GenerationsForward

Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center Annual Benefit Honoring Andrew Greenspan

September 21, 2021 by Inside Press

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center will honor Andrew Greenspan, Principal, GHP Office Realty at their annual benefit on October 28. Scott Shay, co-founder and chairman of Signature Bank, will be the keynote speaker.

Andrew Greenspan is a native New Yorker who has resided in Westchester for nearly his entire life. He is a graduate of Scarsdale High School, has a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College, and a Master of Science from the Sloan School of Business at MIT. In 1999, he founded GHP Office Realty with James J. Houlihan. As Principal of GHP, he manages the daily operations of the White Plains based company, which began by acquiring and operating individual multi-tenanted suburban New York office buildings. The partners presently own and manage buildings in Westchester, Rockland, Fairfield, and Bergen Counties.

Mr. Greenspan is a longtime Board Member of the Westchester Business and Professional Division of the UJA Federation and is the past recipient of the March of Dimes Real Estate Award. He is a member of the President’s Circle at the Sloan School/MIT and is a member of the Founder’s Club at Hamilton College.

Mr. Greenspan and his wife, Karen, currently reside in Chappaqua and Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

Scott Shay is the son of a Holocaust survivor. Mr. Shay’s father, George, lived in a small town in Lithuania, when the Nazis killed members of his family. Because of this father’s history and his concern about anti-Semitism, Mr. Shay wrote Getting Our Groove Back: How to Energize American Jewry and In Good Faith: Questioning Religion and Atheism. His next book, Conspiracy U: A Case Study, comes out in October.

The annual benefit will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Westchester Country Club, 99 Biltmore Avenue, Rye, New York, 10580.

For more information, please contact Millie Jasper, Executive Director, mjasper@hhrecny.org or 914.696.0738

Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (neoncrm.com)

24th Annual Benefit – Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (hhrecny.org)

Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center Presents: Memory Keepers Story Hour

March 12, 2021 by Inside Press

March and April Dates for the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) Spring 2021 Memory Keepers Story Hour Featuring GenerationsForward Speakers

These events are offered on a virtual online platform, and feature HHREC Holocaust Survivors, Liberators, and GenerationsForward speakers – a second and third generation group that includes children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

The event series started in January with Hannah Deutch, a Holocaust Survivor from the HHREC Speakers Bureau, as she shared intimate details about her extraordinary experience as witness to Kristallnacht, her transport on the Kindertransport, internment on the Isle of Man, and her career as a nurse.

The HHREC, based in White Plains, NY, launched the Memory Keepers Story Hour series in 2020 in support of their mission – to teach the lessons of the Holocaust, to promote the right of all people to be treated with dignity and respect, and to encourage speaking up and acting against all forms of hate, bigotry, and prejudice. The HHREC has been inviting guests to attend these events to hear members of their Speakers Bureau share their family’s uniquely powerful Holocaust experiences and present their testimonies to their origins. The HHREC Memory Keepers Speakers Bureau includes 26 Holocaust Survivors, 3 Honorary Holocaust Liberator Speakers, and 36 GenerationsForward Speakers who tell their stories from a “next generation” perspective, adding new meaning to the survivors’ powerful stories.

“These stories provide a unique opportunity to hear from a very special group of Survivors and next generation family members into the consequences of human hate, and help people reflect, as they realize that choices matter, that one person can make a difference” said HHREC Executive Director Millie Jasper. She added “We are eternally grateful for the contributions from these courageous men and women who share their stories of survival and personal experiences from the Holocaust. Sadly, the number of our Survivors is dwindling, and we are taking great care to recognize what they mean to all of us and preserve their memories and the impact they have had – and will continue to have – for future generations.”

The HHREC Spring 2021 Memory Keepers Story Hour speaker series began featuring GenerationsForward speaker Debby Ziering on March 11.

The remaining schedule this spring:

March 18 – Barbara Lewis Kaplan, GenerationsForward

April 15 – Kathy Grosz-Zaltas, GenerationsForward

April 22 – Wendy Sandler, GenerationsForward

April 29 – Michelle Gewanter, GenerationsForward

All virtual events begin at 7 p.m. To register for these events, email Millie Jasper mjasper@hhrecny.org for Zoom log-in information or call the HHREC at 914.696.0738.

About The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center:

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center is a not-for-profit organization based in White Plains New York that serves Westchester, Fairfield and neighboring counties. Their Mission is to enhance the teaching and learning of the lessons of the Holocaust and the right of all people to be treated with dignity and respect. We encourage students to speak up and act against all forms of bigotry and prejudice. Their work with students and teachers helps schools fulfill the New York State mandate that the Holocaust and other human rights abuses be included in their curriculum. Since 1994, they have brought the lessons of the Holocaust, genocide and human rights crimes to more than 1750 teachers, and through them to thousands of middle and high school students. Through their volunteer Educators Program Committee, the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center gives teachers the unique opportunity to develop programs for themselves and others. These programs not only enrich teachers’ knowledge about the Holocaust and related issues, but they also provide the lens through which to view all other human rights violations. For more information call 914.696.0738 email info@hhrecny.org

Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center Memory Keepers: GenerationsForward Speaker Series-Sandra Mehl

December 2, 2020 by Inside Press

Please join the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center Memory Keepers GenerationsForward Speaker Series on Thursday, December 10 at 7 p.m. via Zoom in the safety and comfort of your own home.

