Israel Cancer Research Fund to Honor Actor Michael Douglas, Dr. Morton Coleman, and Dean Blumenthal at Gala on November 28 in New York
Benjamin Brafman, attorney, will serve as Master of Ceremonies.
New York, NY--- The Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) Tower of Hope Gala will pay tribute to Actor Michael Douglas, Dean Blumenthal, Executive Vice President and COO of Lion Brand Yarn Company, and Dr. Morton Coleman, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College and the Director of the Center for Lymphoma and Myeloma at the New York- Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at the Ziegfield Ballroom in New York. Benjamin Brafman, criminal defense attorney will serve as Master of Ceremonies.
An actor with over forty years of experience in theatre, film, and television, Michael Douglas branched out into independent feature production in 1975 with the Academy Award-winning "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Since then, as an actor-producer, he has chosen projects that reflect changing trends and public concerns. Over the years, he has been involved in controversial and politically influential pictures-- "The China Syndrome," “Traffic” --and popular films such as "Fatal Attraction" and "Romancing the Stone". Douglas is the recipient of numerous awards including the AFI Lifetime Achievement, Producers Guild Award, New York Film Society Charlie Chaplin Award, and the Israel Genesis Prize.
Dr. Coleman’s expertise is in the treatment of lymphoma, myeloma, Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, and associated diseases. He has played an instrumental role in devising the standard treatment for Hodgkin’s disease, the use of infusional chemotherapy in lymphoma, the concept of dose intensity and its use in myeloma and lymphoma, the combined use of thalidomide in myeloma, the role of PET scanning in lymphoma, the innovative applications of monoclonal antibodies in lymphoma and many other developments. Dr. Coleman is Chairman of the Medical Affiliate Board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation and is on its Board of Directors and Scientific Review committee. He is also a member of the scientific review committees of the International Waldenstrom Foundation and the Research Fund for Waldenstrom Ltd. Dr. Coleman originated and serves as Chair of the largest conference on lymphoma, myeloma, and related diseases in the United States. He has served as the chairman, consultant, or member reviewer for many scientific committees and has authored hundreds of publications in the field of blood cancers. Dr. Coleman has been designated one of the “Best Doctors in America.”
Dean Blumenthal’s family-owned company, Lion Brand Yarns, was founded in 1878 by his great-grandfather, Reuben. Reuben’s son, Joseph had three sons who ran the company from 1940 until the early 1990s. One of the sons was George, Dean’s father, who with his wife, were founding members of ICRF. George served as Vice President of the board of ICRF, while his wife assumed his board seat after his passing. For Dean, accepting this ICRF honor is his way of preserving his father’s legacy while helping to find treatments and cures for cancer. He is the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for New Jersey, and a board member of the Center for Retailing Excellence at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
"In Michael Douglas, Dean Blumenthal, and Dr. Morton Coleman, we have the perfect portfolio of honorees,” said ICRF President Rob Densen. “Michael Douglas is a courageous and forthright survivor/advocate, Dean and his family have been spectacularly generous and were leaders of this organization for many years, while Morton Coleman is a physician, researcher, healer, and humanitarian without peer. If humankind has reason to be hopeful about the fight against this dreadful disease – and we do -- it’s because of people like Michael Douglas, Dean Blumenthal, and Mort Coleman. It is a privilege to honor them.”
The Israel Cancer Research Fund is the largest charitable organization outside of Israel solely devoted to supporting cancer research in Israel. Grants issued by ICRF have gone to hundreds of researchers (ICRF grantees include the first two Israelis to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, multiple winners of the coveted Israel Prize and other global scientific awards) at two dozen leading research institutions, universities, and hospitals across Israel. The efforts of Israeli cancer researchers have resulted in significant cancer breakthroughs and the development of breakthrough cancer drugs, including Doxil, Gleevec, and Velcade. ICRF’s current collaborations with two major cancer research organizations, The Cancer Research Institute and City of Hope, demonstrate the global research community’s respect for ICRF.
For more information about the Tower of Hope Gala, please contact Kenneth Gabel, New York Director of Development, Tel. (212) 969 9800, Kenneth.gabel@icrfny.org.