An eclectic group that included Holocaust survivors, Nova music festival survivors and United States military cadets packed Pier 60 in Manhattan last Tuesday evening for the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF) annual gala, where $700,000 was raised in support of the group’s anti-hate educational center based in Oswiecim, Poland.

The gala honorees were Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe; celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro; and Sean Coffey, general counsel for the U.S. Navy.

“The ancient scourge of antisemitism is as immediate and threatening anytime since the Holocaust,” Scarborough said in virtual remarks. (Jeff Kepnes, managing editor of Morning Joe, accepted the AJCF Excellence in Media award on behalf of Scarborough.)

“Last year, I attended the anniversary of Auschwitz liberation,” Scarborough said. “And like all who walk through that death camp’s gates, I was overwhelmed by grief. Hearing again of the unspeakable crimes committed against men, women, children, grandparents and toddlers, asking how such hatred could have consumed the darkened souls of Nazis, who targeted Jews a lifetime ago.” Scarborough went on to recall that on the morning of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, he found himself “asking that same unanswerable question again.” 

Aviva Miller, AJCF U.S. director, told eJewishPhilanthropy that Scarborough was initially selected for the award because of his coverage of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January 2023. Scarborough and Kepnes traveled to Poland — alongside Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — and visited the concentration camp where the Nazis murdered more than 1 million Jews. But she added that Scarborough’s response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks made the organization even more sure of the decision.

“[We selected him for the award] for that and for the fact that after Oct. 7 happened, initially there was nobody in television that was more pro-Israel and aghast at what had happened than Joe Scarborough, so we thought he should be honored for his truth in reporting,” Miller said. 

Among the some 200 gala attendees were several influential New Yorkers including Inna Vernikov, a member of the New York City council who represents Brooklyn’s district 48; Adrian Kubicki, consul general of the Republic of Poland in New York; Moshe Davis, Jewish liaison of Mayor Eric Adams’ community affairs unit; and Arielle Charnas, founder of fashion brand Something Navy. 

Also in attendance — in full uniform — were several alumni of the American Service Academies Program, a 16-day educational initiative in Poland run by AJCF for a select group of cadets and midshipmen from the academies for the U.S. Military, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

“Most of them are not Jewish and they come from remote areas of the U.S.,” Miller told eJP. “They may or may not have ever had contact with Jewish people. The [program provides] immersive learning… all of these young leaders need to learn ethics and morality in the military. In times of combat and conflict, how do you remain ethical? We use the German army as an example of having no understanding or education when carrying out orders beyond human understanding.”

Miller added that AJCF’s work has expanded in the past two turbulent years. 

“We use this course to teach future leaders of America,” she said. “On top of the unusual pairing of Holocaust survivors with young future leaders of the U.S, this year was even more difficult [in light of Oct. 7] because it’s part of our mission to help victims of mass atrocity where we can… just like we did [in 2022] with Ukrainian refugees as they were coming through our educational center in Poland.”