The Museum's New York Next Generation community gathered May 15, 2024, at a time when Holocaust memory and education have never been more important. Together, we recommitted to reaching more young people from diverse backgrounds and ensuring the truth and relevance of the Holocaust for new generations—far beyond our walls. Thank you for supporting our vital mission and making our increasingly urgent work possible.
Featured Guests
Speakers
- Ruth Cohen
Holocaust survivor and Museum volunteer
Ruth Cohen had a childhood filled with family, friends, Hebrew school, and swimming in the Latorica River near her home. Then, in March 1944, at the age of 13, everything changed.
Nazi Germany invaded Hungary, and within a month, authorities forced Ruth and her family to move into a crowded ghetto. By mid-May, the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators began sending Jews from Hungary by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Soon after arriving at the killing center, Ruth learned the SS had already murdered her mother, brother, and little cousins. Ruth and her sister, Teresa, managed to survive, and reunited with their father after the war. Ruth’s time imprisoned at Auschwitz coincides with the period in which the photographs that inspired the play Here There Are Blueberries were taken. Ruth has been a volunteer at the Museum since 2003. Photo: Ruth Cohen. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Amanda Gronich
Playwright
Amanda Gronich is a Primetime Emmy-nominated scriptwriter devoted to bringing true stories to the stage and screen. Over a ten-year career in television, she became a lead series writer for National Geographic Television and the supervising senior writer at Hoff Productions.
There, she created top-rated programming for diverse broadcast networks, including NatGeo, Discovery Channel, TLC, WeTV, Animal Planet, and Science Channel. A charter member of Tectonic Theater Project, Amanda directed the company’s Toronto production of Gross Indecency and was one of the group of artists who co-created The Laramie Project, later made into an HBO film. Amanda works as a script development consultant and teaches interview-based storytelling, using techniques she developed as an adjunct lecturer in the graduate program of educational theatre at the City College of New York. She is at work founding a non-fiction play development institute. A book about her original play-devising methods will be released by SIU Press. Photo: Amanda Gronich. Jenny Anderson
- Moisés Kaufman
Director and playwright
Moisés Kaufman is the founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, an award-winning director and playwright, and an activist-in-art. His Broadway credits include Paradise Square (ten Tony Award nominations); Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams; The Heiress with Jessica Chastain; 33 Variations with Jane Fonda; and I Am My Own Wife (Obie Award).
His West End productions include Gross Indecency and This Is How It Goes. His off-Broadway/regional work includes Here There Are Blueberries (writer/director); Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard (writer/director); Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk Award); One Arm by Tennessee Williams; The Laramie Project; The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later; Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Callaway Award); Macbeth with Liev Schreiber; and Master Class with Rita Moreno. His opera credits include El Gato Con Botas. His film and TV credits include HBO’s The Laramie Project (two Emmy nominations, Sundance Film Festival, National Board of Review Award, Humanitas Prize) and The L Word. Photo: Moisés Kaufman. Jenny Anderson
Performers
- Adam Kantor
Actor, The Band’s Visit, Fiddler on the Roof, Rent
Adam won an Emmy and a Grammy Award for his performance in the Tony-winning production of The Band’s Visit on Broadway, as well as an Outer Critics Circle honor for his performance in Darling Grenadine at the Roundabout.
He was nominated for an LA Drama Critics Circle Award for The Inheritance at the Geffen Playhouse. Previously on Broadway, Adam starred in Fiddler on the Roof, Next to Normal, and Rent (final cast, filmed live for Sony Pictures). Off-Broadway, he starred in The Last Five Years at Second Stage and Avenue Q at New World Stages. Regional highlights include Noir at the Alley as well as Diner at the Signature. On TV, he was in Billions on Showtime as “Pununzio” and The Good Wife on CBS as “Ezra.” He recently starred in the feature film Either Side of Midnight. Adam is a graduate of Northwestern University and the British American Dramatic Academy. He has been a coach for the National High School Music Theatre Awards (“The Jimmy Awards”) since 2014. He was a co-creator of the digital special “Saturday Night Seder,” which supported the CDC Foundation and was produced by his interactive experiential food and theatre company StoryCourse. Adam has headlined concerts at Carnegie Hall as well as Princeton Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Photo: Adam Kantor. Emil Cohen
- Brandon Uranowitz
Actor, 2023 Tony Award Winner, Leopoldstadt
Brandon received 2023 Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his performance as Ludwig/Nathan in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt.
