Supporters of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in the western United States will hold their annual “What You Do Matters” tribute event on March 30 at 6 p.m. They’ll honor three families with the museum’s National Leadership Award: Jane Jelenko (Los Angeles), Suzi and Steve Hilton (Phoenix) and The Tramiel Family (Palo Alto). Peter Hayes, Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Northwestern University, and the museum’s historian and Senior Curator, Edna Friedberg, will be the featured speakers.
The event will be held both in person at The Beverly Hilton hotel and via livestream. It will feature a special presentation that will tell the story of the destruction of Jewish life in Poland and intertwine three individual accounts of resilience, hope and determination.
“Poland was home to a vibrant Jewish community, the largest in Europe. After the Holocaust, it was almost completely destroyed.”
“Poland was home to a vibrant Jewish community, the largest in Europe. After the Holocaust, it was almost completely destroyed,” the museum said in a statement. “Eighty years after mass killing began during the Holocaust, antisemitism and misuse of this history are on the rise — from violent attacks that make headline news to physical, verbal and online assaults that often go unreported. These events, part of a larger climate of hatred, compel us to share Holocaust history and convey its continued relevance.”
A resident of Stone Canyon in West Los Angeles, Jelenko, 73, is a second-generation survivor; her son David will be presenting her with the award at the event. According to Marla Abraham, the museum’s director of the western region, Jelenko was selected as one of the three honorees because she is not only influential in the community, but she also “has been an advocate for and fully engaged in the mission of the museum. We also wanted to highlight her family’s experience and legacy in the Holocaust.”
Jelenko was the first woman partner in the consulting arm of KPMG, where she served for 25 years, and is a past member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. She holds positions on several corporate and community boards, and is the founding president and a board member of Center Dance Arts. She is the author of “Portraits in Black and White: Holocaust Survivors of Café Europa,” a collection of stories and photographs of Holocaust survivors.
The U.S. Holocaust Museum is currently helping Jelenko learn more about her family’s history and Holocaust experiences. “The stories one hears are often lore and one doesn’t know how accurate it is,” she said. “The documents and research that the Museum are helping me with are invaluable. Unfortunately, much of the older generation who experienced the Holocaust have passed away, so we need to carry the torch forward, which makes the work of the museum so critically important.”
At the in-person reception, guests will have the opportunity to tour the Museum’s traveling exhibition, “Some Were Neighbors: Choice, Human Behavior and the Holocaust,” which is currently on view only in Poland and Germany. The exhibition, which originally opened in Washington in 2013 to mark the Museum’s 20th anniversary, examines the role of ordinary people in the Holocaust.
Abraham said that the Museum is deeply indebted to the honorees’ ongoing work and commitment to Holocaust education, and for opening up about their families’ journeys of survival.
She said, “Their stories must be the impetus to engage and educate new audiences and inform younger people of the significance of this history and what it means for them as they become engaged citizens.”
For more information on how to register for the event, visit ushmm.org.
