Who we are.

Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua Education Committee Chairperson

Lawrence A. Cohen, M.D., I prefer to be known as “Larry” was born in Jacksonville, FL on April 12, 1940. Understand, Jacksonville is in the northeast corner of Florida, just south of the Georgia border and not part of glitzy south Florida. Jacksonville in the 9140s and 50s was Deep South, a city where Jim Crow laws were in effect. Schools were segregated. Buses were segregated. Parks and water fountains were segregated. Yet, somehow, in this environment, my friends and I were able to see the injustice in 0ur community. Perhaps it was being raised in a Jewish minority community that gave light to the injustices around us.

After high school, I left Jacksonville for college, first at the University of Florida and the at the university of Pennsylvania. I then returned to the Deep South to attend medical school at Tulane in New Orleans. But by now, the late 50’s – early 60’s things were starting to change. I graduated medical school in 1965 and stayed on at Tulane for general surgical training. In 1968, my residency class welcomed Tulane’s and Charity Hospital’s first African-American physician to our program.

In 1970 I was sent for several months as a chief resident to a rural satellite Charity Hospital in Independence, LA. It was there that I found a sign in a closet that had been taken down when the hospital chose to integrate to accept Medicare funding. The sign defined the Jim Crow era’s segregated clinics. Somehow, I knew that sign should be preserved. The day would come when people would struggle to remember the cruelty of segregation. So, I wrapped the sign in paper – God forbid someone might see it and think of me as a segregationist – and kept it until late 2009 when I learned of the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It now hangs in that museum.

After two years of service as a surgeon in the US Air Force, my family moved to San Antonio, TX, where we still live today. I first learned of Chautauqua and made my first vacation visit in 1997.

With annual summer vacations in western New York, we fell in love with the area and upon retirement from practice in 2007, we chose to spend our full summers in Chautauqua/Mayville. It was in 2010 I first heard Leigh-Anne Hendrick, who taught Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Chautauqua Lake Central School speak at a Sunday evening lecture sponsored by our Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua. Leigh-Anne returned in 2014 to give an update on the program and that was when the Congregation’s Holocaust and Social Justice program was born. Sidney “Casey” Neuman proposed that the Congregation financially support a trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC for the students enrolled in the school’s program.

My own involvement with the Hebrew Congregation began in 2012 when I was asked to join its board. As a practicing Jew, the Holocaust has always been the example of the worst possible social injustice and learning of the education program in Mayville, I was enthusiastic that we create the needed support to provide the proposed trip to DC. Dr. Len Katz, of Buffalo, chaired the Holocaust Education Committee and successfully raised the needed funds. \That first trip occurred in March 2017. Dr. Katz continued in his role and brought several important donors to support the program. In 2019 I became president of the Congregation and was asked to join the Education Committee that worked closely with Ms. Hendrick. Believing there was value for the students to visit the NMAAHC and using the “influence “of my gift to the museum, we arranged for the students to see both museums on the 2019 trip.

At the end of 2021, Dr. Katz chose to retire as chair of the committee and asked me to take over its leadership. I remain excited for the future relationship between the Congregation and the students in Chautauqua County’s schools. We are blessed by significant donors who see the importance of our involvement. I look forward to its further growth and development.

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Program Director

Leigh-Anne Hendrick is a high school social studies teacher with 26 years of classroom experience. Mrs. Hendrick has worked as a consultant with the United States Department of Education’s Teacher to Teacher training program and has presented both nationally and internationally. She has received training at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C, and in 2005 was named one of fifteen Museum Teacher Fellows in the United States. Mrs. Hendrick is also a Rafael Schächter Teaching Ambassador with the Defiant Requiem Foundation, and an educational consultant for the Sophia’s Legacy Project. In 2023, Mrs. Hendrick was selected as a GenEd Teacher Fellow allowing her to participate in a 10 day intensive program in Armenia. She has also traveled twice to Rwanda to engage in Peace Values Education. She has been awarded the Toby Ticktin Back Award for Holocaust Education and RIT’s Distinguished Teacher recognition twice.

Most recently, Mrs. Hendrick has been working to expand Holocaust and human rights education in Chautauqua County, a mission she is passionate about. She is also a co-founding director of the Chautauqua Country Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies. In both programs she has been instrumental in developing teacher and student training programs to broaden and deepen understanding of the Holocaust, genocide, human rights and social justice. She strives to empower students and educators to take an active role in our shared humanity.

Associate Director

Jessica Kardashian is a dedicated social studies educator with over a decade of experience and a profound commitment to both teaching and global exploration. With a passion for cultural exchange and historical education, Jessica has traveled to over 30 countries and has been deeply involved in international and educational endeavors.

Studying abroad in Italy sparked Jessica’s lifelong dedication to global learning. This commitment was further solidified during an impactful eight-summers volunteering at an orphanage in Poland, where she supported children speaking a different language, working with Polish volunteers and planning programming as a member of an international immersion program and then eventually being the first American to go individually and bring teams.

A key aspect of Jessica’s career is a Holocaust study tour she traveled on for 2 weeks, immersed in the history and memory of the Holocaust. Jessica has visited Auschwitz seven times, multiple other camps, museums, the German national archives and takes every chance she can get to visit, learn from and bring in survivors to speak, viewing all of this as a vital responsibility to educate others about this part of our world history. This dedication is reflected in her role as an advocacy consultant for the program for the past five years.

Jessica is very active in the community, volunteering, fundraising and bringing students to share her passion in cancer advocacy, cultural history and often times leads programming to help others including Bald for Bucks, Relay for Life, a medicine drive for Ukraine, and a community basket project for over 25 years with local boy and Girl Scouts at Christmas. Additionaaly, in 2019, Mrs. Kardashian was awarded tha prestigious One Buffalo Award for service to the community.

Jessica actively takes advantage of every professional development opportunity and museum visit, integrating these experiences into her teaching. She has lead multiple international trips for students, blending educational enrichment with cultural exploration.

Married and a parent of two, Jessica shares a love for travel and exploration with her family, embracing every chance to discover new places and experiences. Her life and career are driven by a deep-seated gratitude for the opportunities she’s had and a commitment to making history and social studies engaging and meaningful for her students.