Helayne Kushner is an experiential marketing producer, artist, and activist. She was born in NJ to a New York Jewish family who values debate, hard work, humor, education, and democracy. Her last name means “Furrier” in Yiddish and was assigned to anyone working in the Fur Trade in the Pale of Settlement. Similar to the name Blacksmith in English, it simply means a trade and not familial connections-conspiracy theorists can take a seat.

She’s inspired by her family’s rise from garment factory immigrants who escaped both the genocidal pogroms of Tsarist Russia and the anti semitic machinations of the Bolshevik Revolution to become business people, doctors, and teachers who allowed her to pursue her artistic dreams and be whoever she wanted to be. She wants everyone in the United States and abroad to enjoy the same liberties she had and feels passionately about protecting the uniquely wonderful freedoms existing for all in the United States of America. She believes those liberties today are under attack from a variety of political arenas and ideologies across the board. 

She is a deep believer in looking at world history through a comprehensive lens to give ammo against today’s illiberal tyranny and against manipulation of history for the benefit of those who cause harm . In her eyes there is nothing more important than stopping a murderous genocidal regime that punishes women, children, diversity of religion, gay people, dissenters, and robs all of freedom and happiness around the world.

We cannot brush the darkness under the rug. We have to bring to light and hold accountable those that want to limit freedoms, change facts, and hide like cowards behind dogma and ideology. Even when it’s politically inconvenient- those with a voice to do so have a commitment to stand for liberty, democracy, and the right to exist without being assaulted/murdered/harassed for simply existing.