Last month, for our eighth-annual mensch list, we again invited all of you to submit your nominations of extraordinary volunteers, and again the outpouring of suggestions of amazing people was overwhelming. We faced this enormous response only to wonder, once again, how to choose from, among others, a Holocaust survivor who makes an annual trek with teens to the Birkenau concentration camp to ensure they know the story; an Iranian-born woman who created an emergency fund for those in need in her community; an Israeli who matches up his fellow countrymen to business contacts and a high schooler who resells designer bags to help African refugees. (And those are just three who made the cut.)
This list could have been much longer — what we offer here is just a sampling of the extraordinary people who give so much to make the world a better place. If your nominees were not included this time, please remember, we’d love to see those names, and more, again next year. We are inspired by all of these stories and highlight this list of mensches each year to motivate us all to live up to their example.
The Mensch List
Eldad Hagar, Dogged devotion
Sidonia Lax, A survivor marches with the living
Jaleh Naim, A passion for helping struggling Iranian-Americans
Jacob Segal, The matchmaker
Stephen M. Levine, A magical ability to conjure up fun
Maya Steinberg, She has tzedakah in the bag
Leslye Adelman, Feeding body and soul
Armin Szatmary, Person of the Book
Leon Shkrab, Bearing witness to Russians’ Holocaust stories
Wendy Colman Levin, The way home
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