Community Building in South Florida
The American Society for Yad Vashem was delighted to spend invaluable time with donors and friends in South Florida during the week of March 6-9, 2017.
Isaac and Evelyn Marcushamer launched a week of community building by welcoming over fifty guests into their home in Aventura, FL. At this reception, longtime friends and newcomers to ASYV heard first hand testimony from Holocaust survivors Marvin Zborowski, Treasurer of ASYV, and Henry Gelb, longtime friend of the Marcushamer family. They also heard an engaging presentation from Dr. Haim Gertner, Director of the Archives Division at Yad Vashem and Fred Hillman Chair of Holocaust Documentation.
After a successful week of meetings and private receptions, the week concluded with a spectacular capstone event hosted by Colin and Gail Halpern, board members of ASYV and Benefactors of Yad Vashem. Colin and Gail invited close to one hundred friends and family members to a cocktail reception at the Frenchman’s Creek Beach and Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Dr. Gertner gave a riveting presentation about his department’s work to unearth and reconstruct the lives of countless Holocaust victims and about the importance of safeguarding the memory of the Holocaust for generations to come. The evening ended with eager requests for ASYV to return again soon and engage further with the community.
The ASYV team that traveled down to Florida – Executive Director Ron Meier, Chief Development Officer Eillene Leistner and Planned Giving Director Chris Morton, along with our partners from Yad Vashem, Dr. Haim Gertner and Michael Fisher, Director of the U.S.A. Desk of the International Relations Division – extend their heartfelt gratitude to all those they met while in Florida. Our partners in Florida have become true ambassadors of Yad Vashem’s mission – to remember the six million who perished, teach the world the lessons of the Holocaust and ensure a safer future for our children and grandchildren – and have become an inspiration to us all.
