Torchbearers
Lida Orzeck ’68 and Aliza Amsellem ’20 at the Summer Research Institute’s capstone event, the Lida Orzeck ’68 Poster Session PHOTO CREDITS: (OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT): ASIYA KHAKI ’09, ALIYA SCHNEIDER ’20
A Seat at the Table
Lida Orzeck ’68 grows her “scholarship fam” Since starting her scholarship fund in 2003, Lida Orzeck ’68, founder and CEO of
the lingerie company Hanky Panky, has played a critical role in the education and lives of numerous Barnard students. Her mentorship has been far-reaching and enduring, culminating in meaningful relationships with scholarship recipients, such as the one she’s fostered with recent graduate Aliza Amsellem ’20. While we weren’t able to come together for this year’s annual Torchbearers Celebration — at which Orzeck was to be the honorary speaker — due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were fortunate to catch up with Orzeck and Amsellem. The two women filled us in on their close friendship and how the scholarship aid has created a sense of community while championing the next generation of strong Barnard women. Lida, what inspired you to become a financial aid donor? Lida Orzeck: I was a Brooklyn kid who was raised with an orientation towards equity and fairness. Orzeck family lore involved my father’s work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs after he received his medical degree in the late 1930s. 10
Newly married, my parents relocated to Neah Bay, Washington, where my dad provided the only professional health care within a 200-mile radius from his base on the Makah Reservation. I always had a sense of a larger, more inclusive universe, of which I felt my family was a piece. But during my young adulthood, academia occupied my attention, and then for several decades, my intense focus on building and running my company drove my daily life. When I finally stopped, looked up, and took a breath, I knew I had to act on issues that were most troubling to me — the multidimensional inequities in our society. The success of Hanky Panky allowed me to act financially on my philanthropic instincts, and over the next few years I was able to grow the fund, culminating in supporting an actual Barnard student in 2008. Since then, five students have received support from the Lida Orzeck ’68 Scholarship Fund, but I believe that it is I who has received the most benefit from this arrangement.
