Howard Unger Archives - The Inside Press

Chappaqua residents Stacey Saiontz and Howard Unger will be honored by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tomorrow evening and iconic fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg will be the master of ceremonies for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 2020 New York Virtual Event on October 14 at 6 p.m.

She will join a lineup of passionate speakers featuring Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor and the Museum’s partner in the Ferencz International Justice Initiative, and NBA All-Star Ray Allen.

The event will also include celebrity guests, including Jason Alexander, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Morgan Freeman, who will participate in the Museum’s pledge to Holocaust survivors–and to the future–to never forget.

Stacey Saiontz and Howard Unger at last year’s 2019 NY Tribute Event. Photo credit: Michael Priest for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

At a time of enormous challenges, the Museum’s mission to put this memory and its lessons to work in the world has never been more crucial. Just yesterday, the the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a statement on Facebook’s new decision to ban Holocaust denial and distortion.

Stacey Saiontz of Chappaqua is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor, Jack Feldman, who was featured in the HBO documentary “The Number on Great Grandpa’s Arm” with Stacey’s son, Elliott.

Stacey has championed the cause of Holocaust education through her support of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by serving as a member of the Museum’s Education Committee and as a founding member of the Museum’s New York Next Generation Board.

Howard Unger, Chappaqua resident and Founder of the investment firm Saw Mill Capital, grew up hearing the story of his father’s survival of the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps, which inspired him to become involved in bringing awareness to modern-day genocide. Unger serves in many roles for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum including as: member of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council’s Executive Committee, Chair of the Audit Committee, member of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, Museum Benefactor and member of the Museum’s Strategic Advancement Committee.

Link to register for this free event: https://www.ushmm.org/online-calendar/event/nytrbutedinner1020

News courtesy of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Jared Saiontz, Jack Feldman, Stacey Saiontz, Marc Saiontz and Elliott Saiontz

Some 500 persons attended a New York Tribute Dinner on October 28th during which Chappaqua’s Stacey Saiontz was one of two recipients of National Leadership Awards by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Saiontz is a founding member of the Museum’s Next Generation board and was recently appointed to its Education Committee. She shares her passion with her children who were featured in the HBO documentary The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm.

“The first words that spring to mind about Stacey are high energy and committed,” said Howard D. Unger, of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in introducing Saiontz. “Whether it is fiercely advocating for food allergy legislation or relentlessly advancing Holocaust related causes,” he added, “when Stacey is in, she is all in.” The dinner raised over $3.2 million. Saiontz called the Museum “a beacon on the global stage; it reminds us all of what we are capable of, the good and the bad, and offers a universal message of tolerance and importance of taking action. The Holocaust is not just a story of hate; it’s also a story of resilience, humanity, love and kindness,” she said.

Gary Jacob, a second honoree who has served as a regional co-chair of the event, is vice president of Glenwood Management and vice chairman of the Settlement Housing Fund. Powerful presentations at the benefit included harrowing testimony from Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Irene Weiss.

Weiss described her family’s losses and how she was “forced to live and work next to the crematorium” and “forced out on a death march with 1000s of other prisoners.” “How does one put into words the magnitude of such a loss?” she asked.

Sara J. Bloomfield, Museum Director, said that while the world will always change, “human nature never will, and that we alone are responsible for the solutions.” She described the need “to unlock these powerful lessons of Holocaust history…so that wishful thinking might be constantly be met with determined resistance, so that today’s bystander will not become tomorrow’s victim… That’s the museum’s bold and urgent aspiration.” For more info, visit ushmm.org.