In front of a capacity crowd, three women of achievement from diverse fields and backgrounds received the ADL Deborah Awards on March 30 at the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills. The event raised $335,000 to combat anti-Semitism and bigotry.
Honored as Deborahs for their leadership in their professions and civic contributions were Zane Buzby, Director/Producer and Founder, The Survivor Mitzvah Project, Francesca Leiweke-Bodie, Vice President of Business Development, Oak View Group and Martha Saucedo, Executive Vice President of External Affairs, AEG. The Deborah Award is named for the prophetess Deborah, noted for her courage, wisdom and leadership.
Presenting the award to Zane Buzby was television legend and seven-time Emmy award winner Ed Asner, who called Buzby “A life restorer and a life saver” for her work with Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe. Buzby credited her world view to her father telling her to “dream big.” She “proudly accepted this award from an agency that has been fighting hate for 100 years….If we all work hard and dream big we can change the world.”
LA City Councilmember Gil Cedillo, while presenting the award to Martha Saucedo, reminded the audience that “We rely on ADL to fight and to fulfill its truly historic obligation as the voice of justice.” He described Saucedo as someone who takes her values and applies them at the highest levels of public life. In accepting the award, Saucedo talked about her immigrant upbringing and the importance of helping others by being someone’s “gust of wind” and pointed out that ADL served that role for so many.
Presenting to Francesca Leiweke-Bodie was her father, Tim Leiweke, CEO of the Oak View Group who received the ADL Humanitarian Award at the Entertainment Industry Awards Dinner in 2007 He teared up during the presentation as he talked so proudly of his daughter’s personal and professional accomplishments. He expressed his deepest wish to “put ADL out of business,” but acknowledged, “That’s not going to happen.” Leiweke-Bodie spoke of the collective responsibility “we have now of giving future generations a better world than the one we inherited” and of her gratitude for ADL’s mission “to promote inclusion, faith and humanity in the world .”
Spotlight speaker Anne Glavin, Chief of Police at California State University, Northridge discussed training her department had recently received from ADL focused on hate speech and hate crimes and why and how bias-motivated violence can have a devastating impact. “ADL helped my team become more versed how to respond and sometimes how to prevent hate incidents on campus.” She also pointed out that “police officers are a very tough audience” and that her officers rated the training “off the charts” for both content and delivery.
Providing commentary throughout the evening was actress and author Janina Gavankar who sprinkled her MC duties with shout-outs of support for ADL, particularly in the areas of women’s and immigrant rights. Event co-chairs were Mónica Gil, Executive Vice President for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and ADL Executive Committee member Suzanne Prince.