ONLINE10th Anniversary Celebration: Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center

Join us for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Genealogical Society!

Schedule of Events:

5:30 p.m. (EDT) | Reception

Hosted by Dammara Kovnats Hall of Jewish Cocktails

6:00 p.m. (EDT) | Program

Celebrating the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center’s 10th Anniversary at New England Historic Genealogical Society

Honoring Margot Stern Strom, founder of Facing History and Ourselves, with the Tzedakah Lifetime Achievement Award, in conversation with Adam Strom, co-founder of Re-Imagining Migration, and presenting Herbert Selesnick with the Volunteer Leadership Award.

The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center will present the Tzedakah Lifetime Achievement Award to Margot Stern Strom, the visionary founder of the international organization Facing History and Ourselves, who has inspired students and teachers around the world to investigate the root causes of racism, antisemitism and prejudice, and to understand the obligations of civic participation. As a middle school teacher, Margot created the course “Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior” in 1976, out of which she built a global educational nonprofit that today engages millions of students in making connections between past and present, thinking deeply about human choices and actions, and becoming compassionate, responsible citizens.

In keeping with the Jewish commitment to l’dor v’dor, “from generation to generation,” Margot Strom will be in conversation with her son, Adam Strom, during our event. Adam carries on the family’s commitment to education and social justice as the co-founder and executive director of Re-Imagining Migration, an organization whose mission is to advance the education and well-being of immigrant-origin youth, decrease bias against young people of diverse origins and help rising generations develop the understanding to build and sustain welcoming and inclusive communities.

We will also honor Herbert “Herb” Selesnick for his commitment and service to the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC). Herb has applied his professional expertise as an organizational consultant to benefit nonprofit boards; he facilitated the North Shore Jewish Historical Society’s 2016 merger with the JHC, and he recently led our Advisory Council in a strategic planning process that created a five-year plan for our organization. Herb and his wife, Hinda Sterling, have their family collection, the Sterling and Selesnick Family Papers, preserved in the JHC archives.

Dammara Kovnats Hall is a Jewish studies teacher in Manhattan and founder of Jewish Cocktails, an events-based business specializing in kosher and Jewish-themed cocktails and classes. Originally from Winnipeg, Canada, she worked as a mixologist while attending college in New York City. While living in Israel pursuing a master’s degree in Jewish education, she had the idea to synthesize her love of Judaism and her passion for mixology. She is the recipient of the 2021 Jewish Education Project’s Robert M. Sherman Young Pioneer’s Award.