He was previously nominated for Tony and Drama Desk awards for the Broadway revivals of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This (2019) and Falsettos (2017). He received a 2015 Tony nomination for his performance as Adam Hochberg in An American in Paris. Other Broadway credits include The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway and Baby, It’s You! Brandon recently starred in Tick, Tick … BOOM! at the Kennedy Center, directed by Neil Patrick Harris, and in the acclaimed 2021 off-Broadway revival of Assassins at CSC, directed by John Doyle. Film credits include Here Today, The Kitchen, and Stage Fright. Series credits include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fosse/Verdon, Dietland, Blue Bloods, Inside Amy Schumer, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Photo: Brandon Uranowitz. Josh Wool
Event Leadership
Event Chairs
Jessie Davis Jesse Lazowski Jonah Lazowski
Event Committee
Danielle and Jon Auerbach Benjamin and Kylie Bass Adam Friedland Ben and Melissa Gottesman Ali Unger Grabiner Julie and Jack Heller Hayley Jaffe Molly and Matthew Knauer Julie and Reuben Kopel Blake Lasky Esther Lifshitz Kacey and Alec Ofsevit Alexandra and Michael Rishty Rebecca and Robert Rutkoff Stacey and Marc Saiontz Jordan Sheff Donald Silberman Emily and Scott Stackman Brittany and Jordan Stern Brian Tobin Anna and David Tykocinski Samantha Weinberg Rachel and Ronnie Wexler
Event Sponsors
Gifts as of May 15, 2024 Gifts of $50,000 or more Stacey and Marc Saiontz
Gifts of $10,000–$24,999 Jessie and Doug Davis Jackie and Josh Gerber Jones Lang LaSalle Celine and Jonah Lazowski Marlo Laz Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP Publicis Media Alexandra and Michael Rishty Gifts of $5,000–$9,999 Yael Aflalo and Ludvig Froessen Kylie and Benjamin Bass Adam Friedland Melissa and Ben Gottesman Julie and Jack Heller Jaime and Eliot Horowitz Julie and Reuben Kopel Blake Lasky Kacey and Alec Ofsevit Becca and Robby Rutkoff Josh Sasouness Emily and Scott Stackman Anna And David Tykocinski Rachel and Ronnie Wexler Jeff Wynn and Family Sabrina and Alexander Zaro Gifts of $2,500–$4,999 Anonymous Danielle and Jon Auerbach Lynn Horowitz Adrienne and Ryan Israel The Jaffe Family Molly and Matthew Knauer Esther Lifshitz Karen and Edward Lifshitz Nicolas and Natasha Poniatowski Dana Septimus and Joseph Feldman Donald S. Silberman Alex Sloane and Alexandra Schuster Brittany and Jordan Stern Samantha Weinberg Gifts of $1,800–$2,499 Lee and Nicola Assoulin Eva Cooper Rachel and Joshua Crane Scott Gamm Yonina and Eric Gomberg Yelena Goncharov Rachel and Drew Katz Breanna Khoury Candice and Brandon Miller Madison Headrick Nahmad Claire and Michael Olshan Sam Seiden Zara and David Tisch Casey and Matt Weinstein Tara and Daniel Wilf Lauren and Danny Wrublin
Corporate Event Sponsors
Northeast Regional Office
The Northeast regional office serves Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, metropolitan New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Find out more about past programs and how to contact us.