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ASSISTED LIVING I MEMORY CARE

HMC Dinner

Hershes’ advocacy
will be honored;
Ann Curry to speak.

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22

October 19 • 2017

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N

Ann Curry

elson “Nick” and Susan Hersh have long been advocates
for education. For the Orchard Lake couple, the signifi-
cance the Holocaust Memorial Center puts on teaching
individuals of all ages and backgrounds the lessons learned
from the Holocaust is of vital importance.
On Saturday, Nov. 5, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek
in Southfield, they will be honored at the museum’s 33rd
Anniversary Dinner. The fundraiser, which begins at 5:30 p.m.,
will be headlined by award-winning journalist Ann Curry.
Wanting to make a difference, the prom-
inent orthodontist was proud to join the
Holocaust Memorial Center’s board nearly
two years ago. Through his involvement,
he was selected to sit on Gov. Rick Snyder’s
Council on Genocide and Holocaust
Education. No stranger to serving the com-
munity, Nick also is vice president of the
West Bloomfield Board of Education and
sits on the board of Tamarack Camps.
Several years ago, yearning to teach
abroad, Nick secured a position to vol-
unteer as an English teacher in Dobcyce,
Poland. His visits soon became so much
Susan and Nelson “Nick” Hersh
more than teaching American colloquial-
isms. They provided a way for Nick to
dispel stereotypes of Americans and Jews in this rural town
located an hour away from Auschwitz. In the several weeks he
spends there annually, Nick personally arranges and funds the
travel for students to the site of the former concentration camp,
giving them the opportunity to learn about the Holocaust from
a Jewish person. To date, he has taken more than 1,000 youth to
the area.
Sue Mehler Hersh has long been committed to giving back
to the local community, volunteering her time at Temple Israel
and the Friendship Circle, both in West Bloomfield. Of educa-
tion, says Sue, “We hope our society will act appropriately
and never forget. The prevention of genocide and not being a
bystander is so vitally important.”
She received her bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene and
currently assists with office work several days a week at Nick’s
practice.
Given Sue and Nick’s commitment to ensuring that the
atrocities of the Holocaust do not happen again, it is appropri-
ate that Ann Curry will serve as the evening’s keynote speaker.
The former NBC news network anchor has reported on numer-
ous genocides throughout the world, including in Kosovo
and Darfur. In a New York Times article in 2007, she said when
asked about why she continually returned to Darfur, she said,
“… as a child, when I first learned that there were people who
risked their own lives and even the lives of their children, their
families, to save Jews during the Holocaust, it was a profound
moment for me. It made me question whether I am the kind of
human being who would take such risks.”
Curry also has been committed to reporting humanitarian
crises, even using her large following on social media to speed
the arrival of humanitarian aid as she did via Twitter follow-
ing the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
For tickets or more information on the dinner, call (248)
536-9601, visit holocaustcenter.org or email dinner@
holocaustcenter.org. •