Nyre honored for dedication to Holocaust survivors, remembrance efforts at Iona

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center honored Iona President Dr. Joseph E. Nyre at the organization’s 21st Annual Benefit on Oct. 25 for both his commitment to Jewish-Catholic education and to being an upstander, according to HHREC Chairman Joseph Kaidanow.

Nyre received the Bernard J. Rosensheim Courage to Care Award, presented by The Westchester Bank CEO John M. Tolomer.

The HHREC chose Nyre to receive this award because of his dedication and support for the organization’s joint programming of the Human Rights Institute for High School Leaders, Educator Development and annual Yom Hashoah and Kristallnacht commemorations, according to Tolomer.

“Iona College congratulates and supports the work of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center,” Nyre said in his acceptance speech. “We want to thank you for battling time to preserve the history and the stories of this stain on humanity. May we all continue to learn from our history and guard and uphold human rights as we search for new ways to touch the human heart.”

Since partnering together in 2010, Iona College and the HHREC have introduced 21 programs and educated nearly 4,000 people, according to a video played at the gala narrated by Dr. Elena G. Procario-Foley, Religious Studies associate professor and the director of the Brother John G. Driscoll Professorship in Jewish-Catholic Studies at Iona College. The Driscoll Professorship organizes academic discussions on Iona’s campus featuring international and domestic scholars of Christian-Jewish relations, as well as interreligious concerts and other performances.

“When the college created the Driscoll Professorship in Jewish-Catholic studies, it made a commitment to studying genocide across the disciplines, to working for reconciliation between two historic faiths and to promoting the common humanity of all peoples,” Procario-Foley said in an email interview. “[Through the Professorship,] I have been able to represent the college at international conferences, including one that was at the invitation of the Vatican.”

The HHREC also honored Mitchell Wm. Ostrove, the CEO of The Ostrove Group life insurance agency, with the Eugene M. & Emily Grant Spirit of Humanity Award at the gala.

Earlier in the night, keynote speaker Elisha Wiesel, the son of famous Holocaust survivor and “Night” author Elie Wiesel, spoke about his father’s legacy and the continued importance of advocating for human rights.

“My father, for all he experienced, was a relentless optimist, always seeing the good in people,” Wiesel said. “Do we deserve it? I wonder what he would make of the world today.”

“Nobody can know what my father and the other survivors here tonight wrestled with in that place [the Nazi death camps] as they emerged from the other side, in my father’s case as a Jew, a teacher, an activist and ultimately, beyond all expectations, as a father,” Wiesel added.

Several Holocaust survivors attended the benefit and were recognized by having each of their names read aloud and being given the opportunity to stand as the attendees applauded their bravery.

“It is essential to recognize Holocaust survivors publicly because they demonstrate the human capacity for resiliency,” Procario-Foley said. “They are our witnesses that evil can be overcome, and they are our witnesses to atrocities that some world and religious leaders inexplicably manage to deny. We recognize survivors to honor their witness but more importantly so that they can call us to action in the present and for the future.”

The next event at Iona College to be co-sponsored by the HHREC and the Driscoll Professorship in Jewish-Catholic Studies will be the annual Kristallnacht commemoration on Nov. 12 at the Burke Lounge in Spellman Hall. This year the commemoration is titled “We Are in This World to Do Good: Ethics During and After the Holocaust,” with Dr. John Roth of Claremont McKenna College as the presenter.