It was 17 years ago that 23-year-old Jay Feinberg was diagnosed with leukemia, prompting a major bone marrow drive in the worldwide Jewish community. Friends of Jay, an organization that was created to save Jay’s life by finding a match, recruited more than 60,000 donors in four years, yielding matches for hundreds of patients in similar circumstances, but not for Jay. With Jay’s health deteriorating, a final donor drive was held, which finally yielded Jay’s miracle match in the last person tested, Becky Keller (formerly Faibisoff). He received a successful transplant at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 1995, and following his recovery, Feinberg continued work on his behalf through the establishment of Gift of Life. Feinberg’s Bar Mitzvah year of survival is a momentous occasion celebrating life as well as Gift of Life’s success in saving hundreds of lives. Since his successful transplant, Jay has dedicated his life to developing the largest Jewish bone marrow and cord blood registry in North America.
Tony Award-winning actor Ron Rifkin from the hit ABC show Brothers and Sisters will return for the sixth year as Master of Ceremonies. The 2008 Partners for Life Award will be presented to Yeshiva University for its continued dedication to Gift of Life’s mission. Yeshiva University has facilitated more transplants than any other institution via Gift of Life’s campus recruitment program. To date, more than 2,500 students have registered, and 23 have already saved lives via their donations. Richard Joel, President of Yeshiva University, will accept the Partners for Life award on behalf of YU students.
The emotional introductions of bone marrow donors to their grateful transplant recipients will be presented by Jerome Fisher, founder of Nine West and a prominent philanthropist serving on the Board of Overseers of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business; Evie Golfine, a cancer survivor who volunteers as a courier for Gift of Life and is a member of the founding team of Omnipoint Corporation; and Warren Eisenberg, co-founder Bed Bath & Beyond and currently serves as its Co-Chairman, who also serves on the Board of Directors of Gift of Life.
The donor-recipient meetings, taking place on stage in front of 750 guests, were arranged in compliance with practices that protect the anonymity of the involved participants. Following the transplant, donors and recipients are permitted to correspond through letters that are screened for identifying information. If both parties agree, they may meet once a full year has passed. In addition to many notables, the audience will include donors, recipients, volunteers, staff and financial supporters of Gift of Life.
“The stories of this year’s three featured bone marrow transplant pairs are a tribute to the strong spirit of chesed in the Jewish community,” said Jay Feinberg, Gift of Life’s Founder and Executive Director, whose own life was saved following a bone marrow transplant in 1995. “When total strangers become involved in saving a life, they are following the Talmudic admonition of “One who saves a life is as if he saved the entire world.”
Gift of Life facilitates bone marrow, blood stem cell and umbilical cord blood transplants for children and adults suffering from life-threatening illnesses globally. Its services include transplant coordination, donor recruitment, patient advocacy and public education. Through targeted recruitment in Jewish communities throughout North America, Gift of Life strives to overcome the loss of bloodlines following the Holocaust, a consequence that has made the search for genetically matched donors particularly difficult for Jewish patients.
The Partners for Life Gala is Gift of Life’s signature annual event, and is also the largest gathering of donors and recipients in the nation. All participants will be available for photos and interviews following their meetings. For more information on the Gift of Life Partners for Life Gala Dinner, please contact Betsy Silverfine at 1 (800) 9MARROW or (561) 699-9411.
