Joseph Lemkin, founder and president of the Jewish Bar Association of New Jersey, will be among the honorees.

Joseph Lemkin’s connection to both Rutgers University, the Holocaust and Jewish life runs deep.

The son of a Holocaust survivor, he founded and is president of the Jewish Bar Association of New Jersey (JBar), is a 1990 graduate of Rutgers, formerly served as chair of the Rutgers University Alumni Association and president of the Rutgers Touchdown Club, and is currently on the executive committee of the Rutgers Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (RCGHR).

Both of Lemkin’s daughters are also Rutgers grads, but there is an even more significant Rutgers connection within his family—his father’s first cousin, Raphael Lemkin. That Polish-born Lemkin is renowned for coining the word genocide to describe the atrocities visited upon Nazi victims. He also taught at Rutgers Law School, assisted at the Nuremberg trials and fought for the criminalization of genocide through passage of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. The RCGHR has a Raphael Lemkin Project and awards a Raphael Lemkin Engaged Scholar Award.

“The most impactful thing in my life has been my dad being the sole survivor from his immediate family,” said Lemkin in a phone interview.

Lemkin, a shareholder in Stark & Stark in Hamilton, will be among the honorees at the annual Rutgers Hillel Gala to be held at 6 p.m. on April 28 at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston.

Lemkin’s own Polish father was drafted into the Russian Army and survived, but his three brothers died in Auschwitz or fighting with the partisans. His father was active in the U.S. in keeping the survivor community together.

“While other kids were going to sporting events with their dads I was going to these events with the European community with my dad,” said Lemkin.

Even though he attended yeshiva growing up in Fort Lee, Lemkin said antisemitism was always at the back of his mind.

Even before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, he and his wife, Susan Wernick Lemkin, a marketing CEO at an accounting firm, were involved in a lot of affinity groups for other communities and thought there should be one for lawyers. After witnessing responses to Oct. 7, they realized such a group as JBar needed to exist. They discovered another like-minded person in David Rosenberg, executive director of the New Jersey Jewish Business Alliance, who was working toward the same goal, and they combined forces. Today Susan and Rosenberg serve as co-executive directors of JBar. With the help of a marketing video by Susan and a social media campaign, JBar has grown to more than 400 members in just over a year and has sponsored programs for the Jewish legal community and general public, including at Rutgers Hillel.

Other gala honorees include:

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who represents the 5th District and is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, for his work as a champion of the Jewish community, steadfast leadership in combating antisemitism, strengthening U.S.-Israel relations and protecting religious freedoms.

Bob Kuchner, a retired accountant with decades of Jewish communal leadership, serving as president of Rutgers Hillel and holding key roles with the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest, the Jewish Communal Foundation of Greater MetroWest, the Jewish Agency for Israel and Jewish Federations of North America.

David Greenberg, a member of the executive committee of JFAS (Jewish Faculty, Administrators and Staff), and a professor of history and journalism and media studies at Rutgers.

Jacquelyn Litt, dean of Douglass College from 2010-2022 and now a professor of sociology at Rutgers.

Gary A. Rendsburg, Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History and distinguished professor at Rutgers University.

Students honorees are:

Shoshana Blech of Teaneck, a biomedical engineering student active in Hillel who has served as communications chair for the Mesorah Orthodox community and for the Hillel board. She is an OU-JLIC intern and national finance board member for the Yavneh Fellowship, an OU-JLIC student leadership program that funds Jewish programming on college campuses.

Reese Feldman of East Brunswick, who is graduating with a double major in statistics and data science and a minor in political science, is an Eagleton undergraduate associate and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At Hillel, she served as co-chair of the Koach Conservative, Traditional, egalitarian community; student board treasurer and Shabbat chair.

Hannah Finkelshteyn of East Brunswick, a visual arts major and creative writing minor, helped found and co-leads the Open Dialogue Table, a forum for open dialogue about Israel on College Ave. Her art has been displayed at the campuses’ Mason Gross galleries and in the Brooklyn group exhibition October 7: Terror, Faith, and Hope. A member of the Rutgers Honors College, she plans on making aliyah to work in animation and continue to display and sell her art in Israeli galleries.

Maya Minsky of Livingston, studying genetics and medical ethics, has been vice president of Israel engagement at Hillel for the past three years and conducts reproductive genetics research in the Schindler lab. She has received the Chancellor’s Leadership Award for Bridge Building. She completed an internship at Geisinger and is pursuing a career in genetic counseling and genetics-based research.

Aryeh Sheinson, a mechanical engineering major from Hillside, is the co-founder, former treasurer, and current vice president of the Rutgers chapter of ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which he helped grow into the only non-Jewish engineering club at Rutgers providing kosher food. He has held treasurer roles in Hillel and Mesorah, which honored him as Chasan Torah for building up the community in Torah growth.

Mitch Wolf of White Plains, a dual major in finance and marketing with a professional selling concentration, is Rutgers Hillel president and co-president of Tamid at Rutgers. He previously was co-chair of Mesorah, a Weidhorn fellow, Rutgers Hillel representative in Hillel International’s Israel Leadership Network, as well as at many conferences and speaking opportunities.

Yosef Fruhman from Miami Beach, a senior majoring in political science and minoring in Jewish studies, previously served as Hillel’s Shabbat and social action co-chair. He is Rutgers’ Israel Policy Forum campus fellow and co-runs the Open Dialogue Table with his fiancée, Hannah.

The cost to attend is $250. To register go to rutgershillel.org/gala2025/#rsvp.

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.