Tikkun Ha’Lev Award Gala 2019

When Seth and his wife, Anne Heyman, learned about Rwanda’s orphan crisis following the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Anne was inspired by Yemin Orde’s model to create the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. Within three years, she had gathered support from Rwandans, Americans, and Israelis, and built the Village. In 2008, ASYV welcomed its first class of genocide orphans, giving 128 young men and women the first intact families they had ever known.

A native of South Africa, Anne became active in Young Judaea as a teen, and spent a year in Israel with the program, where she met Seth. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School, Anne was an Assistant District Attorney, prosecuting white-collar crime. After she had her third child, she decided to focus more on her philanthropic work within and outside the United States.

Anne was most passionate about Tikkun Olam, the Jewish obligation to repair the world, and in addition to being an active supporter of important Jewish youth causes like the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York, Tufts University Hillel, University of Pennsylvania Hillel, and the Jewish Community Centers of America, Anne was the President of the Board of Directors of Dorot.

Anne was an avid equestrian and competitive show jumper who passed away after falling from her horse while competing in a Masters jumper competition on January 31, 2014.

Seth remains engaged in philanthropic work globally in areas that include African social and economic development. Inspired by Anne and the ASYV in Rwanda, in 2018, together with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee he launched Tikkun Olam Ventures (TOV). TOV provides training and loans to smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, enabling them to purchase and effectively use innovative agricultural technology. Liquidnet provides philanthropic support to this blended finance project through Liquidnet for Good.

Together, Seth and Anne excelled in many vital communal and philanthropic realms, always with enduring impact. Individually, each dedicated themselves to inspire and improve the lives of others, both domestically and globally, through innovation, volunteerism, hard work and a giving heart.