Press Release: Andrea Bolender Installed as Chair of Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center
For Immediate Release
Sept 2, 2020
Press contact:
Warren Strugatch
Inflection Point Associates
631.675.0686 Warren@InflectionPointAssoc.com
Andrea Bolender Installed as Chair of Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center
(Glen Cove, NY) Andrea Bolender, a long-time board member of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, was installed Monday, Sept. 1 as the organization’s new chair, succeeding Steven Markowitz, who has retired. In taking office Ms. Bolender reopened the HMTC’s headquarters in Glen Cove, which had been closed due to Covid-19.
“As the daughter of a concentration camp survivor, I consider it a great privilege to be offered the leadership of the HMTC,” Ms. Bolender said. “The lessons that humanity needs to learn from studying the Holocaust are compellingly topical. Reported acts of anti-Semitism have escalated locally and globally, more so than at any time since the Holocaust ended. Violence against African Americans continues to claim lives. The need to teach people how to recognize and resist the messages of stereotyping, hatefulness and bullying – regardless of which races, ethnicities or nationalities are being targeted - is both timely and timeless.”
Ms. Bolender thanked Mr. Markowitz for leading the organization through an eight-year period she described as “particularly challenging on a number of fronts.” She noted that under Mr. Markowitz’s stewardship the HMTC developed programs helping children fight bullying in their schools; created an influential anti-Semitism task force; advocated tolerance for Muslim and other minorities; and became a respected provider of diversity training programs.
“I intend to continue our established educational programs, as well as develop new initiatives to resist bullying, intolerance, and bigotry,” Ms. Bolender, a 15-year board member, continued. She said the HMTC will focus on creating new and imaginative outreach programs to engage the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors in educational, cultural and fundraising programs; create or expand shared programming with other cultural institutions on and off Long Island; drive greater use from the center’s expansive landscaped grounds; and reinvent indoor programming for the era of physical distancing.
A long-time advocate of Holocaust remembrance education, Ms. Bolender leads the annual HMTC delegation on the March of the Living, performed in memory of her father Benek Bolender, Auschwitz survivor number 86786. She has served on the HTMC board since 2005.
A graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business, Ms. Bolender has held management positions at such firms as JP Morgan Chase, Price Waterhouse, and Skadden Arps. In 1989 she founded the Gourmet Glatt Emporium and grew it exponentially until its sale in 2007. She is currently the chief executive officer of Grove 34 Management LLC, a real estate investment and management firm. She and her family reside in Glen Head.
Upon taking office, Ms. Bolender announced four governance appointments: Robert M. Fishman and Jolanta Zamecka have become vice chairs; Keith J. Gutstein was named secretary; and Ronald Brunell was named treasurer.