Mel Wacks, Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals recently announced "the best news since we started issuing medals way back in 1969. There is going to be a Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal in 2024! Since we couldn't find a mint that could strike our medals in high quality at a reasonable cost, we turned to Jim Licaretz, who has been producing our plaques for a number of years (that are exhibited at the Virginia Holocaust Museum). Jim has made some wonderful cast medals in recent years, including Volodymyr Zelensky, winner of the prestigious 2023 award for the American Medal of the Year. For the Molly Picon medals, Jim made a 3-D printed model directly from Eugene Daub's plaster-of-paris original; he then cast medals in cold-cast bronze and hand-applied a handsome patina. Jim made over a half dozen different samples before finding the right finish."

The large 3 1/2 inch medal is designed by Eugene Daub, winner of the American Medal of the Year award in 2024. It features a pensive portrait of Molly Picon on the obverse. The reverse celebrates Molly's role in the 1923/4 Yiddish musical "Yonkele," that played at the Second Avenue Theatre. The opening notes to the title song were taken from Picon's own copy of the sheet music, in the collection of the American Jewish Historical Society. No more than 100 Molly Picon medals will be made. They are offered for $160 each by calling 818-225-1348; 50% of the cost can be considered as a tax-deductible contribution to the non-profit Jewish-American Hall of Fame.

Molly Picon (1898-1992) was a star of the Yiddish and American stage and movies, including Come Blow Your Horn, for which she received an Academy Award nomination, and Fiddler on the Roof. She appeared on television in the police comedy Car 54, Where Are You? and in a few episodes of The Facts of Life. Picon's final role was in Cannonball Run in 1984. Molly Picon has a star on the Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
JEWISH-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME MEDALS END(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n22a24.html)