Cantor Naomi Hirsch is the granddaughter of Otto Hirsch, who was the chairman from 1933 until 1941 of the organization that represented Jewish interests in Hitler's Germany, the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (National Organization of German Jewry). In 1941 he was killed at the Mauthausen concentration camp. At the award ceremony a magical moment occurred when Cantor Hirsch sang Ma Tovu. This had been sung at the beginning of all German Jewish shabbat services before the Nazi era, and it was composed in the 19th century by the Jewish Berliner, Louis Lewandowski. She dedicated her presentation to the memory of her grandfather who would have been overjoyed that she was able to sing this Jewish liturgical music at this seat of power of the Berlin government long after grandfather had given his life to protect German Jewry.