Hela Yungst Hochman (January 15, 1950 - February 24, 2002),[2][3] also known as Hela Young, was an American television entertainer and beauty pageant winner. She was a promoter of Holocaust awareness and a former president of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.
Yungst was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to Eva (née Faiman) and Henry; both were survivors of The Holocaust.[4] The family moved to the United States in 1956[5] where she first lived in Newark, New Jersey.[6] She was raised in Hillside, New Jersey and graduated from Hillside High School in 1967, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. She graduated from Newark State College (now Kean University) with a B.A. in music education and theatre.
Yungst was a performer on stage and in films, television commercials and soap operas, appearing in Guiding Light and All My Children.[11] She changed her name to Hela Young and became the New Jersey Lottery hostess in January 1977 on NJN drawing the nightly winning numbers.[12] She left television in November 2001 due to illness.
The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education presents "The Hela Young Award" each year "to honor a person in recognition of outstanding work in the community for the improvement of human relations among diverse peoples and for the improvement of the human condition."[14]
^Mastrull, Diane. "Hela Young, longtime New Jersey Lottery host", The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 2002. Accessed September 8, 2015. "Ms. Young was born in Israel to Holocaust survivors. She moved to Newark as a child in 1957 and lived in Hillside and Edison before settling in Mountainside, Union County, in 1984."