New York Board of Regents representative Roger Tilles will announce updates to the state’s Holocaust curriculum on Tues., Sept. 9, at the annual Remembrance Awards Dinner, hosted by the Jericho-based all-volunteer nonprofit Voices for Truth and Humanity. The organization, which advocates for Holocaust education nationwide, puts on the event to connect advocates and form community.
“That’s what Voices is about. It’s about connecting with other people, using those relationships to accomplish a goal,” said Voices for Truth and Humanity President Jack Britvan.
The Remembrance Awards Dinner will be on Sept. 9 at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, with fundraising efforts at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.
Britvan said he started the nonprofit organization nine years ago, after he started researching the Holocaust. He said that after staying up until 2 a.m. each night for week s looking into the event, he decided that there should be more education on the subject.
“How does anybody — Jewish ornon-Jewish — know about this when it’s not being taught?” he said.
For the first two years, he said he ran the non-profit by himself, and it began expanding from there soon after.
“Little by little, we got a board together, and then we did what we could,” he said.
For the past six years, the organziation has put on a Remembrance Awards Dinner to spread its mission and honor local activists — including Holocaust survivors — for their work. He said the event has grown in the past few years, and that the nonprofit expects to have over 200 guests this year.
Britvan said funds raised at the dinner are used to fund the organization’s work, paying for lawn signs, wristbands and other items given away to volunteers. He said this year, the group put out 100 lawn signs that said “Curb Antisemitism” and “Never Again,” though half of them were taken down by unknown people.
Britvan said while many people deny that the Holocaust could happen again, it is a real possibility.
“They killed 11 million people, 6 million Jews, 5 million non-Jews and one and a half million children,” he said.
Brtivan said he met with state Gov. Kathy Hochul over a year ago to discuss implementing the state’s first curriculum on Holocaust education. He said she allocated $500,000 for the project and Tilles will present updates on the project at the dinner.
But curriculum is not the only initiative that Voices for Truth has worked on in the past nine years.
The Light Up Yellow campaign takes place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, encouraging major buildings to light up yellow to spread awareness. The nearby buildings that participated include the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden. In the past three years, it has expanded to eight states.
Britvan said the organization works with movie theaters during Holocaust Remembrance Week, encouraging them to play movies like “Schindler’s List,” where high school students can attend for an educational experience.
Voices for Truth held an essay writing contest for rising high school seniors to promote their experiences learning about the Holocaust; winning students will be announced and honored at the Remembrance Awards Dinner.
The dinner will feature raffles, silent auctions, awards, and speeches from prominent figures. Raffle tickets will be free with admission, so all participants can attend. Raffles and auctions will start at 5:30 p.m., and the dinner will begin at 7 p.m.
In addition to Tilles, the event will honor speakers Rick Lewis, the CEO of the Mid-Island Y JCC; Rabbi Joe Potasnik, executive vice president of the state Board of Rabbis; Shabbos Kestenbaum, who sued Harvard over antisemitism; Abraham Hamra, an activist and Syrian refugee; and Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of murdered hostage Omer Neutra. Britvan said E&A Restoration is this year’s corporate honoree.
For more information, visit www.voices4truthandhumanity.org.
