Sharing an honor.
05/21/2024
On Monday April 29, I was honored as the founder of The Mitzvah Project by the Jewish Caucus of the California State Legislature at its annual Yom HaShoah commemoration at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
I was deeply moved to be recognized as one of 12 honorees, including five Holocaust survivors, five Holocaust educators, Tony Thurman (the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction), and Anita Friedman, (co-chair of the Governor’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education).
I was nominated by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, whose district includes San Ramon Valley High School (Danville) and Northgate HS (Walnut Creek) where we have presented The Mitzvah Project a total of 4 times to date reaching over 1300 students.
In introducing me, State Senator Josh Becker highlighted the generational shift in responsibility for teaching the lessons of the Holocaust; i.e., children of survivors (like me and other honorees) have picked up the mantle by becoming Holocaust educators.
During the ceremony, virtually every legislator who spoke referenced studies revealing the shocking lack of awareness of the Holocaust among young people emphasizing the urgency of ramping up Holocaust education, especially in our schools.
To view a brief video of Senator Becker’s introduction and my acceptance, please click on the following YouTube link.
I hope you, as a Mitzvah Project supporter and friend, share in our pride in this recognition of our efforts.
Since the event, I have been contacting caucus members to ask their help in expanding The Mitzvah Project’s reach in their districts.
So far, I will be meeting with Senator Becker (San Mateo, Santa Clara counties); Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (Long Beach); and Assemblymember Matt Haney (San Francisco).
I recently met with the district representative of Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (parts of Ventura and LA counties) and, through the good efforts of Mitzvah Project supporter and friend, Will Knox, he and I will be meeting with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
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More to come!
This is an exciting time of increased momentum for The Mitzvah Project, and it’s also a time of increasing importance for our work. The growth of hate threatens the increased tolerance and understanding that has been gained over the last 50 years.
We need your help to turn this significant and humbling honor into dozens of Mitzvah Project school presentations for the coming school year and beyond.
We’ve launched a campaign to raise $55.000 so that we can follow up and fulfill every opportunity to engage high school students in our powerful, historically accurate and intensely person-to-person educational experience.
Our teaching artists are set to present this fall to students at: Renaissance High School for the Arts in Long Beach, CA, Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, CA, at the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hayward High School and Berkeley High School. They will also reach students throughout the Bay Area at a special event in Oakland that is being organized by the Excelsior German Center, one of our most generous funders.
We are also continuing our national outreach, building on recent presentations by our teaching artists in Massachusetts, Florida and Colorado that reached close to 2.000 students.
The Mitzvah Project makes a difference in how students think and feel about the world by embracing tolerance, empathy and acceptance.
We hear this not only in their questions and comments during the presentation’s Q&A, but in comments and letters we receive after our presentations.
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I’d like to ask you to help us meet this important moment by making a generous tax-deductible gift of $500, $1.000, $2.500 or more.
Gifts at every level are important and deeply appreciated.
… and please keep in mind: we never charge public schools to host The Mitzvah Project, so your gift today will allow us to continue offering all public school presentations at *no charge* to the schools.
Again, I was deeply honored to represent The Mitzvah Project, you, and our entire network of supporters, at the State Capitol in Sacramento.
Thank you for helping move our effort forward.
Roger Grunwald, Founder, The Mitzvah Project
