Ambassador Walker Presented with Mensch Award

July 27, 2006

The Mensch Foundation awarded Ambassador George H. Walker with the Mensch Award on July 27, 2006, for serving his term as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Hungary with dignity and grace, for the programs he initiated or supported that are in harmony with the goals of the Mensch Foundation, and for his kind and decent personality.  The word ‘Mensch’ means a true human being in Yiddish, and refers to “a person who gives another the shirt off his back.”

The Mensch Foundation was founded by Steven Geiger in 2002, in his words, “to develop an educational curriculum to stamp-out stereotyping and anti-Semitic and racist thinking.”  The Foundation’s goal is “to develop a tolerant social order of values which respects minority rights and freedom of speech and worship.”  It has previously honored Peter Z. Malkin, an Israeli officer who captured Adolph Eichmann; Hungarian Chief Rabbi Schweitzer; Israeli Ambassador Judit Varnai Shorer; former NEW YORK BATTALION CHIEF DAN DALY; U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos; and Raoul Wallenberg and Per Anger (posthumously).  

Ambassador Walker expressed his gratitude for the reward and announced that the U.S. Embassy has been working with Hungary, which is the chair country of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Cooperation, Education and Research this year, on programs of Holocaust education, building tolerance, and celebrating the contributions of all minorities to Hungarian history and culture. He also reiterated the Embassy’s support for the Foundation’s efforts in the field of education.

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