Sandra Mehl is a first generation American who lost several family members in the Holocaust. She tells the story of the heroic deeds of the Horner and Kellner families, who lived in Poland, Germany, and Belgium. She shares her experiences growing up with survivors offering the message of hope for the next generations–how to shift from surviving to thriving.

Although Sandra’s story evolved from a commitment to keeping her family’s values and traditions alive and a desire to gift a unique legacy to her grandson, Zev, on the occasion of becoming a Bar Mitzvah, she is also determined to help the next generation to accept the call to action to make certain “never again.”

Sandra will discuss a family menorah that survived in her family leaving Nazi Europe. Last year, she took the menorah to the Antique Judaica Roadshow to have the menorah appraised. Learn what she discovered as she shares a story of the lengths some of us will go in order to put family first and foremost.

Sandra graduated from Columbia University and is a Licensed Master of Social work and practitioner of energy medicine. She has also taught Hebrew and Global Studies in community schools.

For Zoom log-in information, please email Millie Jasper mjasper@hhrecny.org

For information and donations to the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, visit www.hhrecny.org

Our next Memory Keepers GenerationsForward Speaker will be Shelley Greenspan on Thursday, December 17.

Grace Bennett and Paul Elliot Honored at HHREC Gala

December 1, 2017 by Stacey Pfeffer

(Left to right): HHREC chair Valerie O’Keeffe; Kevin Plunkett, Deputy County Executive; HHREC honoree Paul Elliot; Mitch Ostrove; Grace; County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz; and HHREC Executive Director Millie Jasper

The White Plains-based Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) held their annual gala on October 26th. The room at the Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club was packed with supporters dedicated to the HHREC’s mission of “learning from the past, protecting the future.” Grace Bennett, publisher of both Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk magazines and Paul Elliot, the Founder & CEO of ELCO Management, a portfolio management company were the evening’s honorees. Also in attendance at the event were Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Westchester County Legislator Michael B. Kaplowitz, Deputy County Executive Kevin J. Plunkett, County Clerk Tim Idoni and New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein.

Bennett first became involved with HHREC after writing about her father, Jacob Breitstein, a Holocaust survivor in her “Just Between Us” editor’s column in Inside Chappaqua. A reader of the magazine introduced her to the non-profit and she has been an active leader in the organization ever since.

Grace received the Bernard J. Rosenshein Courage to Care Award. She joined HHREC’s Advisory Board in 2004. For the past 13 years, she has made innumerable contributions in her roles on the Board of Directors, the Advisory Board and GenerationsForward. As the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Grace has a passion for Holocaust remembrance and has been instrumental in guiding our educational programs,” noted Millie Jasper, HHREC’s Executive Director. She has frequently profiled and highlighted HHREC’s achievements and programming through her magazines and via social media.

Elliot, who is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) has used his business acumen to help several non-profits including the Rabbinical Pension Fund, the Community Synagogue in Rye and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase. He joined the Board of HHREC almost two decades ago.

“Paul was awarded the Eugene M. & Emily Grant Spirit of Humanity Award. He has been an active member of the Board of Directors for 19 years and has shown unwavering support for our programs and events. Most recently he spearheaded the creation of the Endowment Fund, which has seen considerable growth since its inception,” commented Japser.

The HHREC offers several workshops, traveling exhibits and subsidized trips for educators. The Holocaust Survivor Legacy Education Project, an interactive database of the oral history of Westchester survivors is used by teachers to educate their students about the Holocaust. The organization also created a Human Rights Institute (involving approximately 30 schools each year), which helps shape student leaders to fight hate and bigotry in all its forms by introducing the concept of being an ‘upstander’. In addition, the HHREC’s Speakers Bureau helps put a human face on the Holocaust by having survivors and/or liberators tell their stories. Each year the speakers reach more than 25,000 students and adults.

The evening concluded with a moving speech by Ellen Kaidanow, a GenerationsForward member who told the story of her mother-in-law also named Ellen Kaidanow, who was only 5-years-old when her mother, father and two sisters were all forced to move from their beautiful home in the Ukraine to a walled Jewish ghetto. Ellen tells the story of her mother-in-law’s life as a young girl in the ghetto and her miraculous tale of becoming the sole survivor of her family at age six. The GenerationsForward program consists of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors recounting their family’s stories as the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling every day.