Righteous Among Nations: Yad Vashem Award

"Whosoever saves a single life, saves the entire universe"

-The Talmud

The status of "Righteous Among Nations" is conferred by the Holocaust Remembrance Committee of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on gentiles who, at great risk to their own and their families' lives, rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

The family of Dr. Shelly Lescott-Leszczynski, one of our Board members, has been given this honor and presented with a medal to posthumously recognize the courage of their aunt Maria Leszczynski-Eckhardt, who hid a young Jewish girl in her home in Tarnopol, Poland throughout the war. Kalina Kleinberg and her family were reunited with the Leszczynski-Eckhardt families at a special ceremony on May 4, 1997 in Toronto, Canada.