Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center to Honor Author, Philanthropist at Annual Benefit
The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) will hold their annual Benefit on Wednesday evening, October 30th starting at 6:30pm at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York. This year HHREC will honor R. Derek Black and Elisha Weisel.
R. Derek Black (they/them) is the author of The Klansman’s Son, a book that shares the story of being raised to take over the white nationalist movement in the US. Their father, Don Black, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and started Stormfront, the internet’s first white supremacist website.
R. Derek Black (they/them) is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Chicago. Since 2016, they have spoken to many audiences at universities, foundations, institutions, museums, synagogues, and churches. They received the Elie Wiesel Award and a humanitarian award from the Anti-Defamation League. THE KLANSMAN’S SON is their first book.
Elisha Weisel is Chairman of the Board of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, a philanthropist and former Wall Street executive. Since retiring from a twenty-five year financial markets career at Goldman Sachs at the end of 2019, he served in 2020 as one of the lead technologists in Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. Elisha became philanthropically active through his board service with Good Shepherd Services, where he raised millions of dollars for New York’s neediest by convening “Midnight Madness”, inspiring hundreds of finance professionals to stay up all night solving elaborate puzzles on the city streets.
When his father passed, Elisha realized how many others missed his voice––and so, when opportunities for impact arise, Elisha shares his father’s message and continues his legacy by standing up for persecuted communities. In the last few years, Elisha has spoken at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about the need to protect the LGBTQ community; shone a light while speaking at Auschwitz on the plight of Syrian refugees being denied Western asylum; written for the Financial Times about the urgency of upholding DACA; organized a Washington DC rally against antisemitism — including anti-Zionism; spoken at the United Nations about the persecution of the Uyghurs, and taken his son to peacefully march for Black Lives.
The program will feature the annual presentation of the HHREC Eugene M. & Emily Grant Spirit of Humanity Awards. To register for this event, or for more information visit https://hhrecny.org/inspire_events/holocaust-human-rights-education-center-annual-benefit/ email benefit@hhrecny.org or call 914.696.0738.