Rasky receives Anti-Defamation League award

Vice Chair of Emerson’s Board of Trustees and CEO of Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications Larry Rasky ’78 was honored December 13 by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) New England Region. Rasky received the ADL’s 2011 Abraham Joshua Heschel Interfaith Relations Award at a dinner held at Boston’s Westin Copley Place.

The award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to social justice by improving and strengthening relations among different racial, religious, and ethnic groups.

Michael N. Sheetz (left), ADL New England regional chair; James L. Rudolph, chair, ADL Board of Overseers; Larry Rasky ’78; and Derrek L. Shulman, ADL New England regional director were on hand for an evening honoring Rasky.

The evening focused on Rasky’s involvement with the naming of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston. Rasky worked with former Emerson Board of Trustees Chair Peter Meade ’70, former Massachusetts governors Jane Swift and Paul Celluci, and former Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, among others, to have the bridge named after the late Lenny Zakim in addition to the famous Revolutionary War battle. Zakim was an activist and an ADL director who worked for nearly two decades to build bridges between Boston’s disparate ethnic groups.

Speakers at the ceremony included Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Meade. Emerson community members in attendance included President Lee Pelton, Trustees Steve Samuels and Linda Schwartz, Sandi Goldfarb ’78, Vice President for Information Technology William Gilligan, Vice President for Enrollment M.J. Knoll-Finn, Vice President for Communications and Marketing Andy Tiedemann, and Director of Media Relations Carole McFall.