20 | OCTOBER 31 • 2024 J
N

O

n Sunday, Sept. 22, JHSM 
honored the founders of the 
West Michigan Holocaust 
Memorial with the L’dor V’dor Award 
for their commitment to handing 
down the history of the Holocaust 
and the stories of survivors to this 
and future generations. 
 Honorees Linda Pestka, Steven 
Pestka, Nicole D. Katzman, Peg 
Finkelstein and Rob Franciosi 
“have worked together to create an 
extraordinary set of teaching tools 
that already have had far-reaching 
effects,” said Catherine Cangany, 
Ph.D., JHSM’s executive director. 
“We are honored to recognize their 
achievement.”
The story of the West Michigan 
Holocaust Memorial began with 
Linda Pestka and Steven Pestka, 
children of Holocaust survivor Henry 
Pestka (1919-2013), who in 2022 
donated a sculpture to the Frederik 
Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in 

Grand Rapids to honor the memories 
of their father and the Six Million 
murdered in the Holocaust. Called 
“Ways to Say Goodbye,” by prominent 
Israeli artist Ariel Schlessinger, the 
statue features a 20-foot aluminum 
cast of a fig tree adorned with shards 
of glass representing the horrors 
of Kristallnacht, the 1938 attacks 
on Jewish people and businesses in 
Germany that marked the beginning 
of the Holocaust. 
Steven Pestka is pleased that Grand 
Rapids’ first Holocaust memorial 
statue is having a widespread impact 
on the community. “It has helped 
educate the public about the horrors 
of the Holocaust and the barbarity 
human beings are capable of,” he said.
Desiring that the project have 
an active educational component, 
the Pestkas worked with Jewish 
Federation of Grand Rapids (JFGR) 
Executive Director Nicole D. 
Katzman to provide resources for 

programming and cultural events 
related to the Holocaust. 
Katzman said she was honored 
to work with the Pestka siblings. “It 
was an extraordinary experience, 
definitely a highlight of my career.” 
Among the programs they 
developed is the Henry Pestka Art 
and Poetry Contest for students in 
grades 6-12, now in its third year.
Peg Finkelstein, the longtime 
director of the archives at Temple 
Emanuel, Ahavas Israel and JFGR, 
envisioned taking the educational 
component a step further through 
the creation of a website that would 
preserve the stories of Holocaust 
survivors who settled in Western 
Michigan and feature a Holocaust 
curriculum for high school and 
college students designed by the Anti-
Defamation League. 
Through a generous gift from Peg’s 
husband, the late Mort Finkelstein, 
and his brothers, the late Raleigh 

Finkelstein and Edward Finkelstein, 
and Edward’s wife, Kay Finkelstein, 
the website — hosted by JFGR — is 
now live at jhwmi.com. 
Finkelstein turned to Rob 
Franciosi, professor of English at 
Grand Valley State University, and his 
undergraduate students, to research 
the biographies and create the 
website. 
The group used an innovative 
digital humanities technique called 
“story maps”— interactive profiles 
that range across space and time.
Through the extraordinary 
efforts of Linda Pestka, Steven 
Pestka, Nicole D. Katzman, Peg 
Finkelstein and Rob Franciosi, the 
West Michigan Holocaust Memorial 
— the website, programming and 
sculpture — will reach over 1 million 
individuals each year and provide 
exceptional teaching tools for this 
and future generations. 

JHSM honors West Michigan Holocaust Memorial founders.
2024 L’Dor V’Dor Award

MARGERY JABLIN JHSM PRESIDENT

OUR COMMUNITY

COURTESY OF JEANNIE WEINER

Honorees Rob Franciosi, Steven 
Pestka, Linda Pestka, Nicole D. 
Katzman and Peg Finkelstein 
received JHSM’s 2024 L’dor V’dor 
Award during a ceremony in 
Grand Rapids on Sept. 22 for their 
commitment to handing down 
history and culture to this and the 
next generations.