Proclamation to ‘Hero’

The Village of Great Neck Plaza is hosting a Holocaust memorial exhibit, “Upstanders Then and Now: Courage Knows No Era,” in collaboration with the Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center of Queensborough Community College and the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
At the opening reception on November 30 four extraordinary individuals were honored from the Holocaust and the present day who are “Upstanders,” individuals who, when confronted with injustice take positive, often heroic, action to stop or prevent it from continuing. They were presented with proclamations by Mayor Jean Celender, Deputy Mayor Ted Rosen, and trustees Gerald Schneiderman, Marion Green and Pam Marksheid.
Hassan Askari and Walter Adler are contemporary Upstanders as evidenced by their actions when they came face to face with an alleged anti-Semitic assault by a group of attackers on a “Q” train in December 2007.
Askari, a Muslim, and a college student at that time, courageously stepped in to aid Adler and his three Jewish friends despite the taunts and punches being thrown. While Askari fended off the attackers, Adler pulled the emergency brake to summon police. “I just did what I thought was right,” Askari recalled.
Both Askari and Adler were applauded by the Anti Defamation League and other organizations for their heroic acts.