The Roger E. Joseph Prize

The Roger E. Joseph Prize was established by Burton Joseph and Betty Greenberg, of blessed memory, to honor the memory of their brother Roger, a man of exceptional personal courage and passionate devotion to principle and justice.

Joseph Prize

In 1978, the first Joseph Prize was presented to Victor Kugler, who risked his and his loved ones’ lives to shelter Anne Frank and her family.

For the past 44 years, the Joseph Prize has been presented to outstanding individuals, organizations, and institutions whose work fulfills the highest ethical and humanitarian values of our tradition.

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Recipients of The Roger E. Joseph Prize (1978-2022)

1978 Victor Kugler
1979 Not presented
1980 Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler
1981 Raoul Wallenberg
1982 Not presented
1983 Village of Le Chambon sur-Lignon, France
1984 Gerhart Riegner, Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress
1985 Church World Service, Catholic Relief Services, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
1986 Helen Suzman
1987 Rosa Parks
1988 The Center for Legal and Social Studies of Buenos Aires
1989 SOS Boat People Committee – Vu Thanh Thuy
1990 The Jewish Agency for Israel
1991 Children’s Defense Fund – Marion Wright Edelman
1992 The Students of HUC-JIR
1993 Teddy Kollek
1994 Johan Jorgen Holst, posthumously
1995 The First Congregational Church and the Montana Association of Church
1996 Claude Lelouch
1997 Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
1998 The Center for Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, and the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture
1999 The Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, and the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library Limited, London
2000 Natasa Kandic – The Humanitarian Law Center – Yugoslavia
2001 Southern Poverty Law Center – Morris S. Dees, Jr.
2002 Father Mychal Judge, posthumously, and the City of New York Fire Department
2003 Daniel Pearl, posthumously, and The Daniel Pearl Foundation
2004 Erin Gruwell and the Erin Gruwell Education Project
2005 Jan Egeland, Under Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs
2006 Clementina Cantoni, kidnapped (and released) Italian CARE International aid worker
2007 Whitwell Middle School Holocaust Memorial and Paper Clip Project – accepted by Linda M. Hooper, Principal
2008 Father Patrick Dubois
2009 Helen Lieberman, South Africa, founder of Ikamva Labantu
2010 Dr. Dean G. Lorich, Hospital for Special Surgery
2011 ATZUM and Rabbi Levi Lauer, founder
2012 Edesia and Navyn Salem, Co-Founder and Executive Director
2013 Maestro James Conlon
2014 COPE Camp Erin and the Orel Foundation
2015 Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer – US Global Malaria Coordinator
2016 Sir Nicholas Winton MBE, posthumously
2017 Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, accepted by Mark Hetfield
2018 Fortify Rights, accepted by Matthew Smith
2019 Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Founder and Director, Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, Flint, Michigan
2020 Sara Bloomfield, Executive Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2022 Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, accepted by Paolo Sison, Director of Innovative Finance

 


The 2022 Roger E. Joseph Prize was presented to Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, at the New York Ordination ceremonies on May 8, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The 2022 Roger E. Joseph Prize is presented to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, whose global mission, defined at its inception in 2000 as inspired by the conviction that all lives have equal value, has saved lives and protected people’s health by greatly increasing the equitable and sustainable use of vaccines.”

  • Whose partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is strengthening primary health care and bringing us closer to the sustainable development goal of universal health coverage,
  • Whose humanitarian initiative has helped vaccinate almost half of the world’s children, against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases by providing affordable vaccines for the poorest of countries,
  • Who, by improving access to new and under-used vaccines for millions of the most vulnerable children, is boosting the economies of lower-income countries and making the world safer for everyone,
  • Who, in co-leading COVAX, the vaccine pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, has so far shipped nearly 1.2 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines globally, with the majority distributed to lower-income economies supported through the Gavi Advance Market Commitment,
  • Who, since 2000, in vaccinating over 900 million children around the world and thereby preventing 15 million future deaths, has ensured that no one is left behind.
  • And whose impact on the generations of today and tomorrow exemplifies the Talmudic teaching that “to save one life is to save an entire world.”