Featuring Shoe Designer, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist Stuart Weitzman 

In Conversation with Dr. Jonathan Sarna

Regrettably, the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center’s Benefit Dinner scheduled for June 18 has been cancelled due to health challenges for our honoree. This is a great disappointment, but the health and comfort of all guests must come first. 

To continue the dinner’s thematic focus, we hope to bring you programming about the history of Jewish participation in the shoe industry in the near future, and we plan to honor Carol Clingan with the Community Preservation Award at a rescheduled date in the fall.

We look forward to many more opportunities to come together as a community in the future!

Tzedakah Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Stuart Weitzman began his career in his father’s shoe business in Haverhill, Mass. He went on to build a global shoe brand that has dominated the red carpet and been worn by millions of women around the world, including such celebrities as Beyoncé, Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle, and Taylor Swift. He approaches his extensive charitable endeavors with equal dedication, supporting a wide range of hospitals and research centers, youth organizations, and cultural institutions, and mentoring students at several universities. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at UPenn, which named its design and architecture school for him. Mr. Weitzman and his family have demonstrated their commitment to Jewish history through transformative support of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

In Conversation With

Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. He is also Chief Historian of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, and he chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Boards of the American Jewish Archives. Among his many publications, he is author of American Judaism: A History, and Lincoln and the Jews. Born in Philadelphia, he attended Brandeis University and earned his doctorate from Yale University. Jonathan Sarna serves on the Advisory Council and the Research Fellowship Committee of the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center.

Community Preservation Award Recipient 

A native of Chelsea, Massachusetts, Carol Clingan is an avid genealogist and is both a board member and the head of research projects for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston. She serves on the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center's Advisory Council and has also been on the boards of Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, Vilna Shul, and Temple Beth Elohim. Carol has worked tirelessly to preserve and rehome historical Jewish artifacts, ritual objects, and architectural structures. Most recently she has worked to preserve a synagogue mural painted ca. 1898 in North Adams, Mass.

Stilleto Benefactor

Justin L. Wyner

Classic Pump Benefactor

Lionel and Vivan Spiro