The Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal program returns in 2024 after a brief hiatus. This is “the best news since we started issuing medals way back in 1969,” Mel Wacks, Director of the JAHF, said recently.

He announced the theme for the 2024 issue would be to honor actor Molly Picon, a star of stage and movies about a century ago.

The medal series had been halted earlier in 2024, when Wacks couldn’t find a mint that could strike the medals in high quality at a reasonable cost.

That forced Wacks to pivot, seeking out the assistance of Jim Licaretz, who has been producing JAHF plaques for a number of years. These plaques are exhibited at the Virginia Holocaust Museum.

Eugene Daub, winner of the American Medal of the Year award in 2024, designed the medal. Licaretz was enlisted for producing the medals rather than just the plaques.

“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,” Wacks said.

For the Molly Picon medals, Licaretz made a 3-D printed model directly from Daub’s plaster-of-paris original; he then cast medals in cold-cast bronze and hand-applied a handsome patina.

The large 3.5-inch medal features a pensive portrait of Molly Picon on the obverse.

The reverse celebrates her role in the 1923-to-1924 Yiddish musical Yankele, that played at New York’s 2nd Avenue Theatre. The medal’s illustrated opening notes to the title song are 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, and these are available for $160 (half of the cost can be considered a tax-deductible contribution to the non-profit JAHF).

To order the medal, telephone Wacks at 818-225-1348.

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