H eadlines
Kutas Named Holocaust Foundation Director
L O CAL
SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
WITH THE HORWITZ-
Wasserman Holocaust Memorial
Plaza complete, the Philadelphia
Holocaust Remembrance
Foundation is going through a
few changes: It will transition its
fundraising focus from a capi-
tal to an endowment campaign,
and Eszter Kutas — a leader of
the plaza project — will transi-
tion from a consultant to full-
time staff member.

Kutas accepted an offer to
become the foundation’s exec-
utive director, starting April 1.

She comes to the role
from her position as assistant
vice president at Fairmount
Ventures, a consultant firm that
provides services to nonprofits
and public sector organizations.

There, she began supporting
the foundation more than two
years ago as a consultant. She
has been the foundation’s acting
director for the past year.

The crux of her work has been
developing the plaza, located at
16th Street and the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway. The plaza’s
various elements bring atten-
tion to different facets of the
Holocaust. This includes a sec-
tion of the train tracks that led
to Treblinka, which underscore
the deportations, and six pillars
that contrast events leading up
to the Holocaust with demo-
cratic values.

“Understanding of the
Holocaust is rapidly decreas-
ing, and most people lack
basic knowledge about the
Holocaust,” Kutas said, noting
a recent study commissioned by
the Claims Conference, which
found that 41 percent of millen-
nials believe 2 million or fewer
Jews died in the Holocaust,
among other findings. “Our
hope [is] that, with the plaza’s
numerous key features, we can
bring material reminders of
the past to create a space for
remembrance and education.”
The primary focus of her
position is fundraising. She
has helped raise $9 million so
far for the capital campaign
and is seeking to raise another
$4 million for the endowment
campaign, which will support
maintenance of the plaza and
educational programming.

Kutas will also develop the
programming. This already
includes an iWalk app, devel-
oped through a partnership with
the USC Shoah Foundation,
where users can learn about
the plaza and listen to testimo-
nies from Holocaust survivors.

Kutas said future programming
will include hosting Holocaust
expert speakers and providing
teacher outreach training.

“The history of the
Holocaust didn’t start with
concentration camps,” Kutas
said. “That’s where it ended.”
The foundation does not
mark the first time she’s done
work related to the Holocaust.

After graduating from the
University of Pennsylvania Law
School in 2003, she worked for
the Claims Conference in New
York City to determine how
to distribute a $1.25 billion
settlement from Swiss banks
to compensate about 600,000
Holocaust victims and their
descendants for lost assets.

“I arrived in the Claims
Conference early on, when this
bank settlement case was just
settled,” Kutas said. “The big
question was how do we dis-
tribute this huge fund and find
the rightful owners of these
bank accounts. It was about
figuring out processes and
building it all up.”
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JEWISH EXPONENT
Eszter Kutas in front of the Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs,
which stands at the focal point of the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust
Memorial Plaza
Photo provided
Claims Conference, Kutas
moved to Philadelphia. She
worked for Korn Ferry, an
executive search agency, and
then for Philabundance, where
she served in a variety of proj-
ect management and fundrais-
ing roles. She also launched
Fair & Square, a nonprofit gro-
cery store, to address the issue
of food deserts.

“Similarly at Philabundance
and the Holocaust Remembrance
Foundation, I arrived at points
when an idea was just forming,
and the intellectual challenges
for me was how to figure out an
actionable plan that can bring
these ideas to reality and how can
I get both support for it inter-
nally and support from the outside
communities,” Kutas said. “These
are the challenges I like to focus
my career on.”
Foundation Chairman
David Adelman said Kutas has
been key to the success of the
capital campaign and the devel-
opment of the plaza’s education
programming. When the foun-
dation decided to hire an exec-
utive director, he asked Kutas if
she would be interested before
expanding the search.

She’s been a partner with
the foundation since the begin-
ning, Adelman noted, and it’s
rare to get the chance to work
with a prospective employee.

“She’s been passionate about
the project, and it’s a great fit
all around,” he said.

Holocaust remembrance is a
personal issue for Kutas, who
grew up in Budapest with four
grandparents who survived
the Holocaust in concentration
camps, ghettos and as partisans.

Her grandparents spoke
about their experiences in the
Holocaust, Kutas said, but as
she was young when they died,
she mostly learned their stories
from her parents.

“The world has changed,”
Kutas said. “There is much,
much more need to talk about
these things, as we are farther
removed from it happening. It’s
extremely important that every-
one refreshes their memories
and is open to learning more
about what has happened. I also
feel that Holocaust survivors
are very cognizant of this. They
see a world that’s turning more
hateful, and they feel there is
a calling for them, more and
more, to share their stories.” l
szighelboim@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM