BY CLAUDIO MARTINO
The former commissioner of city Parks and Recreation on Tuesday was awarded the Jan Karski Humanitarian award for enhancing urban life for 30 years.
Adrian Benepe, now the Senior Vice President for City Park Development in the Trust for Public Land, accepted the award outdoors in Forest Park on a rainy morning.
He seemed puzzled and humbled by it all.
I’m not sure why I’ve been given this award,” holding the plaque. “I’m not particularly a humanitarian, I’ve worked in public service all of my life and that has been a privilege.”
During his tenure at Parks and Rec, Benepe oversaw 29,000 acres of parkland during Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure.
The award is named after Jan Karski, a Polish patriot who aided the allies during World War II against the Nazis. nike cortez femmes The event doubled as a commemoration of Karski as speakers from the Jewish-Polish Dialogue Committee noted his status as a true humanitarian (the official title being “Righteous Among Nations”) at Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.
During the ceremony, a statue of the Biblical figure Job sculpted by Natan Rapoport (a Polish World War II survivor) was also highlighted by speakers as a representation of human perseverance.
Adrian Benepe. Photo by Claudio Martino
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