On Sunday, May 27, 57 students from diverse backgrounds and schools in the Hamilton area assembled at Temple Anshe Sholom for a graduation ceremony marking an their completion of the Asper Foundation Human Rights and Holocaust Studies Program. The program, which included a trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., was made possible through a partnership between the Hamilton Jewish Federation.  As part of the ceremony each student received a Memorandum For Personal Responsibility that will serve as a contract between them and their consciences and a reminder that they have a personal responsibility towards the world community.

David Asper, Executive Vice President of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and Chairman of the National Post, was on hand representing the Asper family to present each student with their Memorandum. 

Mr. Asper was so moved by the Hamilton presentation that he dispensed with his prepared remarks and spoke off-the-cuff and from the heart. During the course of the evening, Hamilton's Asper Program chair, Madeleine Levy, received the CeCe Schreiber Volunteer Excellence Award.