Meet Our Honorees
We honor second and third-generation children of survivors of the Holocaust, Rabbi Samuel Kastel, and Dan Glassman, who have committed themselves to promote Jewish ideals and strengthening the Jewish community. We honor Dr. Lori Weintrob for her dedication to preserving the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, helping tell the stories of the survivors, and recognizing those who fought against the Nazis to save thousands of Jews, by teaching the history of the Shoah to new generations. History teaches us to NEVER FORGET. This lesson could not be more timely today, as we witness a rise in antisemitism across the globe and in our own country. Like our honorees, we all have a duty to remember our past and use it as a guide to the future.
Rabbi Samuel Kastel
Rabbi Samuel Kastel (known as Rabbi Sam) for the past eight years has served as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun. As the son of well known Rabbi Kasriel Kastel, the program director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization, he had deep roots into the Lubavitch movement. Nachama, his mother, born in Shanghai, China (Daughter of Moshe Yehuda Blau and Chaya Hena Shochat), had fled Lithuania with her family just before the Nazi onslaught. They were able to survive through the heroic efforts of Chiune Sugihara’s visas from the Mirrer Yeshiva where her father was a student.
Raised in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Rabbi Sam’s studies took him around the world from Brunoy, France to Melbourne and Sydney, Australia to Petropolis, Brazil. Through his global insight into the Jewish Diaspora it led to a departure from his Lubavitch centered childhood to the Conservative movement as a more representative outlet for his spiritual experience. The last eighteen years Rabbi Sam has been serving as a hospice spiritual counselor through The Visiting Nurse Service of New York.
Rabbi Sam acknowledges his wife, Dora and the newest addition to their family, one year old Zahava, who inspire him in his spiritual work.
Dr. Lori Weintrob
Dr. Lori Weintrob is the founding director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center and Professor of History. She received her B.A. from Princeton University and her MA and PhD from the University Of California (UCLA).
Lori has connected over 5,000 youth in New York and New Jersey to Staten Island’s Holocaust survivors. They learn lessons of empathy and courage in the face of rising anti-Semitism and hate. She is co-editor of Beyond Bystanders: Educational Leadership for a Human Culture in a Globalizing Reality (2017). Among other scholarly projects, she is co-chair of the international symposium to be held on June 15-16, 2022. Heroines of the Holocaust: New Frameworks of Resistance.
A 2019 Staten Island Woman of Achievement, Lori has also received awards for interfaith social justice from the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center and the Jewish Community Center.
Lori thanks her husband Phil for his support and is the proud mother of two daughters, Joelle and Sophia.
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Dan Glassman
Dan Glassman is a professional information technology leader. As a board member of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, he is utilizing his expertise as head of technology, working tirelessly fostering the Jewish community growth.
He is a technical advisor for the Wagner College Holocaust Center Advisory Committee. His family roots stem from his grandmother, Stefania Hecht, an Auschwitz survivor, and his uncle, Dr. Alex Hecht, who was instrumental in creating the Northern Transylvania Holocaust Museum. He continues to work for the Jewish Community Center and our Jewish community taking on new projects to promote Jewish learning. Dan was honored to receive awards from the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs and the Leadership and Community award from UJA-Federation.
Dan’s wife, Jennifer, and their adorable children Zane, Kailey, Scott, and Dean bring such joy to every service they attend at CBJ.