Mel Wacks, Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, which was the longest series of medals being issued in the United States, has announced the end of the series due to the inability to find a mint to produce high quality medals at a reasonable cost. Wacks said

The 54 Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals were created by a Who's Who of America's greatest medalists - winners of the American Numismatic Society's J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal (Eugene Daub, Alex Shagin, and Karen Worth) and the American Numismatic Association's Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture (Eugene Daub, Virginia Janssen, Jim Licaretz, Hal Reed, Alex Shagin, Marika Somogyi, Paul Vincze, Gerta Ries Wiener, and Karen Worth).

Wacks considers the Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals He says that

Over a half million dollars (in 2023 dollars) has been raised through the sales of Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals for non-profit organizations such as the Judah L. Magnes Museum (Berkeley, California), the Skirball Museum (Cincinnati, Ohio), the American Numismatic Society (New York City, New York), the American Jewish Historical Society (New York City, New York), and plaques have been contributed to the Virginia Holocaust Museum (Richmond, Virginia). In addition to the regular visitors, thousands of school children view the Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaques every year at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. And soon, there will be an exhibit of the medals at the new Jewish Community Campus in the East Bay (Oakland).

Mel Wacks is particularly proud of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame's award-winning website www.amuseum.org/jahf. The website won the Numismatic Literary Guild's award for the Best Non-Commercial Web Site in 2002. Featured on the website are over 50 biographies of all the Honorees in the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, broken up by categories - Business, Entertainment, Literature & Art, Medicine, Military, Music, Public Service, Religion, Science, Social Welfare, Sports, etc. There are also fun quizzes, interesting articles, and a Collector's Guide containing the mintage figures of all the medals made in bronze, silver and gold.

Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals are generally offered on ebay. And the Jewish-American Hall of Fame has a small inventory of past issues. They are offering new collectors a starter set of three bronze medals for the special price of $100 plus $10 shipping; call 818-225-1348 to order. For further information visit the website at www.amuseum.org, and you can read by Mel Wacks on the Newman Numismatic Portal.

While the Jewish-American Hall of Fame is no longer issuing medals, it will continue to honor a new inductee each year by creating a plaque that will hang in the Virginia Holocaust Museum. For 2024, the honoree is the actress/singer Molly Picon. The plaque was designed by Eugene Daub.

To visit the Jewish-American Hall of Fame website, see:
https://amuseum.org/

To read , see:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/556056