education for Empathy, Ethics and Courage,” at Kibbutzim College of Education and “Heroines of the Holocaust: Vitka Kempner-Kovner and Sara Ginaite” for the Museum of Jewish Heritage. She is currently editing Eyewitness to History: Documents of the Holocaust (ABC-CLIO Press) and completing a project on Zivia Lubetkin and other female resistance leaders.

She has received awards for community-building and interfaith social justice activism, including with African-American and African Youth, the Albanian-Islamic Cultural Center and the Pride Center of Staten Island. She was fortunate to have studied the Holocaust with Saul Friedlander. ).

UPCOMING EVENTS OF THE HOLOCAUST CENTER

April 18, 10am, Rising Up: Young Holocaust Heroes, St. George Theater, The largest youth Holocaust Remembrance in New York State at the St. George Theatre.

May 6th, 6-730pm, Leadership Panel with the Pride Center of Staten Island and Ribbon Cutting of Queer Book Collection, Hormann Library

May 7th, 4-6pm, Community Days Interfaith Dialogue and Awards with Imam Tahr Kukaj

May 30: Jewish Heritage Night, Ferryhawks Stadium

All events are free: Email: Holocaust.center@wagner.edu

More on SILIve

• Where Life Leads You: Stories of Staten Island’s Holocaust Survivors
• Holocaust Stories
• Stories of courage, resistance and strength: Staten Island’s first permanent Holocaust exhibit opens at Wagner College