Today, we’re proud to shine a spotlight on Evie Weinstein, a beloved and influential leader in Jewish Buffalo. Best known for her tenure as Executive Director of the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE), Evie has worn many hats in our community—including Department Head at the JCC and Assistant Director at Camp Lakeland.
Now 74, Evie remains deeply engaged in both family life and volunteerism. She treasures time with her husband Barry, their children, and grandchildren, while continuing to pour her energy into meaningful community work. At Congregation Shir Shalom (CSS), she currently serves as Secretary on the Executive Committee, Co-chair of Adult Education, and a member of the Worship Committee. Before her involvement with CSS, Evie was an active volunteer with The Mussar Institute.
Two years ago, Evie embraced a new calling as a speaker for Federation’s Holocaust Education Resource Organization (HERO), where she shares her family’s Holocaust story with high school students through the Speaker’s Bureau. “When I was working, I always helped plan the community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration,” she recalls. “But everything changed when I met Lauren Bloomberg at the Let’s talk about antisemitism program.”
It was at that event that Lauren invited Evie to join a speaker training for second-generation survivors—2Gs—whose parents lived through the Holocaust. “It just clicked,” Evie says. “As soon as I started, I felt like this was something I was meant to do all along.”
In her presentations, Evie focuses on resilience, particularly her mother’s extraordinary story. “I paint a picture of life in Germany before Hitler came to power—when my mom was a teenager—so the students can really connect,” she explains. “I always share how my mother and her family saved the Torah scrolls from their burning synagogue during Kristallnacht. That story fills me with immense pride.”
After Kristallnacht, Evie’s mother was urged to leave Germany by her parents—who remained behind and were later murdered in Auschwitz. Her mother survived by spending eight years in England, working as a domestic for a generous family who eventually helped her immigrate to the United States. Remarkably, Evie remains in touch with the grandchildren of that English family—now in their 80s—through Facebook.
Evie is deeply moved by the reactions of the students she meets. “They’re so engaged,” she says. “They may have learned about the Holocaust from books or in history class, but after hearing a personal story like mine, they feel it on a human level.” She concludes each presentation with a cherished family photo taken at her grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. “My mother always said, ‘Hitler wanted to destroy all the Jews. But Hitler didn’t win.’ That photo proves it.”
Evie’s work with the Speaker’s Bureau is profoundly meaningful. It not only honors her parents’ legacy, but also plants seeds of empathy and understanding in young minds. “Telling my parents’ story gives me deep pride—not just in my family and what they endured—but in the values they passed on: a love of Judaism, and a love of all people.”
To learn more about the HERO Speakers Bureau, click here or email Lauren Bloomberg.
