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Myer
Berlow of AOL
Is A-OK with Ohel
By TIM BOXER
 YER
BERLOW,
president of Interactive Marketing at America Online, was
thrilled to be guest of honor at the 31st annual
dinner of Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services at the
New York Hilton.
Rachelle
Friedman,
co-owner of J&R Music & Computer World, the mammoth
superstore in downtown Manhattan, congratulated Berlow for
single handedly bringing in $750,000, “a record for an
individual honoree.”
Berlow dismissed
the laudatory remarks: “You’ve brought me a worthy cause
and did me a favor, for I don’t have to worry anymore what
I should do in life.”
But in accepting
the award he quipped, “Anyone who knows me knows I possess
no humility, false or otherwise.”
Berlow told how his
great great grandfather left a small town in Lithuania to
come to America. All 500 Jews in that town were quite
devout, immersed in Torah and Talmud all day long.
“I like to think
he left so he wouldn’t have to do that day after day,”
Berlow chuckled.
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Howard
Jonas of IDT and Myer Berlow
of AOL.
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It was fortunate
that his ancestor did leave. In 1941 the Germans and
Lithuanians murdered every person there. “There was no one
left,” Berlow said sadly, reflecting on what might have
been his fate.
His father, a
pediatrician in Milwaukee, was a role model for good works
and charity. Sometimes he wouldn’t send out bills; when he
did, he wouldn’t press for payment.
Mother once said,
“You charged only $2.50 for an ear exam?”
“I only looked at
one ear,” the father replied.
Myer
Berlow (from left), Rachelle Friedman
and husband Joe Friedman. |
also
honored were Debbie and Howard Jonas of IDT, a
pioneer of Internet technology including Net2Phone; Theresa
Bischoff, president of NYU/Mt. Sinai Hospitals, and Richard
Kessel, chairman of Long Island Power Authority.
Debbie praised Ohel
for establishing residences in Brooklyn, and soon in Hewlett
and Woodmere on Long Island, to care for children who are
abandoned, orphaned or coping with mental illness and
substance abuse.
The evening, under
the direction of dinner chairman Chaim Kaminetzky and
co-chairmen Howard Millendorf and Dr. Thomas Riles,
raised a total of $1.5 million for an organization that
provides residential care and operates summer camps for
children and adults with psychiatric disabilities, provides
shelter programs for victims of abuse, and offers training
for professionals in the mental health, social and human
services fields. Truly a worthy cause.
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Ohel
ceo David Mandel (from left), Debbie and
Howard Jonas.
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Ohel is under the
caring guidance of president Moishe Hellman, board
chairman Morris J. Zakheim, and chief executive
officer David Mandel.
Debbie said she was
in her car waiting for a friend at Port Authority in
Manhattan when she saw a severely handicapped person trying
to cross 42nd Street. Another man, crossing in
the opposite direction, turned around and extended his arm
and guided the unfortunate man safely to the other side.
Ohel
president Moishe Hellman (from left), chairman
Morris J. Zakheim, honoree Theresa Bischoff,
Thomas Tisch, dinner co-chairman Dr. Tom Riles
and Miriam Lubling. |
She questioned the
tragedy of the man’s life. “I will never understand why
God allows such suffering.”
Her son said,
“Maybe it’s to give us the chance to help.”
At
that moment she understood what Ohel is all about.
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