Major Accomplishments

• The Jewish-American Hall of Fame project has transferred $171,045 to the Magnes Museum, of which $40,000 created the Mel & Esther Wacks Educational Fund in 1996; and has contributed thousands of dollars to the American Jewish Historical Society since becoming a division in 2001.
• Over 25,000 Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals have been acquired by individuals, synagogues and museums around the world. These superb works of art will forever be a tribute to the accomplishments of notable American Jews --never decaying or disappearing with time.
• The Jewish-American Hall of Fame is the longest series of medals being produced in the United States! It is also considered to be one of the most "important series of medals in recent years" (Catalog of the XXII Congress of Federation Internationale de la Medaille, Helsinki).
  Thanks!
• Mel Wacks, Founder of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, thanks those wonderful people at the Magnes Museum with whom he worked closely with for three decades: Seymour Fromer, Founding Director of the Magnes Museum, without whose guidance this project would not have been possible; Executive Secretary Paula Friedman, who always came through in a pinch in spite of her great work load; Judaica Shop coordinators Arlene Sarver and her successor Tamar Cohen, who were always cooperative; and Bill Chayes, who created the Jewish-American Hall of Fame exhibit as well as the satellite showcase in the Judaica Shop and the wonderful video.
• Mel Wacks, who has written the text, sincerely thanks Jeff Case who originally developed the Jewish-American Hall of Fame web site, Arnon Davidovici who programmed the quizzes, and to A. J. Lakhter who added the Virtual Tour and modernized the site for the new Millennium. Also, our appreciation to Sumaira Manzoor, who in 2020-2021 did a complete overhaul of the website and made it SSL Certificate compliant.

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