On Thursday, October 13th, NaTang and I, along with Glenn Leibowitz, were deeply honored to receive the 2022 Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award at a special ceremony held in the ballroom of the JCC.
This award is conferred once per year to “a person or an institution, which has shown special endeavors for the memory of the Holocaust and / or made special contributions to Jewish life.”
The award is given by Austrian Service Abroad, a unique institution supported by the Austrian Government that sends more than 140 young “Gedenkdienst”, or volunteers, to Jewish community centers and Holocaust education centers around the world annually. This year the JCC has been proud to host 3 volunteers from this remarkable organization. (Read more about Austrian Service Abroad in this article in the Times of Israel).
We were greatly honored when Mr. Wolfgang Sobotka, President of the Austrian Parliament, shared congratulatory remarks on behalf of the Republic of Austria via video. Mr. Roland Rudorfer, Director of the Austrian Office Taipei, who has been responsible for helping us establish this unique collaboration, presented the awards. Our friend Mr. Omer Caspi, Director of the Israeli Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, delivered congratulatory remarks.
We were joined for this special occasion by 100 guests including diplomats from the R.O.C. government, foreign dignitaries, JCC community members, and many of our closest friends and family.
After conferral of the award, we enjoyed a brief performance by the Austrian-Taiwanese pianist Rueibin Chen. He played pieces composed by the 20th century Jewish-Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold on a grand piano generously loaned to us for this occasion by Steinway & Sons.
Kosher hors d’ouevres and Israeli wine were provided by our Kosher Culinary Lab team.
On behalf of the JTCA, we would like to extend our sincerest thanks to Dr. Andreas Maislinger and Michael Prochazka, founders of Austrian Service Abroad, along with their colleague Daniel James Schuster, CEO of their Vienna office, for this tremendous honor.
And of course, thank you to our very first volunteer earlier this year, Adrian Kron, as well as our two current volunteers, Miriam Vanek and Stephanie Langer, for your tremendous contributions to our community.
Jeffrey D. Schwartz & NaTang
Co-founders, Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association
