OWNING THE JEWISH FUTARE

A B O U T E V E N T H O N O R E E S J O U R N A L P H O T O S H O M E HART & SIMONA HASTEN L e g a c y Awa r d Hart Hasten exemplifies the Jewish spirit of survival. He was born in 1931, in a small Polish Shtetl. In 1941 just days before the Nazis invaded their family’s town, Hart’s parents along with his older brother Mark, fled into Russia on horse and buggy. Most of the family was murdered at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. Mr. Hasten arrived in the US as a penniless refugee following the war, and overcame all odds to forge a new life of unparalleled success in business in Indianapolis, Indiana. Simona Hasten was born in Bucharest, Romania. She arrived in Israel in 1949, and then spent her teenage and young adult years in Los Angeles where she met Hart. Mr. Hasten is an internationally respected Jewish communal leader and philanthropist. An insider within the Israeli political arena, Mr. Hasten enjoyed a twenty-five year intimate friendship with his mentor, Nobel Prize Laureate, statesman and Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Hasten is one of the founders of the Hasten Hebrew Academy of Indianapolis, and a former president of Herut Zionists of America, and served in many other leadership positions in Indiana and throughout the Jewish world. The Hastens currently live in Indianapolis and have a home in Jerusalem. They are the parents of three adult children, have twelve grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. As firm believers in the importance of Jewish education and Jewish continuity, Hart and Simona Hasten have been a driving force in their commitment towards Jewish pride and strength that have defined them as true leaders of Klal Yisrael.