$100,000 Gift to Stockton Will Create Annual Lecture Series on Antisemitism

Jack and Bethanie Gorny establish fund honoring Holocaust-survivor family members, with first program expected this year

GALLOWAY — A $100,000 gift from a South Jersey family will establish a new annual lecture series at Stockton University bringing experts on antisemitism to the university and surrounding community.

Jack and Bethanie Gorny donated the money to the Stockton University Foundation to establish the Gorny Family Fund for Understanding and Confronting Antisemitism.

The fund will support an annual lecture series featuring experts on antisemitism, with the first program expected to take place during the current academic year.

For Jack Gorny, the initiative is deeply personal.

His parents, Eva and Morris Gorny, were Holocaust survivors born in Poland. Gorny was 3½ years old when the family came to the United States in 1949 after living in a displaced persons camp in Germany.

“I have grave concerns for the well-being of Jews in this country in the future,” Gorny said. “I agonize over the future of my grandchildren, and I worry that they may be faced with this pernicious ideology, which sadly shows no signs of abating.”

Family rebuilt its life in South Jersey

After arriving in the United States, Eva and Morris Gorny eventually settled in South Jersey.

The family operated a poultry farm in Vineland from 1952 until 1964 before opening Delsea Yard Goods.

“They hoped antisemitism was behind them as they started a new life here,” Jack Gorny said. “They would be shocked and saddened by today's explosion of it in the United States.”

The family's experiences have already become part of Holocaust education at Stockton.

Bethanie Gorny wrote “Fridays with Eva,” which tells the family's story. The book was published by Stockton's Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center and has been incorporated into Holocaust Studies classes at the university.

“Your family's story is one of perseverance, courage and a deep belief in the power of education,” Stockton Executive Vice President Terricita Sass said. “It is a story that deserves to be remembered, understood and carried forward.”

Long connection to Stockton's Holocaust Resource Center

The Gornys also have longstanding connections to Holocaust education and community organizations in South Jersey.

Jack Gorny served for 12 years as chairman of the executive committee of Stockton's Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center, while Bethanie Gorny previously served as president of Jewish Family Service of Atlantic and Cape May Counties.

Stockton's Holocaust Resource Center traces its origins to 1987 and today supports Holocaust and genocide education, research, survivor testimony and community programming. The university also offers undergraduate and graduate academic programs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Jack Gorny said his experience with the center helped convince him that education can make a difference.

“We trust that the lecture series will help eradicate the evil of antisemitism through the words and lessons of experts,” he said. “We thank Stockton for its ongoing commitment.”

First lecture planned this year

Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez, director of the Holocaust Resource Center, said planning is underway to begin the new lecture series this year on Stockton's campus.

“We have to be cognizant that the fight continues today and will continue tomorrow and for decades to come,” Moreno-Rodriguez said.

“We must be the light in these dark places,” he said. “We need to keep providing our students with the opportunities to continue their studies and make this world a better place for all.”

The university has not yet announced the first speaker or a date for the inaugural lecture.

Sass said the new fund will expand Stockton's ability to bring students and community members together to examine antisemitism, history and intolerance.

“At Stockton, we believe universities have a responsibility to help people understand history, wrestle with difficult questions and engage one another with knowledge, dignity and respect,” Sass said.

“These are conversations our students and community need today,” she added. “This fund will strengthen that work and create opportunities for our students and our broader community to learn together.”

For the Gorny family, the $100,000 gift also ensures that the experiences of Eva and Morris Gorny will continue to influence another generation long after their family arrived in the United States seeking a new beginning.